lana del ray is a perpetual bewilderment of mine. i have come to terms that i may never like her musical style or aesthetic but i was wondering if you would be willing to shed any light on what i perceive to be your fondness of her?
scrambledfish
Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying I know Lana Del Rey is problematic as fuck (her comments on feminism, shades of cultural appropriation, romanticizing the Lolita trope.) That last one is the main reason I haven’t bought any of her albums in their entirety - I can’t listen to ten songs of that character, especially when she doesn’t add any new dimensions to it.
She and Marina Diamandis both ask, “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?” Marina uses the Bombshell character to reflect on society’s expectations of women in a tongue-in-cheek way. Lana, on the other hand, is completely ernest. She has submerged her identity in this character - even hoping for tragic results that’ll make it all the more glamorous. She’s a consciously, carefully constructed persona. That fakeness is her greatest strength and weakness because, on one hand, she can embody a sound and another world, but on the other… how long would you really want to stay in Lana’s world? Ymmv.
As for her music… Um, I just really liked Video Games when it first came out? I love the music video. I usually hate when music videos try too hard to be artsy, but jfc. What a brave and effective choice. The way all these discordant elements (images of the 90s and 00s) hold the feeling of the song is beautiful. And that’s sort of how I interpret all her music.
Ultimately, I’ll take a cool, distinct sound over strong vocals because I’m shallow like that lol.
I think why I responded to Video Games in the first place is because the way she describes being in love is how I feel when I really like someone: “In his favorite sundress/ Watching me get undressed”, “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you…”, “I say, ‘You the bestest.’/ Lean in for a big kiss/ Put his favorite perfume on…" I’ll literally watch them play a damn video game lol.
The difference is I don’t want (or expect!) to be that enraptured with someone, or in need of their approval, 24/7. But when you’re first with someone that’s how it feels, and it’s ~NICE. Conversely, she sings about how much it hurts when this ends. There is something so satisfying about hearing emotions that are not “Strong Female Character” approved. I just wish Lana expressed a wider gambit of those emotions.
The Pitchfork article I posted before by Lindsay Zoladz (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite critics) is really interesting. The focus on Lana starts around the third-to-last pic x .
Finally, I hope your apathy hasn’t deterred you from checking out Postmodern Jukebox’s cover of Young and Beautiful
