smoledman

Our Lizzy Grant has sure come a long way since "Video Games". What a shattering masterpiece.

I love the line "Life imitates art". Lana is just so amazing!

I have nothing unpopular to say!    

One of my favorite LDR songs. I love the whole southern California feel of it. You almost think that Lana is some re-incarnated 1960s starlet who drowned in a swimming pool while smoking Parliaments.

One of my favorite LDR songs. I love the whole southern California feel of it. You almost think that Lana is some re-incarnated 1960s starlet who drowned in a swimming pool while smoking Parliaments.

The chorus on "Off to the Races", the opening and closing narration on the "Ride" video, the sultriness of her vocal on "Blue Jeans", her faux-Brookyln accent on "Lucky Ones", Big Eyes, her use of "gots" instead of "got" on Cola....

Why is the "music press"(they don't really understand music, they have no music degrees and don't create any) constantly question her songwriting skills?

Everyone(the hipster music press) thought back around spring 2012 that she's a "flash in the pan" and will be irrelevant by 2013. Now she's bigger than ever.
 
From "Video Games" to "Big Eyes", Lana has never put out a song that I thought cringe-worthy or bad in any way. I know she is not the sole songwriter for many of her songs, but that doesn't change the fact that she knows how to partner up with quality songwriters too. That's a skill in itself. She has a tremendous visual arts flair that IMHO is indelible. From the videos of "Video Games", "Blue Jeans", "Summertime Sadness" with their super-8 type quality to the epic "Ride" to "Tropico" I think she's a female David Lynch.
 
On top of all that, a new album coming at the end of the year. She's literally the only woman in the pop industry(other than Sia) that I can celebrate.
 
There is a way she invokes nostalgia and sadness that is indelible. Some people have a problem with that, but someone has to carry that torch. She is fucking crazy, but she is free.
 
Keep on sad-corin' Lana.

Why is the "music press"(they don't really understand music, they have no music degrees and don't create any) constantly question her songwriting skills?

FADER - June/July 2014

Her portrayal of those relationships, though, has prompted mixed reviews among feminists. Some criticize the way she seems to idealize powerlessness and servitude, while others appreciate her fluid embodiment of different identities, as well as her candor about both her desire and her weakness. In any case, her comments on the subject will be disappointing for both camps:

“For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept,” she says.  “I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.”

Fortunately, her ambivalence about politics doesn’t undo any subversiveness that may be embedded in her work (though, nor does it excuse any ill it may cause). When pressed, she adds, more illuminatingly,

“My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.”

***

THE NEW YORK TIMES - June 12, 2014

A recurring criticism was that her songs about being swept away by love were anti-feminist in their passivity; she contends that she was writing about private, immediate feelings, not setting out doctrine.

“For me, a true feminist is someone who is a woman who does exactly what she wants,” she said. “If my choice is to, I don’t know, be with a lot of men, or if I enjoy a really physical relationship, I don’t think that’s necessarily being anti-feminist. For me the argument of feminism never really should have come into the picture. Because I don’t know too much about the history of feminism, and so I’m not really a relevant person to bring into the conversation. Everything I was writing was so autobiographical, it could really only be a personal analysis.”

***

During her Ultraviolence promotional interviews, Lana Del Rey was attacked by the media for not being a feminist, which relied heavily on the soundbite “Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.”

How is this an admission of not being a feminist?  Is the lack of interest in discussing feminism tantamount to not being a feminist?  Further when you add in both the statements from Fader and New York Times, it is clear that Lana does have a sense of what feminism is to her:  “My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.”  &  “For me, a true feminist is someone who is a woman who does exactly what she wants,”
 
Aren’t these sentiments that Lana describes the basis of feminism?

She further clarifies that “Because I don’t know too much about the history of feminism, and so I’m not really a relevant person to bring into the conversation.”

Furthermore, multiple statements from people who have worked with Lana (Dan Auerbach, Emile Haynie, Rick Nowels,  Dan Heath) all talk about how much control she exerts over her creative and production process.

While Lana may be a reluctant figure of feminism, where does all this hate from the feminist community come from?  (Jezebel, Ms., Kim Gordon, etc.)

Starry Eyed. 

Starry Eyed. 

Starry Eyed. 

Everyone(the hipster music press) thought back around spring 2012 that she's a "flash in the pan" and will be irrelevant by 2013. Now she's bigger than ever.
 
From "Video Games" to "Big Eyes", Lana has never put out a song that I thought cringe-worthy or bad in any way. I know she is not the sole songwriter for many of her songs, but that doesn't change the fact that she knows how to partner up with quality songwriters too. That's a skill in itself. She has a tremendous visual arts flair that IMHO is indelible. From the videos of "Video Games", "Blue Jeans", "Summertime Sadness" with their super-8 type quality to the epic "Ride" to "Tropico" I think she's a female David Lynch.
 
On top of all that, a new album coming at the end of the year. She's literally the only woman in the pop industry(other than Sia) that I can celebrate.
 
There is a way she invokes nostalgia and sadness that is indelible. Some people have a problem with that, but someone has to carry that torch. She is fucking crazy, but she is free.
 
Keep on sad-corin' Lana.

The in-crowd despire Lana because she truly "marches to her own drummer" and it isn't anything THEY approve of. She truly represents outsiders, the misfit, the others. I hope she never sells out.

The in-crowd despire Lana because she truly "marches to her own drummer" and it isn't anything THEY approve of. She truly represents outsiders, the misfit, the others. I hope she never sells out.

The in-crowd despire Lana because she truly "marches to her own drummer" and it isn't anything THEY approve of. She truly represents outsiders, the misfit, the others. I hope she never sells out.

Just listened to "Hollywood" for the first time. Is this the first time Lana does a song in an 1980s sounding style?

The way Kim comes for Lana is a little bit personal. Sounds like the problem rests with her, taking the Ride video 100% literally, wishing Lana would kill herself, whining about the fact that Lana isn't interested in carrying the burden of always being a feminist role model.
 
Lana built her own career, writes her own music, has a mind of her own, and never tries to pretend she is perfect. Sounds like a pretty strong woman to me.  She's open about her fantasies and honest - to a fault - about the things she feels. I bet if someone were to open up Kim's brain and find all of the secrets she's harbored in there, we could make plenty of comments about Kim's relationship with feminism or her own private fantasies/thoughts.
 
Her commenting safely from the pages of a memoir on someone else, seemingly for no reason other than to make an example of someone, well... like I said, sounds like she's got the problem, not Lana. Sorry if Lana makes you uncomfortable but hey, you slammed a very popular artist to make yourself (and your book) find some rumblings of attention, so congratulations but I see right through it.

I have nothing unpopular to say!    

I have nothing unpopular to say!    

I don't religiously follow these award shows.

I think Lana is very ambivalent about performing live. She definitely enjoys the songwriting & recording process, but touring is just a big grind the way it's been happening. She needs to rethink how it's done and make it more like special events rather then just doing all the same gigs again just with newer songs. Make each concert a theatrical type event. Leverage her talent for visuals somehow.

 
That is so early 2012. You'd think the media would have a new angle by now.

I think Lana is very ambivalent about performing live. She definitely enjoys the songwriting & recording process, but touring is just a big grind the way it's been happening. She needs to rethink how it's done and make it more like special events rather then just doing all the same gigs again just with newer songs. Make each concert a theatrical type event. Leverage her talent for visuals somehow.

 
That is so early 2012. You'd think the media would have a new angle by now.

Heaven forbid the children hear "fuck".