Each song and video relating to Electra Heart has a specific concept in mind, and to ignore it is to be ignorant to what is Electra Heart. I wrote an entire essay on it for school earlier this year. The teacher actually listened to the full album and saw each video, and gave me a solid A.
Originally, singer Marina and the Diamonds (She's often mistaken for a band; it's a mistake pretty much everyone makes when they first hear of her. However, "the Diamonds" does not refer to her backing band, it refers to her fans, as she calls them "the Diamonds") first posted a video on YouTube titled "PART 1: Fear and Loathing". She hadn't announced the title of her first album, and people assumed that "PART 1" meant there would be a finishing part, as in, "PART 2".
However, Marina revealed there would be much, much more than that. She revealed her album to be titled 'Electra Heart'. She said the album was inspired by the "dark" side of American culture and the American dream. She also said that she would create a character for the album, also named Electra Heart, and that Electra would be shown through four different stereotypical archetypes: The Primadonna, the Su-Barbie-A, the Homewrecker and the Teen Idle (No, not "teen idol"; it's spelled "idle" intentionally). She created a Tumblr account to post different photos for each archetype (Usually with some witty or ironic caption). Each archetype has its own personality and becomes its own character.
However, I don't see it as they really are four separate people. Reading through Marina's explanation of Electra Heart and the archetypes, she often implies that Electra Heart has multiple personality disorder and that each archetype is a different personality of this.
I decided to write a story on this, and I shall explain more about it later in this essay/introduction/whatever you would like to call this. In the story, I gave each archetype/character a name (The Primadonna, Jenna; the Su-Barbie-A, Karen; the Homewrecker, Alex; and the Teen Idle, Shelby). In the story, I didn't outright say Electra exists or that she has MPD. I implied it; I'm also attempting to create a screenplay of this, in which case, Electra's existence WILL be known.
The character Electra has worn a heart on her cheek (Drawn in with makeup; Marina wore it on her cheek all the time during the era), and this is explained in the song "How to Be a Heartbreaker" with this line: "Rule #3, wear your heart on your cheek, but never on your sleeve unless you wanna taste defeat". This heart has a lot of symbolism in the era: When she first puts it on, it symbolizes the birth of Electra. It gets bigger throughout the era, and was at its climax in August of last year. She ends the era (and therefore kills off Electra Heart) by wiping off the heart in the final video part of the video series.
Anyway, since this whole concept/theory/story is based on a musical album, I'll give you the track list for that. Bolded tracks have a music video created for them on Marina's YouTube page (She originally wanted there to be 15 videos, but ended up with 11):
1. "Bubblegum Bitch"
2. "Primadonna"
3. "Lies"
4. "Homewrecker"
5. "Starring Role"
6. "The State of Dreaming"
7. "Power & Control"
8. "Living Dead"
9. "Teen Idle"
10. "Valley of the Dolls"
11. "Hypocrates" (This is not misspelled; it's meant to be spelled that way. It's some made-up word.)
12. "Fear and Loathing"
13. "Radioactive"
14. "Sex, Yeah!"
15. "Lonely Hearts Club"
16. "Buy the Stars"
There were also four (Really, five, but I only use four of them) songs that were not put on the album initially, but were used somehow for the videos or for the project/album/etc. as a whole. They are:
1. "Electra Heart"
2. "The Archetypes" (It's more of an interlude than a full track)
3. "How to Be a Heartbreaker"
4. "E.V.O.L."
5. "Su-Barbie-A" (Also more of an interlude)
Now, there are 21 tracks. Not all 21 are used for the individual archetypes; only 16 are. This leaves the other 5 to be about Electra Heart altogether. However, I don't pay much attention to "Su-Barbie-A", so forgive me for not including it later on in the essay.
Since the Archetypes are a huge (If not the biggest) part of the Electra Heart character, I'll give a basic description of their characters. I used Marina's explanations in interviews, her posts on her Tumblr, and the videos for the songs above to describe how they are. I also noticed each Archetype is missing something in their life that they desperately need or want.
• The Primadonna: She is the Queen Bee. She's a celebrity, a famous singer, perhaps. Marina seems to embody her the most throughout the 'Electra Heart' era. She's extremely arrogant and has "a really big ego", but doesn't seem to understand why people don't like that in her. She's really materialistic. She lacks sex in her life.
• The Homewrecker: She's a heartless, lonely woman. She runs through life, picking up men and dropping them quickly, leaving a wake of broken hearts behind her. She's secretly emotionally damaged and lonely, but to cover this up, she does, as mentioned, breaks hearts. She insists on having control in her relationship. She lacks love in her life.
• The Su-Barbie-A: She's a lonely housewife with a boring, mundane life. She has a husband that possibly cheats on her, doesn't care for her, or abuses her, or all. She's extremely fragile, and is somewhat upset with her husband, but she is too infatuated with him to either break up with him or to demand he respects her. She lacks respect in her life.
• The Teen Idle: A girl who wasted her teenage years being envious of a popular girl (Possibly the Primadonna). She tried being brave, but is actually depressed & suicidal in reality, seeing herself as a loser that will never be popular. She lacks popularity/fame in her life.
Each archetype has four songs in the Electra Heart project. Here is how I organized which song goes to which archetype or Electra. Also, below this organization, you'll see an explanation of each song and how I decided which archetype each song goes under. The organization:
The Primadonna:
• "Primadonna"
• "The State of Dreaming"
• "Valley of the Dolls"
• "Sex, Yeah!"
The Su-Barbie-A:
• "Living Dead"
• "Lies"
• "Hypocrates"
• "Buy the Stars"
The Homewrecker:
• "Homewrecker"
• "Power & Control"
• "How to Be a Heartbreaker"
• "Lonely Hearts Club"
The Teen Idle:
• "Teen Idle"
• "Bubblegum Bitch"
• "Starring Role"
• "Radioactive"
Electra Heart:
• "Electra Heart"
• "Fear and Loathing"
• "The Archetypes"
• "E.V.O.L."
And here, so you can understand the album a bit (This is, by the way, assuming you didn't know much about it at all; I'm sorry if it sounds condescending. I've had to explain this way too many times, and this is probably the millionth essay or large post on a forum that I've written to explain it all), here's a description of what each song is about based on the lyrics:
1. "Electra Heart" - She introduces herself. She mentions a "sickness", implying her multiple personality disorder. She also asks "Can we go back?" a lot, implying her MPD came from a childhood issue.
2. "The Archetypes" - The song literally just lists off the four archetypes ("Housewife, beauty queen, homewrecker, idle teen") as a brief, 1:13-long introduction of them.
3. "E.V.O.L." - This possibly could be something explaining Electra's issues. It describes love as "evil", and basically says Electra's been heartbroken before and that it "f**ked up love" for her.
4. "Bubblegum Bitch" -- The Teen Idle attempts to put on a show of being a rebellious, adventurous girl to hide her insecurities & suicidal tendencies. She also, ironically, refers to herself as sweet through this. "I'm gonna be your bubblegum bitch."
5. "Primadonna" -- The Primadonna introduces herself without any metaphors or complicated lyrics. She claims that she has a huge ego, that she's materialistic and vapid, and that she wishes she could own the world. "Primadonna girl, yeah, all I ever wanted was the world."
6. "Lies" -- The Su-Barbie-A describes hardships with her current relationship. She calls her husband a coward, and says she wishes her relationship with him could work but he's making things difficult for her. "Lies, don't wanna know, don't wanna know. I can't let you go."
7. "Homewrecker" -- The Homewrecker openly admits she's a heartbreaker. She also mocks other people that stick to long-term relationships and describes love as childish and something that never ends up working as it should. "I'm a homewrecker, homewrecker."
8. "Starring Role" -- The Teen Idle describes that she wishes she had "the starring role" in someone's heart or in life in general. It shows a jealousy of someone else, possibly a woman (the Primadonna???) that stole her man. "I'd rather walk alone if I can't get the starring role."
9. "The State of Dreaming" -- Practically an ode to Marilyn Monroe, the Primadonna looks at her life as a dream and that she really should snap out of it and get in touch with reality. It implies a lot of drug use, too. "I've been living in the state of dreaming, living in a make-believe land."
10. "Power & Control" -- The Homewrecker establishes that she is in control of her relationship and that she is dominant. She also sort of teases her current partner. She claims she'll destroy him if she has to. "Power & control, I'm gonna make you fall."
11. "Living Dead" -- The Su-Barbie-A introduces us to her life and how things are really mundane & repetitive for her up to the point where she feels like a zombie & wishes she was dead. She looks back & regrets marrying her husband. "I'm living dead, only alive when I pretend that I have died."
12. "Teen Idle" -- The Teen Idle describes her past issues. She wishes she could have been popular and was lazy and just let everyone worship her. She regrets everything she did as a teenager and shows that she's really suicidal. "I wish I'd been a teen, teen idle. Wish I'd been a prom queen, fighting for the title."
13. "Valley of the Dolls" -- The Primadonna explains how she wants to put on a show & pick a personality that her fans would love. This could be for Electra Heart in general, but it works for the Primadonna. "In the valley of the dolls we sleep, got a hole inside of me."
14. "Hypocrates" -- The Su-Barbie-A scolds her husband a bit, finally speaking up to him. She describes him as hypocritical, and the only person who has a big enough part of her life to break her down. "Who are you to tell me who to be?"
15. "Fear and Loathing" -- Electra mentions the archetypes. She wonders, aloud, which one people will like best, and she worries that the archetypes will take control of her completely without a trace of the real her. "I've lived my life in bitterness & filled my heart with emptiness."
16. "How to Be a Heartbreaker" -- The Homewrecker describes a simple 4-step plan she lives by on how to break hearts and not get attached so that she can always be on the run. It's really cheery & somewhat funny. "This is how to be a heartbreaker, boys they like the look of danger, we'll get them falling for a stranger, a player singing 'I la la la love you... At least, I think I do!'"
17. "Radioactive" -- The Teen Idle is obviously in love with someone. This could be the person that gets stolen away from her in "Starring Role". She insults someone else that possibly is a rival of hers to try and take the man. "When you're around me, I'm radioactive."
18. "Sex, Yeah!" -- It's meant to be ironic, not literally about sex. The Primadonna makes a song that appears to be about sex almost to mock the mainstream idea that all pop music is about sex, but really, the song is about feminism. "All my life I've tried to find what history has given me. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, yeah, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex..."
19. "Lonely Hearts Club" -- The Homewrecker finally admits that her life doesn't have any love in it. She's always on the run and breaking hearts, so she never has any actual time to find the person that's meant for her. "January to December, love will never be forever, do you want to be a member? Lonely hearts club..."
20. "Buy the Stars" -- The Su-Barbie-A seems more over her own problems with her husband. She talks down to him a bit, and tries to explain to him that, like stars, he can't buy her and own her because she & the stars are free for everyone rather than something that someone should own. "You bought a star in the sky at night because your life is dark and it needs some life."
Marina has done her own story with this. She created videos for 11 of the songs... She posted the first part, "PART 1: Fear and Loathing" on August 8, 2011. She then did 10 other videos, posting the final one, "PART 11: Electra Heart", on August 8, 2013, there by ending the era and supposedly killing Electra Heart off (by wiping away the heart on her cheek).
For the story that I'm writing based on all of this, I named the characters (As stated earlier: The Primadonna is Jenna; the Su-Barbie-A is Karen; the Homewrecker is Alex; and the Teen Idle is Shelby) and I put them all in one world together. There is a clear set of antagonists and protagonists:
The Su-Barbie-A is a protagonist. The Homewrecker attempts to steal her husband.
The Teen Idle is a protagonist. The Primadonna crushes her dreams and overshadows her.
Also, for my own convenience for the story, I organized 19 of the songs (I didn't use "E.V.O.L." or "Su-Barbie-A") as a tracklist for the album that actually has character development through it. This is the order I did it in:
1. "The Archetypes"
2. "Electra Heart"
3. "Primadonna"
4. "Bubblegum Bitch"
5. "Living Dead"
6. "Homewrecker"
7. "Teen Idle"
8. "Sex, Yeah!"
9. "Lonely Hearts Club"
10. "Buy the Stars"
11. "Valley of the Dolls"
12. "Lies"
13. "How to Be a Heartbreaker"
14. "Radioactive"
15. "Power & Control"
16. "The State of Dreaming"
17. "Starring Role"
18. "Hypocrates"
19. "Fear and Loathing"
The first two and the last one tracks are for Electra the character in general. The other sixteen are taking cycles (breaking them up into four groups of four tracks) for each archetype.
The story isn't done (I've only got five chapters done, really). It still needs some editing work, but I like what I've done so far.
Anyway, I hope all of this makes sense... Please take all of this into consideration when reading the story. 'Electra Heart', the album and character & concept, mean a lot to me. Marina and the Diamonds is my second-favorite artist (Next to Madonna; but Madonna has never come up with a project as complex as this). If you have any other questions before reading the story, do ask me. Thanks for reading this!
