Halsey Music Videos

Halsey Music Video Analysis (Badlands Album)

Ghost 

Genre: Electro pop

Year: 2015

Artist: Halsey

Directed by: Malia James

This music video was set in Japan and have used a few Japanese words. At the beginning of the music video we see the title of the video in Japanese 'Ghost'. We also get this monologue in Japanese and the first person we see is not the artist but the Japanese girl.

Mise-en-scene

Locations:

The video was set in hotel room hight above the bright lights of Tokyo. 

Streets in Tokyo

Bathroom

Lighting:

A lot of artificial coloured lights were used such as pink, blue, green and red.

The lighting was dark in most of the scenes

Costumes:

Lose clothing which shows a lot of skin. In the bedroom scene Haley and her partner were wearing lingerie 

Narrative, Concept or/and Performance

This music video is a mix between narrative and performance. 

We see a story where Halsey and her partner are together and go apart. However, most of the time its Haley lip syncing and looking into the carom and creating direct eye contact. 

New Americana

Genre: Electro pop

Year: 2015

Artist: Haley 

Source: Haley New Americana

cigarettes and tiny liquor bottles, just what you’d expect inside her new Balenciaga. ( Balenciaga is a very expensive brand, this verse is talking about a wealthy person hiding self destructive things in her bag ) 

bad romance, turned dreams into an empire. self-made success, now she rose with Rockafellas. ( hard work and determination can make anyone successful, like the American dream ) 

survival of the richest, the city’s ours until the fall. ( the rich control people and they will until the poor, youth etc. take over ) 

they’re Monaco and Hampton bound, but we don’t feel like outsiders at all. ( Monaco & the Hampton’s are popular vacation spots for the rich ) 

we are the new americana ( the new generation, new ideas, new rules )

high on legal marijuana ( the legal part is the key, it means that the new generation ((new americana)) legalized weed ) 

raised on Biggie and Nirvana ( typically different races listen to those artists but the races and everyone is coming together in this new generation ) 

young James Dean, some say he looks just like his father, but he, could never love somebody’s daughter (James dean is a cultural icon of social estrangement and is gay) 

football team, loved more than just the game so he vowed to be his husband at the alter ( football is a very classic American thing, and this also hints that gay marriage legalized everywhere ) 

pre-chorus & chorus 

we know very well who we are ( could be self assurance and awareness as a generation and it’s also a variation of lyrics from the song Juicy by Biggie )

what kind of dough have you been spending ( another rich hierarchy reference ) 

what kind of bubble gum have you been blowing lately ( strain of marijuana ) 

chorus 

Narrative, Performance and/or concept?

This music video is a mix between performance and narrative. The narrative is that in their world rich people control others, until other people take over.
She does a lot of lip syncing and there were also some dancing fragments into it.