because you are all modern up to date kids
does anyone know anything about this girl, is she legit?, I have just been toild she is a fake…seems like a lot of hard work for a scam.
Comments
I guess what do you mean by fake? I mean obviously this isn’t the 60’s so a good bit of her Mad Men era ingenue shtick is clearly contrived. And apparently this wasn’t always the style of music she was doing and made a previous go at being a more conventional modern pop star. I’ve read a lot about the controversy over her, but I’m not sure I get what the hubub is about.
Especially since most of it comes from the same corners of the indie rocking interwebs that fawn over Lady Gaga, who last I checked is no longer performing earnest, acoustic ballads as Stephanie Germania or whatever the hell her name was. I do tend to hate gratuitious reinvention but this seems like less of a leap than a lot of other artists/bands have made in an attempt at some form of credibility or stardom or whatever, so……yeah. I don’t know.
And yet, somehow this feels more contrived than Lady Gaga.
John said:Example #1: And yet, somehow this feels more contrived than Lady Gaga.
Fixed that for you.
I think she breaks an unwritten rule of pop credibility: you can sell out, but you can’t buy back in. If you wanna go full pop star, that’s fine. We’ll take you at your pop star merits. But once you try for pop star, there can be no further attempts at artistic credibility. Unless, apparently, you’re Alice in Chains or Pantera or something. Apparently there’s a 90’s metal exemption to this rule.
John said:I think she breaks an unwritten rule of pop credibility: you can sell out, but you can’t buy back in. If you wanna go full pop star, that’s fine. We’ll take you at your pop star merits. But once you try for pop star, there can be no further attempts at artistic credibility. Unless, apparently, you’re Alice in Chains or Pantera or something. Apparently there’s a 90’s metal exemption to this rule.
Hmmm…that’s actually a very interesting take on it. I think you may be right.
Although 2 things to add:
1) Radiohead. Yeah you can say “Oh well they weren’t THAT poppy.” or that they don’t count because they are actually good or that you didn’t like their early stuff. But the fact is that they were a very poppy, very mainstream act who went through all the motions required to get to that point, but then decided to go the artistic credibility route after they had already gone all in on pop stardom.
2) Alyce N’ Chainz and Glamtera only got away with what they did because it was pre-internet. There’s no way bands could get away with that level of memory hole jamming in this day and age. I would also add Ministry to this, although they at least admitted it and never tried to deny it, and actively apologized for their earlier attempts.
Well, in regards to Radiohead, I think they made their transition so public and transparent, what with the documentary and everything, they sold it well. It was a believable transition that, even still, lost them quite a few fans.
They’ve been downhill since Creep.
what documentary?
Heh….going back to the original topic, I had actually never heard/seen what she was doing before when she was supposedly inauthentic or trying to be a pop star or whatever the gripe was and when she was calling herself Lizzy Grant and not Lana Del Rey. Sounds/looks like what she was doing in 09 under that name is almost the exact same deal as now. So I’m not sure where the bitching comes from then. They make it sound like she was doing Katy Perry-esque bubblegum pop and then decided to go with this retro-hip vibe.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2150069/lizzy_grant_kill_kill/
I can see not liking it, but I’m not sure why it’s claimed this makes her new stuff any more inauthentic or a pose than any other shtick churning around indie rock land.
i’d like to bring lana del rey back up again since she’s been in the news as of late after her recent SNL appearance. i think “video games” started out okay but “blue jeans” fell short and the whole thing overall wasn’t very good. there’s no reason she should have even been on the show.
anyway, “video games” made my top 12 of 2011, which i don’t think i put here on the scrabbled, but for the first time in history, the majority were girl singers.
anyway, i’m not quite sure where hutch got he whole former pop star selling out thing? is it just because she wasn’t brigette bardot BEFORE this?
found this video and seems to me, her sound is pretty much the same. instead, she’s wearing a thrift store t-shirt and layered hair.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/lana-del-rey-before-she-was-lana-del-rey
http://jezebel.com/5876555/lana-del-rey-single+handedly-ruins-snl-music-for-everybody?tag=lanadelrey
BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAH. HOLY SHIT. So bad. So so bad.
Also, I’m not sure that video helps her case, Christina. It just seems like she went to under-dressed over-priviledged talentless hack to over-dressed over-priviledged talentless hack. Seriously, that video was worse than her SNL performance. Who told her that singing like that was ok!?
Also also, I’m just gonna put it out there that I’m not sure if I objectively hate Video Games, or if I hate it because I hate her whole… thing…, but I’m definitely sure that there’s some strong hatred I’m feeling here and I hope she fails and disappears forever.
I still like the recorded versions of both songs I’ve heard by her. That being said, that SNL performance was pretty bad although still nowhere near the level of bad that people are making it out to be. I’ve seen about a dozen clips of Amy Winehouse singing on tv much worse than that (like exponentially worse) and people hailed her as some kind of genius.
That said she was clearly pushed way too soon on everything and everyone and now she’s paying the price. I can’t say I have a whole lot of sympathy for her. It’s one thing to use connections in your career. Everyone would do it and anyone who says they wouldn’t are lying sacks of crap. However there’s a big difference between doing some live shows and an EP, and performing before millions on Saturday Night Live. Anyone who thought that was a good idea (including her, I’m assuming) is an idiot.
Also irritating, the amount of Strokes fans I know who hate her because she comes from a wealthy family and is playing a contrived part, and that she used her connections to further her career. Don’t like her music and like the Strokes, that’s fine. It’s music and thus subjective. But complain about any of the other stuff and be called out as a hypocrite because they are the original rich kid rockers with purchased street credibility and everything about them is as phony and manufactured as this chick. They were just able to ride it out long enough that everybody forgot about all the other stuff. She’s clearly not going to be so lucky.
Strokes would have gotten way more shit for their rich-kid beginnings if they had sucked. But they didn’t. And she does. Though, at the same time, I can’t help but feel there’s an air of sexism in some of the critique along those lines. Like, little princes are fine, but little princesses are objects of revulsion. I blame that Sweet 16 birthday show. People hear she was a rich kid and they picture her stomping and crying like Veruca Salt, “Mummy! Daddy! Iiii want a singing career!” I don’t know that there’s an equivalent cultural touch point for little rich boys.
Honestly, I do think sexism has a lot to do with it, but she doesn’t make it any easier on herself by playing up the whole sex kitten pin up thing, so I have no sympathy there. Kathleen Hannah she ain’t, that’s for sure. But I also think it’s more of an age thing than it is anything else. The Strokes did get heaping amounts of shit for being a manufactured band of rich kids playing dress up as a garage rock band. But it was mostly from people who were older than probably 25-30 at the time and could see with a little more weathered hindsight what it was. Same basic age group as the ones giving Lana Del Rey shit now. Younger kids didn’t pay as much attention to the Strokes furor and older farts just eventually gave up caring or trying to fight it. As I suspect people will with LDR as well.
i think saturday night live is the real loser in all of this. they are a struggling television show with mediocre players trying to introduce the world to lana del rey and get back those indie/hipster/college kids who once quoted their shows all day monday but now just wait for the occasional justin timberlake short and andy samberg skit.
lana del rey wasn’t ready for this. it wasn’t great. but i still really like her. her live versions of video games on jools and on corinthia are amazing, in my opinion.
I disagree that SNL lost here..they got more coverage from this than they have had in a while.
I only recently heard about her privileged background and I have to say that pissed me off even more.
There is a difference between her and The Strokes in all her interviews she actually comes across as genuine and a nice person.
None of The Strokes even went that far, they sounded great playing music, but came across as dicks when they were talking (most of them were dicks in reality too).
I would be surprised if the record company release the lp now. If they do it will be interesting to see if it sells.
Just saw this article pop up on reddit: Lana Del Rey: The strange story of the star who rewrote her past
Also, isn’t it funny how a lot of the same websites that fell all over themselves justifying Odd Future/Tyler the Creator as “Just playing roles and taking on personas” as justification for some pretty reprehensible shit, are now all of a sudden the arbiters of authenticity and how important it is that they point out how Lana Del Rey is different than the persona she’s projecting.
Again, same thing as with the Strokes. Like the music, dislike the music. That’s all fine. Not everyone needs to like everything and there’s a definite case to be made that a lot about her musically just is not particularly worthy of how far she’s gotten. It’s when people start using all the other stuff (her connections, her stage name, her authenticity) as points of criticism that it starts to result in some serious face palming and eye rolling.
Not to defend the Odd Future/Tyler apologists, as I was one of them and have since come around on that (the beats are really good, but not good enough to make me look past the lyrics, which I eventually actually listened to), but I think there’s a fine but distinct line between creating a character (Ziggy Stardust, Alice Cooper, etc) and “rewriting your past”, as it was previously phrased. And it’s not a line I can exactly put my finger on yet. I do know that what she’s doing feels less like a stage performance and more like someone trying to blind me with something completely disingenuous in the hope that I wouldn’t notice how unremarkable the actual music is. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way.
For the record, I’m not saying Tyler sits comfortably on the right side of that line, either, but whereas Tyler seems to dangle on the edge, Lana Del Rey falls right the fuck off.
I guess I’m clear on where she rewrote her past other than changing her name? But admittedly I could have missed something along the way on it. I mean the music I’ve heard sounds roughly the same, and the leap between Lizzy Grant and Lana Del Rey is a hell of a lot more of a put on than say between Stephanie Germania and Lady Gaga.
Like I said, there is definitely a case that the music is unremarkable (although I would still argue not offensively so to a degree that requires all this hoopla and backlash) so I have no issue with that opinion. It’s just that all the other non-music stuff no more or less egregious than any number of other bands or singers who seem to get passes for similar behavior.
Probably a better example, this video of a beardless, standing, and be-scarved Robin Pecknold, a far cry from the whole shy, flannel clad faux Appalachian mountain folkie shtick he’s got going on now. This is probably more a match to the distance between that earlier LDR video and what she’s doing now.
Again, not to compare the music since Fleet Foxes are awesome and LDR is at best, not awesome. It’s just that shit happens and performers go through all sorts of changes, especially between say 18 and 25 or whatever, and that ultimately if this were anything other than a pretty girl adopting a more glamorous persona none of us would be having this conversation at all I don’t think.
So maybe I am coming around to the whole idea that it is some kind of weird sexism at play.
Peckinpold drives me nuts, too. As does the dude from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic zeroes, speaking of once-clean-shaven-now-bearded indie favorites. But at least their music is good. The latter, actually, is the most egregious case of rewriting your past I can think of and it honestly affected how much I enjoy their music. I still love it, don’t get me wrong. That whole album is fantastic and I’m a sucker for anything with even an hint of Sergio Leone, which Up From Below has in spades. But I’d probably like it even more if the singer dude wasn’t a complete fraud.
I forgot about that dude from Edward Sharpe. I’d also like to add to this list the dudes from Vampire Weekend who, although I don’t think there’s any youtube proof first got together as some white frat boy rap band (a la that Asher Roth dude) before they picked up instruments, and got tagged as the official voice of the afro pop revolution (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that).
All of this just proves the point though that the stuff that everyone is getting so riled up over and causing the backlash is stuff that lots of people try to get over on, to not even a fraction of the backlash and bile she’s getting directed at her. Again I’m leaning towards this weird sort of zig zaggy sexism in which people are rushing to prove how not sexist they are by bashing the attractive, sexy singer for authenticity violations that they let other, non female, less attractive singers get away with.
If her music and her voice were undeniably horrible and offensive and clearly lacking any merit, it would make more sense. But even her most ardent detractors don’t try to make that claim and instead focus on the other stuff.
Shit, I never figured this conversation would get to a point where Robin Peckinpold and Vampire Weekend were being compared to LDR…This is why The Scrabbled is still a great forum for me.
I like how I totally fused Robin Pecknold and Sam Peckinpah and Kev (the manc) totally ran with it.
See, I thought I was the one who was wrong and was too lazy to look it up and confirm (even though I must have gotten it right if I found that video), and was just happy everyone was letting me slide.
http://jezebel.com/5879929/why-do-you-hate-lana-del-rey-i-do-not-know-why-i-hate-lana-del-rey
Interesting back and forth between 2 writers at Jezebel on this subject. The anti-LDR woman definitely admits that her dislike is irrational and rooted in a pretty big double standard. I haven’t read the original article they’re referencing though.
Jessica makes some points that really hit home for me:
Jessica: I’m mulling. Maybe it’s also that the character/act isn’t convincing, and that’s where one feels “tricked.”
and
And I am not going to lie, the lip bothers me. Good cosmetic work, great, go for it — but bad cosmetic work bothers me in general. The poor construction of a character combined with the poor use of injectionables is just too much. Makes it impossible for me to buy what she’s selling.
and
there’s nonetheless something about her that I just can’t get behind. Maybe it’s the music itself — “deep” and “artsy” — contrasting with how I perceive her, as a fabrication.
Sexism, in this instance, is almost a two-way street. Clearly, she’s a victim of some sort of misogynistic double-standard, and yet, she buys into and invites so much of the misogyny with this character she’s invented. I dunno. It all just rubs me the wrong way.
And her music is as bland. Which makes all of the above matter. If it was actually good, none of us would be talking about this.
Definitely a 2 way street. Like I said above you can’t play the sex kitten but then expect people to sympathize with you when people react in a sexist way.
As for the music, I think the fact that she has any defenders at all is an indication that the music is at the very least “good” enough to have kept people either liking her, playing devils advocate for her, or outwardly defending her. It’s not like something like Nickelback which gets universal derision.
Nah, I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say the music’s bad. It’s just not in any way worthy of any note. Hell, if it had some out 10 years ago, or at least before Beach House, it’d probably be something new and interesting. But as it stands, it’s just a watered down, boring rehash.
I should also add to this that I freely admit that if I were 25-30 or so right now I would be the loudest anti-Lana Del Rey voice out there. I would be using every breath and keystroke I had on the subject to destroying her and getting people to hate her. That being said, at 42 I think I feel like I’m so far beyond the target market for this, and that’s probably why I take much less offense to it. I realize every band or artist in the demographic this is being targeted to are all things that at this point I’m liking on borrowed time since I seriously should have just given up caring about any of this a good 5-10 years ago.