I Hear You Like Bad Girls Too
(In pretty much every video featuring this guy, she winds up dead.)
Lana Del Rey is a Romantic with a big R: the stormy love, tossed by fate kind of Romantic, and I like her music for the same reason I like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. When life seems dull or I feel numb, I borrow emotions from the artists who express them wildly and vibrantly.
When a lot of girls I know communicate more by texting their boyfriends than they do in person, there’s something romantic and alluring about Lana Del Rey’s retro heroines who hang on the telephone like Blondie: something to crave about a vintage rendition of love where you’re together when you’re physically together and truly apart when you’re not. There’s mystery and vulnerability in not keeping tabs on each other’s every movement. It doesn’t make her song’s heroines happier or more secure – often the opposite – but it makes their romance feel more real. It’s hard to tell, from her lyrics, if her songs really belong in a pre-cellphone era; but their feelings do.
And when she’s not being retro, there’s something sad and true about “Video Games,” in which Lana sings in a minor key about the pleasure of a lazy afternoon with her man playing video games, but gives the sense that the TV is really between them.
Lana Del Rey appeals to good girls because she’s the quintessential romantic bad girl: sultry, pouty, with thin white tee shirts and tiny denim shorts, the kind of girl who’d be leaning up against her boyfriend’s hot rod in the school parking lot. And what makes her most appealing is her vulnerability – that hidden sweetness, and softness, that gives her a kind of frayed innocence beneath that bad girl image. Critics have dismissed this image as highly calculated; but having a calculated image never stopped the same critics from praising Lady Gaga. I think the real reason they despise Lana Del Rey’s image is because it challenges the feminist idea that women should ball up their vulnerability and stuff it in the back of a dark, dark closet because it’s totally useless and also highlights gender differences, which are verboten. Women don’t have a special kind of vulnerability that’s different from men’s – stop singing about it! You’re just pretending, putting it on for a show.
What’s she singing that upsets them so much? She’s singing about women who still miss the men who wronged them. She’s singing about regretting the loss of innocence. She’s singing about bad choices — and she’s calling them bad, not “alternative.” She’s singing about vulnerability and femininity and putting her man’s favorite perfume on. She’s singing:
This is what makes us girls
We don’t look for heaven and we put our love first
Don’t you know we’d die for it? It’s a curse
Don’t cry about it, don’t cry about it
This is what makes us girls
We don’t stick together ’cause we put our love first
Don’t cry about him, don’t cry about him
It’s all gonna happen
And she’s not singing it as a cultural statement or a tongue-in-cheek critic of gender roles or a condemnation of women who crave the company of men; she means it.
WOW – thanks for the intro – she has an INCREDIBLE voice! I think I’m a new fan…and there aren’t too many female singers that I DO like. I love her retro style. And of COURSE they hate her! It isnt the same mind-numbing atavistic *thump-thump* the others keep perpetrating. They hate her because they do not have the creativity to come up with something different.
Sorry to disappoint you but she started out as an internet darling. It wasn’t until she performed live exceedingly badly that her hipster internet supporters turned on her with the realization that she is a studio and marketing creation. Everything about her starting with her name Lana Del Ray is an image created by her marketing team, her real name is Lizzy Grant. If what you want in a musician is a beautiful voice, song writing ability, someone who plays their own instrument, and does not need studio tricks and a team of marketing experts to do it then check out Laura Marling and find out what real talent is.
I completely and totally agree with you regarding Laura Marling. The first time I heard her voice, I was haunted and hooked. Her voice is a true original and her fidelity to songcraft and introspection is world class.
That being said, I dig Lizzy Grant AKA Ms. Del Rey. Her voice, her pout, her videos all keep my attention, carefully crafted or not. I’ve seen video of her botched live performance, and yes, it is dismal. But was it worse than Beyonce’s lipsynched performance at BHO’s 2nd coming celebration? To that point, I saw New Order live in Park City in 1987 and they were awful. Perhaps the worst live concert I’ve ever attended. However, I still dig their music to this day. My mentioning this is because Miss Grant still has a lot to learn about performing; she’s very young and inexperienced in the music industry. But that doesn’t void her talents and uniqueness. She is not Milli Vanilli.
You make a valid point about her albums and videos. Unfortunately more and more “artists” go into the studio and use auto tune, over dubs and a host of other tricks that could make all but the worst singers sound good or great, then they lip sync it for the video, no problem until they try to preform live. Which is probably why so many concerts anymore are nothing more than choreographed extravaganzas ala Britney Spears or Lady Gaga perhaps Beyonce as well. As to being very young and inexperienced in the music industry I present as my rebuttal Marling at 17 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR_lzh6gvT4 on Jools Holland. Oh and the worst show I ever saw live was Robin Trower just god awful boring.
Thanks for replying — I’m glad you enjoyed her music!
…and thanks to you for “coming out” as a good girl who isn’t afraid to be vulnerable.
“there’s something to be appreciated about being unafraid of being foolish in love…. Ultimately, if you make all the right decisions, you still aren’t guaranteed a tranquil and pain-free existence — the world is too chaotic to allow for that. And while it isn’t a reason to cave into complete hedonism, it is a reason to take a few risks here and there…”
Well said. And there are some men, like me, who have been “foolish in love,” yet who don’t regret it in the long run. The pain of lost love is real and sometimes almost unbearable, yet Tennyson was right about having “loved and lost,” and Simon & Garfunkel knew what they were singing about in “Like a Rock.”
Thank you Miss Sternberg for telling us about Lana del Rey. I had heard the name, but since I avoid most of today’s pop music like the plague, I wasn’t familiar with her. I’ve enjoyed the samples you provided. Its nice to know that there is still sometimes music written for adults.
As a P.S., I also like how she sings “Sometimes love is not enough…” in “Born to Die.” Its true, and something which you don’t seem to hear much in pop culture.
And I should have written “I Am a Rock” instead of “Like a Rock” (in the unlikely event that anyone is keeping score).
You’re welcome! And thank you for the kind words — I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
My favorite line:
“When he shows up on your doorstep, do you feel a jolt of pleasure, or is it like he’s been there all along and it’s just a bit more difficult to run down and unlock the door instead of simply sliding a button on your phone?”
Bravo, Ms. Sternberg, I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thank you kindly!
Never heard of her, but kind of liked the first song. But her image, her face, disturbed me. Has she had massive Botox treatments? Her upper lip looks deformed. I hope she didn’t do this to herself to get her guy to stop playing video games.
Perhaps her love life wouldn’t be so “tragic” if she weren’t attracted to tattooed douchebags. The obvious pleasure humans take–particularly female humans it seems–in their own self-destruction for the sake of “love” is quite worrisome.
Why are we so willing to destroy everything else in order to obtain fleeting moments of a “feeling” which usually brings only more pain and chaos? Both for oneself and for anyone else unfortunate enough to be within the blast radius. There is absolutely nothing “romantic” about any of this. (Though that doesn’t mean these aren’t some well-done and catchy tunes, which only spread the disease all the easier).
This is what happens when humans are left to their own devices untethered from the constraining wisdom of the past. Or pretty much living without any constraints on our behavior at all. She could probably use a good chaperone.
Or:
Get thee to a nunnery.
Well said, but a cursory look at the Wiki and you’ll find that this young lady was born with the proverbial silver spoon, and was sent to a private boarding school at age 14 to deal with her alcohol dependency. Yeah, she’s a real role model for young women to follow.
To a troubled mind the allure of meaning to be found in alcohol, drugs, and high-drama “love” affairs is too enticing to pass up. It could almost be said to be a search for *transcendence*. The problem is that it is a transcendence in the wrong direction. The transcendence of a banal existence in the infra-human direction of chaos and death. I think this is what Freud referred to as the “death instinct”.
Yea, I recognize her and her type.
They were the ones back in high school that had the perfect hair and face and were cheerleaders and let the quarterback bang her in the back of his new car. They had nothing but a sneer for the rest of us.
When I went back some 25 years later they are the loud, drunk by 6 ones in the bar at the high school reunion hitting on anything. The operations and dim lights could not hide the ravaged face, the colored hair, the push up bra lines.
The quarterback was the guy in the corner with the pot belly and bad knees looking for someone he could relive his glory days with.
romantic schmantic, I know of a lot of guys who could romance a girl, they are the ones on their third divorce.
wow, bitter much?
feel the H8.
I was going to say the same as you, Paul.
I don’t demand perfection from musicians and artists, but I do want some truth and skill, and I think Hannah Sternberg points out some things that are worthwhile about Lana Del Rey’s songs–at least the ones sampled here.
Sorry, I should have written “I was going to say the same as you, Paul A’Barge.”
And for PaulS: in my 50 years of life, I’ve been to a few high school reunions, and I’ve found that some of the kids who were the biggest jerks back in school have matured and grown into good people. Not all, of course, but enough have to show that “the jock,” “the cheerleader,” “the slut” and “the dork” should not necessarily be categorized in those ways their entire life.
ya, I guess you’re right.
And I do know some from then that are pretty decent people.
Don’t wanna go back there though.
PaulS
I agree, PaulS–I wouldn’t want to go back to high school either!
I’d LOVE to go back to high school, with just 1/2 the knowledge I have now. Things were fun for me, but they’d have been that much better.
cool.
I like her, had not heard of her but now I’ll pay more attention.
thx.
I was entranced with Lana Del Rey’s work from the first time I heard her voice. I have listened to it so much I can spot the under-tone music from “Blue Jean” in a recent car commercial.
Finding out that hipsters hate her only deepens my appreciation for what she does. Maybe I should put a serious sound system in my vehicle then blast her at high volume to drive them away from coffee shops.
All things are relative. Del Rey’s not singing about how she kissed a girl or genderbending nor is she verging in Rihanna/Beyonce territory about the wonders of dry humping each other.
In that sense, and the arrangements, it is at least giving a nod to trying to be better and less conformist and pandering music. I mean, Del Rey has nothing to lose – yet.
I recently listened to an hour of Brazilian acts singing at various Rock In Rio concerts and then Rihanna came on the same venue and it felt like a hold up. Gone were the heartfelt original arrangements and in was the faddist conformism. American pop music is in the doldrums while ironically as popular as ever world wide.
Del Rey’s light years beneath Amy Winehouse but less of a stereotype factory than the usual Top 40. I even prefer Del Rey to that odious male version of Michael Bolton elevator music, Adele.
Isn’t it funny how non-conformist artists and performers today are those who appreciate traditional things, or at least don’t belittle them in their work? For those of you who don’t pay much attention to today’s pop culture, the “dry humping” that Fail Burton mentions is pretty prevalent and accepted today.
A truly “transgressive” artist today is a painter such as Jon McNaughton…. http://www.jonmcnaughton.com/ Whether you like his art or not, you have to admit that he goes against the grain of today’s “arts world.”
With all due respect…Oooog!
While I’m sure John McNaughton and myself would have a great time bowling together and talking politics and religion that does not make him a decent artist.
His landscapes, especially, are pure Thomas Kinkade. I’m afraid he missed his century, he should be doing portraits and cranking out “peaceable kingdom” paintings at county fairs.
McNaughton is no Durer or Rembrandt, but my main point is that he’s more skilled than the pseudo-artists who are acclaimed in the “arts world,” and with his subject matter he’s more daring than the so-called “transgressive” individuals who produce material like “Pi** Christ” for their own echo chamber.
Any traditional painter is persona non grata in the fine arts and has been for a half century. In fact pretty much anything before the mid-60s is considered quaint, if not racist, as if the entirety of civilization is an antique of shoddy design.
Some of that is being young and full of beans and thinking your generation knows it all – normal. But when a single generation’s rebelliousness becomes institutionalized and frozen in time for 50 years, that’s kind of wacky. Conformity can’t help but result, ironically from a culture devoted to proving how non-conformist they are.
Again, I don’t see Monty Python as undercutting Western civilization except inasmuch as any satire will undercut anything it targets and Monty Python painted pretty broad strokes. Who, for example, were they going after in Holy Grail? They were just being goofy and having fun and they were brilliant.
I guess they made Vikings and Spam look pretty stupid. They have both in Minnesota. Perhaps the state should look into a libel suit.
I’m in london and they play more pop music than the US so I heard of her last year. As an aside: check out METRIC & Ms. Hanes a new fave
I just discovered Metric this year – wow! Youth Without Youth was my favorite song from 2012. Del Rey is OK, but Metric is the real thing.
Read the lyrics of Poster of a Girl & one thing led to another. Curious, Metric stuff is on You Tube & listened to it alot there but still bought the CDs- any reaction to listening to You Tube and buying the songs.
This article got me thinking about the role of popular culture under capitalism. The corporate-created pop stars sing about things like lives destroyed by failed love–and love implies a choice was made to fall in love. This is a subtle version of the most pernicious lie the corporate plutocracy has foisted on the people–the lie that they are at fault when they have no job, no food, no home or health care.
If a woman thinks has married the “wrong man” because he has no job and can not feed the family,should she be blamed for this or the pitiless corparchy in which we live that discards like trash all people who are not profitable to feed? Who is to blame if unplanned children have no health care? Who is to blame for the unplanned children when birth control is denied in such a brutal fashion that it would make the Mullahs of Iran blush–the testimony of Sandra Fluke was a small bit of truth about the compassionless hell-hole that is the corporation known as the United states of America.
Whew. I guess the parody artists are at it again. Thanks for the laugh, Throbbin….
Wow, that’s a lot deeper than I usually take my analysis of my music. But there’s something to it. I grew up on country music, and after Afghanistan I got heavily into classic rock. Newer country artists largely don’t do much for me, although there’s more real emotion there than there is in most of the pop I have accidental contact with. Nowadays it’s often rock that gets my blood moving, and classic country when I’m working on the car. There’s just something about Alabama singing about being with a woman that connects. The cell phone can often be useful, but if I’m with my wife, I want to be with my wife, whether that’s just talking to her while I twist wrenches, or while she knits, or doing something for her like putting a new roof on the house or washing the dishes at night. You don’t get that from plastic, artificial, written-per-formula-and-focus-group pop these days.
Yobbin, leave college now and try a technical school. You’ll find a job and we wont have to hear your tired drivel about the “corporate plutocracy” yadda yadda,yadda yadda.
Never heard of Lana Del Rey before, but played “Video Games” as I read. I’ll look for more on You-Tube, and try the other videos here. I’m a Lou Reed and Velvets fan from way back. I like irony, and a lack of it. But based on casual readings at You-Tube, Justin Bieber is the number one most maligned, and hated singer in the youth market. I’ve never seen anything like it. The guys just can’t get enough of him! Play Zeppelin, they sound off about Bieber. Meatalica; Bieber! Skynyrd; Bieber! Leonard Cohen; Bieber! If Donny Osmond were just starting out today, they would still hate Bieber. I think they have a crush on him. By the way, I never said at the time, but I really, really liked “Down By The Lazy River,” by the Osmond Brothers, because it was the closest they ever came to hard rock. Not to mention “I can Feel Your Heartbeat” by the Partridge Family. Almost hard rock, man. Try them! But please, don’t tell the guys; they’ll pound me. As far as Lana goes, like I said, I’ll listen some more. I just hope she doesn’t started dating Bieber. The guys would be crushed.
I’d like to see PJM do just a little more digging and tell us about Kathleen Edwards, Pieta Brown, Carrie Rodriguez and Shannon McNally.
They’re highly respected by their peers and have put in the work. They have seniority in more ways than one over someone like Lana Del Rey.