"Young and Beautiful" is a song that perfectly does what film music should do. Featured in the end credits of The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann, this song captures the inner voice of women anxious about whether they are beautiful enough. In this piece written by Lana Del Rey and composer Rick Nowels, the universal human anxieties about time and appearance permeate throughout.
The Film Finds the Music
The Great Gatsby was a contemporary interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel. Director Baz Luhrmann wanted to blend the glamour of the 1920s with modernity, and needed one song for it. His choice of Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" was a moment of inspiration, as Luhrmann later recalled. "We were really lucky to find this song," Luhrmann's words mean that the song wasn't created for the film but that the film "found" an already existing song.
Daisy Buchanan's Inner Voice
"Young and Beautiful" best expresses Daisy Buchanan's psychological state. In the novel and film, Daisy has often been read as a "superficial woman," but this song illuminates her differently. She wasn't superficial, but a woman constantly questioning whether she was enough. A woman living in anxiety, afraid that beauty would slip away, fearing that when it's gone, she too would disappear.
"We were really lucky to find this song. This song perfectly captured Daisy's soul."— Baz Luhrmann, Director
Lana Del Rey wove Daisy's anxiety into the song. Over the piano's classical elegance, her soft and deep voice is layered, and the listener automatically becomes Daisy. The song's lyrics celebrate perfect passivity and the terror of conditional love.
Universal Anxiety: The Psychological Battle Between Beauty and Time
The lyric "Will you still love me when I'm old and not beautiful?" became not just Daisy's question, but every woman's question. Since the song's 2013 release, society's beauty standards have become increasingly strict. Filtered virtual selves, the temptation of cosmetic surgery, and age as an enemy — women continue to ask "Am I enough?"
Rick Nowels, as the song's producer and co-composer, expressed this concern as simply and elegantly as possible. The song contains only piano, strings, and Del Rey's voice. All other decoration was removed, leaving only the question. That is the greatness of this song.
