‘Video Games’: what defines a song of the decade?

Illusions of glamour and decadence underlined by a sense of doom – what is it about ‘Video Games’ that characterises the 2010s. Since her breakthrough in 2011, Lana Del Rey’s music has embodied the vision of an idealised Americana, the dying American dream disguised by nostalgic fantasies of red lipstick and romance. Her debut single ‘Video Games’, having recently been named ‘Song of the Decade’ by Q Magazine, embraces this. It captures the essence of a self-indulgent love and obsessive doom that defines our most recent decade.

Throughout ‘Video Games’, Del Rey builds up her fantasy of romance. Over minimal instrumentation, she sings about a relationship that has settled into mundanity; her lover preferring to give his attention to his video games than to her. Her seduction of such a lover’s attention is hypnotic: “I’m in his favourite sun dress / Watching me get undressed / Take that body downtown.” Del Rey surely knows the relationship is doomed. However, she makes herself content with settling into this routine, embracing her sexuality and performing for her lover in a way that is “all for you / Everything I do”.

Despite the singer’s claims that “Heaven is a place on earth with you”, the song feels pervaded by a sense of nostalgia for a golden era of romance – one without the distraction of video games. The self-edited video, uploaded to YouTube by Del Rey herself and responsible in part for her breakthrough into mainstream culture, highlights this; grainy clips of lovers from vintage film rolls interspersed with motionless clips of the singer gazing into a webcam. Her boredom somewhat parallels the melancholy nature of the song itself, a surprising breakthrough onto the EDM-dominated UK charts of 2011.

The song feels pervaded by a sense of nostalgia

Such an idea of doomed love – the one-sided mentality of dressing up for someone yet ultimately landing up second best – can be found in many of Del Rey’s songs. Her self-described ‘Hollywood Sadcore’ can perhaps be credited for the birth of the alternative pop genre, an era of teens romanticising a depressive aesthetic through the likes of Del Rey, The Neighbourhood and Arctic Monkeys. The idea of self-indulgent sadness is something that Del Rey’s music is often linked to. Her songs allows for the idealisation of bittersweet sorrow disguised by a cool LA glamour. This is what makes ‘Video Games’ so defining of the  2010s decade; the generation of teens who experienced this era reminiscing their indie days, wearing black turtlenecks and listening to Del Rey’s Born to Die on cheaply-produced record players.

Can ‘Video Games’ truly be claimed as the song of the decade, however? The track certainly captures the second-hand Hollywood sentiment of the early 2010s; however, it stands in stark contrast to other tracks which have also unofficially been given the title. In another ranking by Pitchfork, ‘Video Games’ placed at #9 on their list of the best songs of the 2010s, below tracks such as Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’.

Despite being produced within the same decade, the tone of such songs could not be any more different. The latter captures the energy of female empowerment that has characterised much of the music made by women in the later parts of the decade. In ‘Formation’, Beyoncé’s pride over her success is made clear to her listeners: “I dream it / I work hard / I grind ‘til I own it”. Whereas Del Rey’s lyrics revolve around her lover’s desires – “put his favourite perfume on” – Beyoncé’s revolve around her own, “I see it, I want it, I stunt, yellow-bone it”. Women in music constantly have to fight for agency in such a male-dominated field, and whilst Beyoncé makes her voice clear, Del Rey’s lyrics portray a woman content with remaining in suburban America.

Del Rey’s lyrics portray a woman content with remaining in suburban America

Perhaps it is this that characterises ‘Video Games’ as decade-defining. As we move into the 2020s, music made by women increasingly sees them embrace their sexuality and desires more than ever. From new-breakout artist Summer Walker to viral-internet sensation Doja Cat, women in music are evoking an energy that stands in direct contrast to the lyrics of ‘Video Games’. Del Rey’s 2019 record, Norman F*cking Rockwell, echoes this new self-confidence. The title of one of its first singles acts as a prime example; ‘hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it’. For the early 2010s, however, ‘Video Games’ perfectly captures the nature of glamorised melancholiness that is so appealing – the thrill of feeling doomed and loving every second of it.