evilentity

http://www.theonion.com/article/nation-satisfied-selena-gomez-completes-transition-51874

inb4 @@leaked_version calls it a flop if it doesn't sell 30 million copies like 21 did.

While early reports certainly suggest Islamist terrorism, is there really any hard evidence yet that it's ISIS specifically?

Definitely unofficial and almost certainly fraudulent. The back cover should say "Ray" not "Rey" and the "A.K.A Lizzy Grant" part (missing the final period btw) is questionable since it's made to look like it's part of the title when it wasn't. The title of "Gramma" is truncated and it's "Oh say CAN you see". There's at least two three other details that probably also suggest it's fake, but I don't want to tip off the next idiot who tries to pull this shit.

A better question is: "Are flower crowns cliché?"

Here's the original thread about that: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/3769-lana-del-rey-and-mac-miller-to-executive-produce-daniel-johnston-film/

Damn, another cover. My follow-up covers-themed podcast is just getting longer and longer.... Highly ironic song for her to cover though.

Because Adele is just some random person...

Exhibit A why I find it so odd I was onced voted "Best Stan". I will never understand stan culture. Both the before and after reactions are so extreme in opposite ways. LOL. Why am I being mentioned here? I endorse this post so much.

We already have the perfect gapless album. It's called AKA.

Ha, I wouldn't recommend anyone writing a thesis on Lana that depends in any way on taking stuff she says about herself at face value. She contradicts herself so much.

...CONTINUED Ummm... You know, pink flamingos always fascinated me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time she's spoken of Lana as a persona? Me too.

Star in a Werner Herzog film, please. Alright. If she follows through on this (we know how often she changes her mind) and doesn't tour for Honeymoon at all, THEN. THEN I can understand criticism for lack of promotion. I really like this description especially the "slaughter-of-the-lamb" metaphor. It's really apt. Also, there's this. Was her last known pre-fame show an omen? Oh yeah, I forgot about that about her mom. Also, LOL at all you over-emotional thirsty fans. You disturbed Chuck. Not that I think we need another Tropico, but this would not exactly be a lack of promo. There. You said it. Explicitly. You're 30. Was that so hard? Not sure what she's trying (not) to say about Franni. That he's not as famous as her? That she's a self-admitted weirdo and he's not? Or that she can't imagine a future having a family with him? Twincest vibes. C'mon, you know I inspired the title of Ultraviolence. Don't lie. In all seriousness, I can't believe she's unaware of fans such as myself. (I don't mean me specifically, I mean straight male fans generally.) Though we may be a minority post-fame, I suspect we were a large majority of her fans in the early days. I mean, this is a woman who wears a fake wedding ring to minimize advances from men. She has to know. #Lolita #YouLikeYourGirlsInsane Ha, Lana would play Sharon Tate. Don't play like you don't fetishize dead celebs. Spanish director. Hmm... Almodóvar perhaps? TO BE CONTINUED... (fucking quote limits)

LOL at people who had been complaining about her being done with promo.

Thanks. I've copied and pasted your links into the OP.

Several music videos, a bunch of interviews, and a tour in support of Ultraviolence was "trolling" us? Seriously? You have to be a pretty thirsty entitled fan to have that perspective. Honestly, I think you're much closer to trolling everyone than Lana ever was. If there's anything twisted here, it's the idea that selling 2 million copies worldwide can be considered a huge commercial flop (with the possible exception of overspending), I don't care who you are. There's hardly any artist that can sustain multi-million sale figures throughout their career. It's silly to call that "flopping" rather than the natural trajectory of a career. By your logic, any artist that has a world-beating breakout album is doomed to "flop" simply because they inevitably won't be able to endlessly reproduce sales at that level every time. Man, The Wall is such a flop because it sold way less than Dark Side. Bad was such a flop because it's no Thriller. Again, the albums we're talking about can only be considered "flops" if you have unrealistic expectations. That's a somewhat selective interpretation of those figures. Let's face it, despite being called an EP, Paradise was essentially an album. Given that, another reading of these numbers is that they are back up a bit with UV and HM after a steep decline with Paradise from an unlikely to be repeated debut. Again, it's unrealistic to expect her to sell multi-millions even if she did it once. Selling in the neighborhood of a million is still pretty damn good. Certainly not "flopping" at least.

No it's not. I couldn't disagree with this more. Mindless praise isn't anyone's job. We're not her PR team. This is a discussion forum for discussing opinions about Lana and her work, both positive and negative. I happen to disagree with the basis of @@leaked_version's criticisms, but he has every right to voice them.

Except studying doesn't really cost anything. A lot of the kind of promotion you're talking about does. It's an investment proposition. How much of a return you get for how much of an investment. I can very easily imagine a hypothetical scenario where Lana might have sold more copies of an album-- enough not to be a "flop" by your standards-- but got there by spending so much on promotion that she actually made less money on it. How much is spent on production and promotion and such absolutely does matter. Take ARTPOP for example. While I think reports of ARTPOP being a commercial "flop" were exaggerated-- it was hugely successful in absolute terms-- to the extent that it was a flop, it was only a flop in the sense that it failed to live up to the impossible standard of matching the unsustainable sales success of her previous albums, the label made too much physical product based on overly optimistic projections, and they were rumored to have spent a shitload on promo. Lana, likewise, remains hugely successful in absolute terms, but will likely never match the commercial success of BTD. But I don't think her label has any illusions about that at this point and I don't think they're overspending on production or promotion. I think she'll be just fine. Sure, but I just don't think the sales she's doing place her in any danger of not covering those costs. I don't think Lana spent all that much making either of the last two albums. I think you're being extremely alarmist. I mean, we have like a hundred songs this girl recorded that she sold zero copies of. Zero. And now that she's selling hundreds of thousands of albums you think that's not enough for her to be able to keep fucking doing what she's fucking doing? Gimme a break.

Yay. Another thread full of anger at the inevitable frustration of unrealistic expectations for metrics of overinflated importance.

We all have our particular areas of interest. I actually appreciate that sales numbers are one of yours since it's not one of mine, but I'm sometimes curious about them and it's nice to be able to find that information right here on the forum. I just think the extent of your fixation on sale numbers causes you to overemphasize their importance, and in a way that I think detracts unnecessarily from appreciation of the music. The idea that her current sales figures (or even their current trend) realistically endanger her ability to continue making great art seems far-fetched to me, at best. (Yeah, she might not be able to make another Tropico, but that wouldn't exactly be a bad thing, in my opinion.) And if they don't pose any risk, why does it really matter?

As I'm sure a number of the albums that hit #1 or #2 do. It's still a pretty exclusive club. I'm not confusing them, but some here seize on irrelevancies to the point being made. Even if "Honeymoon" is the worst performing #2 of the year, the amount of sales required to achieve that feat, even in the worst sales week of the year for the industry, is still a significant amount of sales, and still places it in pretty exclusive company. The only way "Honeymoon" can be considered a "flop" is if you had unrealistic expectations to begin with.

While I understand the desire for a favorite artist to create more art, and the hope that other people will enjoy and be enriched by the music you enjoy, I don't understand the almost pathological obsession by some here with sales figures, promo for promo's sake (or merely for the sake of stimulating sales), or needing your listening choices validated by the general public's purchasing decisions. Also, aside from the possibility of not recouping an excessive budget (which seems extremely unlikely here), any metric by which an album that went to #2 on the Billboard 200-- a feat achieved by only 36 musicians on the entire planet the previous year-- would be considered a "flop" is kind of absurd.

C'mon you guys, "rapper's delight"? It's obviously about the granny from The Wedding Singer. And notice the flower crown? Is Lana just a big rip-off of Ellen Albertini Dow? (LOL. The troll face kinda looks like her.)

@@LoreleiLee I'm not sure if it was you or someone else, but the last time someone asked this I just changed the title for them. As I'm not a regular member, I'm not exactly sure what options are available to regular members. I always edit thread titles using the "Edit Title" option in the "Topic Moderation" dropdown next to the "Reply to this topic" button at the top of the thread, but I imagine not even topic creators have that. If not, perhaps try clicking "Edit" on the OP and then "Use Full Editor". I can edit the topic title there and I imagine regular members may also be able to if they started the topic.