Nick

The arguments made against Lana in 2011/12 are more serious because she went from aspiring night club meth addict with a music career clutching onto dear life and suddenly became this glamorous depiction of the lost generation with a grand image. I do think the NA vs NA thing wouldn't be 100% her fault, it may be a nod to Lana or even just something that happened during the production phase that slipped past her or the producers. But tons of songs sound similar because it's all been done before.
 
That's 100% subjective. Lana is an artistic person with a borderline fake or "exaggerated" persona. Who has time to live in all of those states, have a bunch of boyfriends and "live on the open road" while they're in college and attempting to start their music career?
 
Halsey is an anagram of her first name (and the name of a street she spent a lot of time). But having a stage name that's basically the rearranged letters of your own name is a crime? May Jailer? Lizzy Grant? Lana Del Rey? Call me back when Elizabeth comes up with a new persona. Lana is fake because people called her out on her shit before her "first" album came out. BTD was no way representative of Lizzy's first body of work as an artist. At the very least, AKA seems to be her first attempt at her bad girl image but when that ultimately fell through she tried to completely erase it from existence.
 
Yes, the entire team that worked on the NTMT video did the new Ghost video.

Who is a great artist/bad artist/whatever is just a petty matter of opinion. I'm talking about substantial criticisms here. The lyrical handiwork, manufactured image, 'Tumblr' aesthetic, dark alt-pop, the yearning to appeal to 'teens who listen to 'indie music' and shop at Urban Outfitters,' etc. They have some heavy parallels. The only downfall Halsey has against her is the similarities between the two songs I mentioned before.
 
There's no reason to get defensive towards artists that cut into the same niche 'part-indie, part-mainstream popularity, part-viral success' market as Lana Del Rey. People did the same thing when Lorde came on the market because she 'stole' Lana's trip-hop fusion on pop music and semi-dramatic persona, and now Halsey is the next victim.
Let's be honest: Lana's lips were not the only thing that caused her to be slammed in the public eye. Shaky live performances, the uncovering of her ill-fated first stab at a music career, the huge viral footprint she left behind before moving to Interscope with social media accounts, to name a few.
 
Once again, minus that New Ameicana similarity, Halsey is not in the wrong. Plagiarizing work is not the same as re-purposing or sampling work. If the sample was cleared by the original artist and was credited appropriately, plagiarism is no longer on the board. If this weren't the case, artists like Azealia Banks wouldn't have a professional career right now (well, whatever is left of it, I suppose).

I just don't see the fuss between Sky Ferreira's video and Halsey's. Sky Ferreira's moaning in a wig on a carousel horse and on a bed just doesn't bear that much similarity to Halsey's neon lights and lesbian make out scenes. Odd colored wigs, beds, cars, a bathtub... I don't see anything too out of the ordinary for most pop music videos, to be honest. Hell, Lady Gaga's Marry the Night video had all of those elements, too. Wanna add her to list of people Halsey has copied?

Who is a great artist/bad artist/whatever is just a petty matter of opinion. I'm talking about substantial criticisms here. The lyrical handiwork, manufactured image, 'Tumblr' aesthetic, dark alt-pop, the yearning to appeal to 'teens who listen to 'indie music' and shop at Urban Outfitters,' etc. They have some heavy parallels. The only downfall Halsey has against her is the similarities between the two songs I mentioned before.
 
There's no reason to get defensive towards artists that cut into the same niche 'part-indie, part-mainstream popularity, part-viral success' market as Lana Del Rey. People did the same thing when Lorde came on the market because she 'stole' Lana's trip-hop fusion on pop music and semi-dramatic persona, and now Halsey is the next victim.
Let's be honest: Lana's lips were not the only thing that caused her to be slammed in the public eye. Shaky live performances, the uncovering of her ill-fated first stab at a music career, the huge viral footprint she left behind before moving to Interscope with social media accounts, to name a few.
 
Once again, minus that New Ameicana similarity, Halsey is not in the wrong. Plagiarizing work is not the same as re-purposing or sampling work. If the sample was cleared by the original artist and was credited appropriately, plagiarism is no longer on the board. If this weren't the case, artists like Azealia Banks wouldn't have a professional career right now (well, whatever is left of it, I suppose).

Does anybody realize that 95% of the arguments against Halsey are the same exact arguments made against Lana in 2011/2012? The only valid argument I see is the similarity between National Anthem and New Americana. Love both songs, but the chorus of New Americana does have a striking similarity to National Anthem's.

I do believe that it was the label who hires the team, because they were originally going to look for a male counterpart but then Halsey pushed for a female lover. If Sky really has the 'receipts,' you would think she would have had the guts to post them during her temper tantrum against her label.

I just don't see the fuss between Sky Ferreira's video and Halsey's. Sky Ferreira's moaning in a wig on a carousel horse and on a bed just doesn't bear that much similarity to Halsey's neon lights and lesbian make out scenes. Odd colored wigs, beds, cars, a bathtub... I don't see anything too out of the ordinary for most pop music videos, to be honest. Hell, Lady Gaga's Marry the Night video had all of those elements, too. Wanna add her to list of people Halsey has copied?

Who is a great artist/bad artist/whatever is just a petty matter of opinion. I'm talking about substantial criticisms here. The lyrical handiwork, manufactured image, 'Tumblr' aesthetic, dark alt-pop, the yearning to appeal to 'teens who listen to 'indie music' and shop at Urban Outfitters,' etc. They have some heavy parallels. The only downfall Halsey has against her is the similarities between the two songs I mentioned before.
 
There's no reason to get defensive towards artists that cut into the same niche 'part-indie, part-mainstream popularity, part-viral success' market as Lana Del Rey. People did the same thing when Lorde came on the market because she 'stole' Lana's trip-hop fusion on pop music and semi-dramatic persona, and now Halsey is the next victim.
Let's be honest: Lana's lips were not the only thing that caused her to be slammed in the public eye. Shaky live performances, the uncovering of her ill-fated first stab at a music career, the huge viral footprint she left behind before moving to Interscope with social media accounts, to name a few.
 
Once again, minus that New Ameicana similarity, Halsey is not in the wrong. Plagiarizing work is not the same as re-purposing or sampling work. If the sample was cleared by the original artist and was credited appropriately, plagiarism is no longer on the board. If this weren't the case, artists like Azealia Banks wouldn't have a professional career right now (well, whatever is left of it, I suppose).

Does anybody realize that 95% of the arguments against Halsey are the same exact arguments made against Lana in 2011/2012? The only valid argument I see is the similarity between National Anthem and New Americana. Love both songs, but the chorus of New Americana does have a striking similarity to National Anthem's.

Come on guys, it's not like everything Lana has written is poetry gold. We cannot criticize, just give constructive opinions because Lana has gone through similar things at least with critics. We may not like her as an artist but at least I'll admit her music is gr8 and she has BOPS. Even if she's manufactured af so is Katy Perry and we all bopped to Dark Horse at least one time.

Theres a difference but I still don't understand what the problem is? Like if she covered the song would people have been offended? The artist clearly consented to the sample and probably got production credits so what is the issue here? Like it's fine to dislike her and her music but like don't act like this isn't a common practice (Charli XCX did a whole mixtape like this. Rihanna has had numerous singles doing this, Run the World by Beyonce heavily sampled Pon De Floor by Major Lazer)

Lmao you don't have to define a sample, I know what it is. Literally every song you hear on the radio has some kind of sample whether you can pick up on it or not. Theres also a lot of music that isn't so subtle with samples (Azealia Banks' BWET was literally just an album of rapping over beats dance producers had already put out). Doing that that doesn't diminish the quality of the music and clearly the sample was cleared meaning the original artist didn't have a problem with it being used. I just don't understand when people get so wound up by the term "sample" as if its a bad thing and every artist doesn't do it.

Says the member of a Lana Del Rey forum  Love both artists, but they know their shared market.

Sadly, it's not getting a vinyl release anytime soon, but you can enjoy that beautiful album on CD. Available on Amazon now! http://www.amazon.com/A-K-A-Deluxe-Jennifer-Lopez/dp/B00K57K2JM
 
 
 

I reviewed How Does It Feel. It's not positive though, so beware if you're an easily offended fan: http://auralfixationreviews.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-does-it-feel-ms-mr.html

Not @ the RAWM video being 100 times better than IRLY yet will get a fraction of the attention...

Not @ the RAWM video being 100 times better than IRLY yet will get a fraction of the attention...

Sadly, it's not getting a vinyl release anytime soon, but you can enjoy that beautiful album on CD. Available on Amazon now! http://www.amazon.com/A-K-A-Deluxe-Jennifer-Lopez/dp/B00K57K2JM
 
 
 

Ellie Goulding's back catalog got a vinyl treatment, too, recently. I wonder if it's the same company working with labels to pump these re-issues out

Ellie Goulding's back catalog got a vinyl treatment, too, recently. I wonder if it's the same company working with labels to pump these re-issues out

Ellie Goulding's back catalog got a vinyl treatment, too, recently. I wonder if it's the same company working with labels to pump these re-issues out

The album cover   I'm definitely excited for this LP!

You've pin-pointed why it feels really flat. It's so noticable. If you're singing a song called Leave Me Alone and there's the lyrics "please just leave me alone" and there's no emotion there and it's like you're just talking about the weather there's something wrong.
 
I'm guessing it's because they built the songs around their vision of how it would be performed live, but it does make some of the album a little flat in that area too. The live performance video of Painted imo worked better than just hearing it. Overall Wrong Victory is still my favorite. Others just blended in together on the 1st listen, probably because all the things mentioned. I'm totally disappointed.

The dark, jazzy, suspenseful instrumental and the unprecedented focus on her vocals  

Nothing about this new album has jumped out at me yet. Painted was alright, and then the rest of the tracks are just kind of... eh. Secondhand Rapture took some time to grow on me, then kind of lost its edge after multiple listens, so idk. Lizzy's voice only has one "mode"/inflection, which has gotten under my skin - she can't adjust her voice correctly for different moods.