Marina and the Diamonds: The End of "Electra Heart" Era

Marina Lambrini, the Welsh artist of Marina & the Diamonds has had her album, Electra Heart, out since early of 2012, but until last month, Electra Heart was a work in progress. Officially completed in August 8, 2013, Marina released the last part of her 11 part music video. Not only is Electra Heart the official name of the album, but it has also been the name of Marina's latest character for the past year and a half, some even calling it her alter-ego, as she even played and dressed as her character, Electra, for performances and interviews, drawing a black heart on her cheek to signify Electra's character. While many may look at this retro-styled, heartbreaking character as a fun experiment in music, I have come to believe that it may have a much deeper meaning. While portraying this character in several music videos, making all of her fans anticipate the next one almost as if a television show or book has shown me a new way of character development that I had not previously known was possible: character development in music. Through each of Marina's songs and music videos, you can re-watch them over again and notice new things and deeper meanings, similar to books. They tell a story about a girl, Electra, who wanted to be perfect by the standards of modern pop culture and devolves slowly to conform to these standards, watching all of these videos chronologically, the story is that she metaphorically kills her previous self to become what the media wants, but in watching the videos from most recently to the first released video, it tells a story of Electra, who tries to become a different person but in the end, decides that there is more to life than "Fear and Loathing," (the title of her first video). Now that this series is over, after her symbolically smearing the heart off at the end of "Electra Heart," (the most recent music video) Marina will go back to making her regular type of music. In fact, she is already working on her newest, yet-to-be-titled album! Her Electra Heart album was very important to me though; As for the past two years, I have been attached to Electra, and I think it delivers a very important message that music can not only mean a specific thing, but portray a story or lesson as well. Also, in creating this character, it is easy to forget that Marina became this character for a good few years, and shows the dedication that can artist can have with what they do and how much they believe in it.

(To watch the Electra Films, click here.)