Å B C

Taylor Joe Berger
Sep 13, 2022
7 min read

Updated: Sep 14, 2022

Åkerlund, B–Movie, Cite

Get high! Faster! Dead!

Lady Gaga's video for John Wayne is fast paced! A rushing wave of song, sound, colour and text. Released alongside the album Joanne (2016) John Wayne is a visual beast, whether it is the bright colours flashing across the screen, the indulgence of sound-effects mickey–mousing the visuals, or the blatant exclamations spelled out across the images as seen in comic books or even some movies and series such as 1960s Batman.

This essay will explore the main elements used in the video and search for underlying themes within it, in comparison to the history of the B-movies and John Wayne himself.

(Still, Exclamation in "Batman", 1964)

Åkerlund

Jonas Åkerlund is a director famous, among other things, for a very fast paced, maximalist editing style, resulting in a more is more philosophy. He has worked with music's biggest names, spanning across many different genres including: Rammstein, Coldplay, Madonna, Duran Duran, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and so on. He has made countless music videos but also concert films, biographies as well as commercials and films.

Gaga and Åkerlund have worked on many occasions together, the first being the music video for "Paparazzi" in 2009. In an interview with the AV Club in 2019 Åkerlund expressed how Gaga kept him from giving up on music videos after starting working with her, saying:

"It was a time where I was very inspired and it opened a lot of doors after years and years of MTV and censorship telling me what to do and how to do it. So, here's a young new artist with great music and a lot of talent that just inspired me to go to new levels in music videos. Everything was kind of like new when working with Gaga, it felt like starting again."

A summary

The opening shot serves as a segway from the "Million Reasons" music video, released prior to John Wayne. Gaga is in her signature Joanne (2016) era uniform, the pink cowboy hat being the main staple.

The lyrics of the song sometimes push through the images in a very literal way, boldly charging at us as viewers. "Hang off the back of the horse", as a new Gaga rides passed Joanne. Bites of the lyrics appear as text stretched across the screen in acid colours "FASTER!!".

(Still, Exclamation, Lady Gaga in "John Wayne", 2016)

In addition to the music there is a lot of sounds built in, mickey–mousing the entire video, be it the horse kick, the brushing/scraping of the foliage against Gaga's face as she hits a twig, cheering of drunk men or the sound of screeching tires. The amount of imagery thus far is already overwhelming, even though it's the tamest section compared to the following segments.

A bottle thrown by one of the men hits Gaga's head. She brushes off the shards of glass on her now black cowboy hat, gets on her bike, and the chase begins. During the first chorus, the chase is chopped up with fragments of a dance choreography by Gaga and a total of seven dancers, seemingly ready to line dance. The edit still at full speed, jumping from one place to the next, makes it almost impossible to grasp the choreography as such.

Fun transition: a cowboy hat flies into the image towards the camera, getting larger and larger until it covers the entire frame in black.

Now travelling in a strange, self-made vehicle, reminiscent of Back to the Future or the vehicle used in Rob Zombie's video for "Dragula", Gaga climbs in and out of the car as some guy is barely driving the car as he takes another sip of beer. The screen is flooded by flashes of text, including parts of the lyrics, which appear and vanish immediately. Pink and Green light harshly contrasting each other and bordering the inside and outside of the car. Once again, a dance scene is placed in-between, this time allowing a little more time to absorb the movements but still very hectic.

The car screeches as Gaga and her assumed lover race down the streets alone, the sounds exaggerating the fast-paced edit, only adding to the chaos of what this video essentially is.

During the bridge, the video manages to crescendo even further in its pace, building up more frantic energy, culminating in the car crashing into a tree.

Where can you go next after crashing the vehicle that appeared to have pushed the tempo further and further? Well, you go even "FASTER!!" of course! Somehow condensing even more footage and soundbites to the beat of the song, highlighting certain accents placed, entering a full manic stage, leaving out any time for the viewer to process.

B–movie

The B–movie, as the name suggests, was an afterthought, always second to the main event: the feature film.

During the great depression in the 1930s many theatres had to close as overall budgets shrunk and the public had less money to spend. To lure audiences back into the movie theatres new formats were introduced including live events, concerts even the possibility of winning prices by using your ticket as a raffle coupon. The most successful offer turned out to be a cheap two in one ticket, letting you watch your favourite big Hollywood release alongside a shorter opening film. Mostly the pairings would be made through genres, so basic themes such as western, horror etc. They were coupled to complement each other and prolong the movie experience.

(Still, John Wayne and Jay Wilsey in "Rainbow Valley", 1935)

The A–movie was rented by the theatres at varying rates, the B–movies though, all had a much smaller fixed rate, congruent also of the budgets available to them for production, post-production, advertisement etc.

However, the B–movie didn’t necessarily always reside in the shadow of the big productions, some even garnering bigger interest and audiences, but they were also vital for numerous production companies, as they delivered a safer, more steady and tangible flow of income, allowing them to partially fund their bigger movies and bridge over financially difficult times.

The music video for John Wayne shares a very experimental and fast paced narrative often used in B–movies of the 80s. Be it in horror, or splatter films also nodding to the B–movie tradition of western, which was the perfect match for the aesthetically more western inspired album, but also particularly for this exact song John Wayne, as he is after all an icon amongst all western fans. Wayne also had his acting debuts starting out in B–movies himself. It was through those that he reached the stardom and leading roles we know him for today. All of these elements, connected in an elegant way, managed to produce something modern and exciting, making use of B–movie traditions as well as western staples, without resulting in an obvious and dry caricature.

Cite and Climax

There are many references throughout the video, some of which already mentioned. One obvious one would be the film Planet Terror. After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning almost everyone into zombie creatures, it is mainly up to Cherry Darling, a woman with a machine gun for a leg, to stop the beasts and those responsible. Gaga is also seen firing shots through her blood red high heeled boots. The film was also released as part of a double movie deal: Grindhouse, containing Planet Terror and Death Proof. Again, showcasing the relevance of B–movies as inspiration for this particular music video.

(Still, Rose McGowan in "Planet Terror", 2007)

As mentioned Jonas Åkerlund is a director who is driven by the edit. His process involves creating a big pot of footage during the shoot so he has even more freedom and options in the editing process. This explosion of imagery can be overwhelming.

The sheer number of images, even when showing the same action from varying angles, really gets noticeable during the car crash. As we are flooded with visual information throughout the video, the culmination or climax of the plot, being the car crash itself, barely holds any weight in comparison to the previous build up during the bridge, and the somehow even denser outro. Using the sound of the speeding car, squealing tires, even shots being fired by Gaga to crescendo into the moment of the crash.

That very moment could even be argued to be the one very short instance of relief in the video where we get to breathe as viewers as the car comes to a halt and burns. Probably because this is the only instance we can anticipate the outcome.

Every mentioned audible accent is placed musically coherent to the song, turning the mickey–mousing effect from film on it's head, as now we have music as the soundscape of the film and the soundbites as foleys, conveying an unnatural closeness to the objects we see by hearing them, too. Whereas the tradition would let the music itself place these accents on every step of a character for instance or, in this case, the shot of a gun etc. This method is quite alien in music videos and would often probably be seen as a bad choice out of fear of undermining the song or distracting from it. Åkerlund however, clearly having a keen musical ear, inserts them with tasteful precision, heightening the nervousness whilst maintaining the immersion.

Why make and record a full dance choreography, if you are only going to chop it up to the point of it being unrecognizable? Why have one of the dancers breathe fire close to the end of the song for approximately 3 frames, leaving it easily overlooked? My guess is that it is yet another aspect commenting on the abundance of images throughout the video. Imagine having to somehow keep all of the footage recorded, condensed into one clip, forcing you to not be able to showcase the choreography in full. Every frame, every idea, every action and every character demanding its time within the video, therefore causing us to never fully witness or see an event in full, but merely receive overwhelming glimpses conveying ideas, a rush of thought visualized.

(Still, Exclamation, Lady Gaga in "John Wayne", 2016)

John Wayne is a music video twitching, foaming and quivering until we hear yet another gun shot, releasing us from a frenzied and psychotic trip through the minds of Gaga and Åkerlund. You cannot help but to revisit it over and over again.

Directed and edited by Jonas Åkerlund.

http://www.jonasakerlund.com/