Marina and the Diamond’s 6th single, “Radioactive” launched the music video for her single “Radioactive” two weeks after introducing fans to her character “Electra Heart” and the concept of her forthcoming project of the same name.
“Radioactive” - produced by Stargate (hit maker behind Rihanna, Alexis Jordan and Ne-Yo) and DJ Chuckie - was unveiled as the “second part” of Marina's new body of work, created to embody “the lies, illusions and death of an American dream”.
The “I Am Not a Robot” singer who found success with her 2010 breakthrough album “The Family Jewels” explained that “Electra Heart” is a three-part story that will be told in a music video form.
The video in a nutshell, sees her living a split life, one part travelling the country care free and every part the ‘dumb blonde’. Another part as her the vulnerable brunette in the mirror, playing with her appearance.
Thematically, Marina continues her love/hate relationship with American culture and the video sees her in the blonde persona as the one half of an unhinged, rebellious couple living a carefree, indulgent lifestyle.
They travel, they trash rooms, and they steal. They enter a supermarket wearing animal masks. They dance. They mess around. Their car breaks down, so they just walk away. Basically, they do whatever they want, and don’t seem to give a care to anything or anyone.
Marina looks every bit the cliché blonde cheerleader type in her wig, and spends a good deal of the video dancing around in the open desert, wind blowing through her hair…
The pulsing, atmospheric beat of the song perfectly matches the careless freedom portrayed in the video.
Near the end, Marina loses the wig to reveal her new cropped bob and it ends with her standing in the breezy evening desert air. The lyrics feature lines such as: "I’m heading for a meltdown", "Tonight I feel like neon gold" and "I take one look at you and I grow cold".
It seems to be a statement about a life without meaning or purpose, or one concerned only with pleasure and the emptiness this brings. Or it could be construed as the reverse – how an empty life leads to mindless indulgence.
The song is excellent but it is apparent that while it seems like a dance party track on the surface, there’s a pretty dark undercurrent to it all.
The video begins with Marina or her alter ego “Electra Heart” poised on a hotel room bed, looking extremely sad and wistful. The shot used is a medium close up, capturing just her profile and some background. Her appearance is flawless, her make-up has been applied expertly and she falls straight into the stereotype of a perfect cheerleader. Later on we see a different persona; she is dressed as the brunette, looking uncertain in the mirror. She is central to the shot; with a lot of dead black space either side to really draw your attention to her face and expression. Then “Electra Heart” is dancing flamboyantly in the desert. She is presented here as carefree and doing what she pleases. She is seen with her on screen boyfriend and they are just driving around, looking almost vacant. There is a poignant shot of what appears to be a figure of a ballerina on the dashboard of their car, a close up of this is used often throughout the video, perhaps portraying lost dreams and hope.
The video then moves to the couple shopping with the animal like masks on. The locations used are representing a typical American lifestyle, an American food store, an apartment bedroom and living room, a deserted American road, the inside of a car and a diner. In the shop, Electra and her partner creep around the isle with masks on their face. It is an interesting feature to the scene and can be compared to many other props that celebrities use in music videos to give the same effect. For example, Lady Gaga uses various disguises in the form of masks and outfits in her music videos. A reason that music artists might use the concept of disguise in their music videos is because they want people to show they have different identities, they aren't everything they appear on stage. This may be the reason to why Marina has decided to fulfill the role of a character who wears a blonde wig through the larger duration of the video. Later on when their car breaks down, they just walk away and continue dancing and walking away from the camera into the night, where Marina reveals her new image.
The video then moves to the couple shopping with the animal like masks on. The locations used are representing a typical American lifestyle, an American food store, an apartment bedroom and living room, a deserted American road, the inside of a car and a diner. In the shop, Electra and her partner creep around the isle with masks on their face. It is an interesting feature to the scene and can be compared to many other props that celebrities use in music videos to give the same effect. For example, Lady Gaga uses various disguises in the form of masks and outfits in her music videos. A reason that music artists might use the concept of disguise in their music videos is because they want people to show they have different identities, they aren't everything they appear on stage. This may be the reason to why Marina has decided to fulfill the role of a character who wears a blonde wig through the larger duration of the video. Later on when their car breaks down, they just walk away and continue dancing and walking away from the camera into the night, where Marina reveals her new image.
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