'New Americana' by American singer songwriter Halsey under record labels Astralwerks and Capitol, and released on her debut studio album "badlands" in 2015. The Jodeb - directed music video was shot in it Hawaii and then Categorised as an alternative pop song.  the song describes normalisation of aspects of counter culture in the united states, including recreational drug use and same sex marriage. the music video was release on September 25th 2015 premiering on MTV and shortly after was posted on Halsey's VEVO and Youtube. the video has a dystopian setting and has been compared to the hunger games. the video opens into an intro of mountain scenery recorded in VHS style and with a voiceover by Halsey herself saying "We were a community. They made me their leader even when I never asked to be. But the lightning in their eyes heralded me to whatever they needed me to become. We were hopeful we would win because nothing could scare us. We feared no city and we feared no man".As the song begins to play, Halsey is then showed joining and being captive with a group of Americans doing unexceptional things.They are then barged in by troops who line them up and take Halsey as hostage since she is presumably the leader of the Americans. She is then dragged to a village where she is tied up to a bonfire. While being poured over with gasoline, Halsey pleads for help but no one responds until immediately before being lit up, when she is then rescued by the Americans. After escaping the troops, Halsey and the Americans are then shown heading out of the forest and running away from the village. The video ends with an instrumental of "Drive" featuring Halsey lying on the ground somewhere similar to the mountains as seen on the opening of the video with a backdrop of a city covered in mist. She is seen wearing a white dystopian outfit and left with nothing but car keys and a radio which she then reaches out to and tries to unravel. the song had a very large negative critical response with the New York times calling it a generational anthem for millennials. Nathan Reese from pitchfork was unconvinced by the song lyrics, describing the song as plasticky and superficial. Halsey commented in an interview with oyster, "it is so frustrating when people don't understand the satire of New Americana, they think it's this insane basic pop song, but thats the point. i wrote a song critiquing pop culture and made it sound like a huge pop song. People are writing angry think pieces about how they don't appreciate me rhyming "legal marijauna" with "Biggie and Nirvana". The whole point is for it to be a buzzworthy song. I'm making fun of current pop culture. Has anyone heard the bridge? I say: "What kind of bubble gum have you been blowing lately?" In my other songs, I'd never say something like that. But the whole point of that lyric is me saying, "What kind of bullshit have you been talking? What kind of vapid things have you been obsessed with lately?" Honestly though, the fact people miss the point of the song is driving me fucking insane". Speaking to Last FM, Halsey said how her diverse worldview was inspired by her parents' different music tastes. At the age of nine, the singer explained, she was listening to her father's 2Pac records and her mother's Nirvana records. "I was exposed to different cultures, different walks of life, different ideas so the older I got, the less scared me," Halsey continued. "And the less shocked me, appalled me, and the more open to diversity I was. So who are the New Americana? "It's this idea of these kids who are part of a generation where pop culture is so heavily influential that diversity doesn't scare them the way it scared our parents and their parents. We're more accepting of different walks of life," Halsey explained to MTV News. "So I think the New Americana is racially ambiguous, people who are proud of their culture and they own it, possibly not from a binary of gender." 

The mise en scene consists of a rural background (harsh mountains and thick forests) coupled with a military style base and atmosphere that denotes a dystopian setting and time of conflict. This delineates the combative narrative the video tries to portray to its audience. The artist, Halsey, is placed in this environment to reflect her activist and social justice fighting attitude. Contrasts between the environment and behaviour's of the actors are made through the use of mise en scene throughout the video. For example, at one point during the video the footage quickly cuts from a clip of a male actor’s head being shaved to another male actor with his back turned to the camera urinating against a wall – this is interesting as we can see a contrast between the stereotype of disciplined militant behaviour and the behaviour expected of an delinquent youth or drunk. This is continued throughout the video with shots of actors training being coupled with steamy love scenes and clips of actors smoking and gambling for Marijuana (as mentioned in the lyrics of the song ‘high on legal Marijuana’). This is effective as it effectively portrays to the audience the idea of millennial activism and fighting for our beliefs in a way that is both effectual but still in our own unconventional way and would appeal to those who may associate themselves with this kind of message and approach.

The costume furthers this idea, as it conveys a military style and combative attitude (the colour black used connotes power and formality), but the revealing cut of the clothing also shows the edgy and provocative side of this narrative.  This would appeal to an audience (of young adults) as it’s a style they would identify with and want to replicate.

Dark lighting is used during scenes that take place inside and at night and this is usually created through the use of fire this is contrasted with the lighting in the final shot where the ‘rebels’ escape breaking out of the woods where natural lighting is used. This use of lighting creates a tense atmosphere throughout the video and a sense of relief in the audience when the danger seems to have passed. There are also moments of colourful/neon lighting used in some sections of the video which denotes passion and fits in very well with the rebel image portrayed throughout the video.

This music video is narrative based; this is slightly unconventional as artists often elect to use hybrid narrative-performance videos this however does suggest that Halsey, as an artist, cares more about her music and telling a story to her audience. The inclusion of a dialogue scene furthers the story-telling element of the narrative and creates a movie feel to the video and engages the audience with the story.

Many cuts are made throughout the video to portray the chaotic lifestyle of the rebels, the arc of the story and to display the other actors in the video (a mixture of males and females to appeal to both genders and show unity). Continuity editing is used to create smooth story-telling experience for the audience. The lack of special effects used, minus the old film style filter used in the opening sequence of footage, shows that the artist wanted this to be a genuine portrayal of the story without the narrative being shrouded by such distracting editing techniques.

A variety of angles are used throughout the video with many of the levels in scenes that involved the rebels being shot head-on which suggest equality among comrades. When Halsey’s character tries to escape from the clutches of the men who capture her this is shot using an up-angle which shows the power of those who hold her hostage. Tracking shots are utilised to follow the action in combat scenes and the panning of the camera as the actors to turn their heads to look at the artist before she is captured emphasises the sense of betrayal she feels from her comrades. Establishing shots of the rebel base and the village help to introduce the audience to the setting/action and fabricate an image of the surroundings. Close ups of supporting actor’s faces are featured regularly to show the wider picture and reaction to the audience. This effective in creating a sense having a wider knowledge of what is happening within the narrative and shows the reactions of the ‘society’ in this alternate world. Much of the video appears to be shot using a handheld camera, with many of the clips appearing to be shaky and almost amateur.

Halsey's video demonstrates an explicit meaning with the meaning behind the text being an obvious one, with no speculation abou twhat is going on but furthermore the text demonstrates a subtextual meaning with representions of empowered youth and females being explored (With halsey being a female rights activist this links in to her work).

special effects are also most likely used in this video, for example the gasoline they pour on the artist is probably not real due to its harmful nature, also the smoke bomb would require some sort of special training most probably, as well as this I believe that stunt people would be brought in for the fight/rebellion scene to be used as stage performers trained in combat acting.

I believe the main representation within the video is age, due to the age of the characters displayed and how the lyrics describe a younger generation fighting back, therefore perhaps the representation of youth is that of a rebellious nature, this could be seen as a positive and negative representation, positive perhaps from a younger audience members viewpoint as we see the youth figthing back but negative from an older audience members viewpoint as it conforms to the youth stereotypes of rebellion in the media for example youth crime.

In halseys video we see a total rejection of dominante ideologies through the almost war like atmosphere, the lyrics and visuals combat everything about how the youth are rejecting dominant ideologies and making their own ideologies, for example 'we are the new americana, high on legal mariguana' here we decode a young rebellion supporting the normality of recreational drug use.