Where Are You Now As A Lana Del Rey Fan? / What Does Being A Lana Del Rey Fan Mean To You?

[Ultradealerence 5,312]

one step before prozac 

[Blue Ink 5,906]

I loved Video Games when it came out but was convinced she'd stay a one hit wonder so I didn't follow her career - until I saw the music videos for National Anthem and Ride. They had me completely obsessed. The PopCandies paparazzi videos, then Tropico, the iconic UV pre-realease era and then coming out of all the darkness with the dreamy Honeymoon  what a time, 2012-15 was ICONIC.

 

LFL was my first big disappointment, especially after that amazing album trailer and The Love Witch being realeased at the same time.

NFR restored my love a little bit. But I was obsessed with everything she did until 2015, every.single.song and project. Video Games, Blue Jeans, National Anthem, Ride, Tropico, YAB, West Coast, Shades, Honeymoon, MTWBT - eve-ry-thing.

 

After Honeymoon I haven't been obsessed with anything and the more stuff she puts out that I don't fully love the more I'm losing interest. I don't think I'll ever not follow her career and what she's up to but I might not purchase any more albums - depending on LDR9.

I figured that mystery is a good thing for artists and the more I know and the more an artist tries to be "normal" and "relatable" to the masses (LFL, NFR), the less intriguing they and their art get to me. 

 

Lana was a big part of my life since I was 17 so she's always gonna be special to me though.

[blameitonme 15,673]

big essay ahead girlies!

 

Spoiler

i became a fan right after video games came out in 2011, the song was *huge* here in the uk and i feel like at first she was more popular here than in america.

 

i found yayo, diet mtn dew and a few other unreleased demos on youtube back in 2011 and quickly became a fan.

 

in 2012-2014 i was a mega fan, staying up til midnight for album releases, buying magazines with her on the cover etc etc

 

born to die was truly a formative (?) album for me and listening to it almost feels like opening a diary as every single song holds such significant memories of being a young teen, same with ultraviolence. i was a big tumblr kid and the impact she had back then was monumental.

 

i was still a huge fan in 2015 but honeymoon was much more mature and as a teenager i didn't really understand it outside of a few songs (it's now my fave album lol)

 

i loved lust for life, i bought a signed poster etc but even at the time i knew it wasn't as good as her previous albums and it sadly did feel like she was starting to lose the spark that initially drew me in.

 

@BlueINK i completely relate and agree to everything you said omg, i do miss the old days...

 

in january 2019 when she was released hope, i was devastated as it was truly the first lana del rey single i didn't like at all.

 

it took me a while to listen to NFR but once i did i loved it (for the most part)! but i was sad to see how much she had changed from the cinematic sound of honeymoon and everything before it.

 

i haven't listened to her last 2 albums in full but i like the occasional song - arcadia sticks out as a fave.

 

to be completely honest i don't listen to her anymore but writing this makes me want to go listen to NFR  that album is SO good but i sometimes forget about it bc at the time i ignored it out of disappointment in a couple songs.

 

[Venice Peach 54,293]

Every day I love her more. I'm absolutely in love with her whole discography but every month I get (more) obsessed with one of her albums and I discover new little details. 

She's such an amazing songwriter and nobody will ever come near her in that aspect.

I'm sure she will be forever remembered as a legend 

I'm getting kinda dramatic but I'm so grateful to get to experience her art 

[The Siren 30,521]

been a fan since late 2014 when i heard Summertime Sadness. shortly after i had Born to Die and Paradise on loop whenever i played video games (specifically TES IV Oblivion)

my love for her + her career has consistently grown, to this day.

i have listened to every song found online that has her vocal(s) on it, that we know of at least.

i havent listened/watched a lot of her interviews mainly because im not always an interview watcher, for the most part :/

[TheBoss 13,507]

It's weird, I think my "crazy stan" side is definetly fading, still love her, BB was an amazing album in my opinion, and I do believe that her art is at it's best and it's been delightful to see her grow.

 

But to be honest, stanning Lana is super boring since like 2018 lol I've moved on from Lanaboards to ATRL , and in the same way I've found a huge amount of amazing and more exciting artists to listen too for now.

[lili 3,177]

I must say, it has been quite the journey. 

 

She is only a few years older than I am and I've been following her work since 2012. There were times when people questioned my interest in her, deeming her early work to be very "teenage-y" in subject matter or "superficial" and her image "carefully crafted". Women who liked Lana Del Rey were "trying-too-hard"s or "look-i'm-the-edgiest"s. Even though I understood why it might have come off as such, I've always thought the world she built was intelligent enough to play with appearances, stereotypes or reference its own authenticity or lack thereof, blurring the lines between real and the fake to the point you can't quite tell if she's being ironic or embracing it. In order to understand how brilliant she really was to pull that off, though, you had to be really invested in her world. On top of that, I thought her earlier image was just who she was at that moment. Maybe Lizzy Grant always wanted to be that girl, but didn't have the platform or resources to do so, it was always who she was deep down inside but couldn't manifest.

 

Take "Brooklyn Baby", for example. Is she making fun of "edgy" hipster girls, or is she going all the way to embrace that stereotype? Is she saying, so what is so bad about it? Are the things young women think is cool is immediately dismissed as trying to seem "rebellious" and "different"? Isn't there something intrinsically human about all of it? Or is she being completely ironic? Is it both?  

 

There were times where I thought I completely lost interest, especially during the roll-out of Blue Banisters. I also didn't and still don't like NFR! that much. But I come to find myself growing with her, changing and evolving, facing my own traumas while she goes back to explore her own and eventually I've grown to like BB very much. The best kind of art for me is one that truly leaves its imprint on my life and I hadn't experienced that kind of thing after becoming a fan of Nirvana at the age of 14 until I encountered Lana. She is an exceptional artist and I'm more in love with her world than ever.

[kraljicabenzinske 11,254]

I started to listen to her in autumn 2016 when I was 17, the first were the BTD classic like Video Games, Blue Jeans, Born To Die that slowly got me exploring her discography more. By the time she dropped LFL, I was a full time stan and she became and still is #1 artist ever in my life. She was there with me through some dark and difficult moments of growing up gay and at the beginning I saw her as this sad, depressed melancholic artist that I could listen to whenever I felt down, because her music (especially Ultraviolence) kinda "understood" me. But she has obviously grown as an artist and it's amazing how it feels like, as I was growing up, I changed along with her and developed a more optimistic view on life and all the bad things happening. BTD and Ultraviolence are still her classics and probably best albums, but I don't really resonate with them as much, nowadays I listen to Norman, Blue Banisters and Chemtrails the most and I love love love where she is right now as a person and an artist. It's definitely been a beautiful journey.

And yeah my stan twitter account up until somewhere after NFR dropped has mostly been decided to her and these were such iconic times, but having grown up from a silly teenager to a more serious person, I don't have twitter anymore, but I seriously love the kind of special connection you can have with other Lana stans. It's like we all know each other so well. She might not have the biggest and the loudest fandom, but we're all very passionate about her and she's an important part of our life and whenever I met someone who's crazy about Lana, they got a friend in me, at least that's how my experience has been so far.

[GeminiLanaFan 49,044]

Became a fan when Tropico was released (before that, I thought she might have been a singer that couldn’t perform live because of SNL 🤦). Prior to that, I really loved Blue Jeans, but was into a lot of new artists, so I never really took the time to listen to BTD on its entirety. The visuals of Tropico blew me away, I loved her universe and listened to everything she put out that day. 
With UV through NFR, each album was telling what I was living at the moment. I connected so much to all of them and loved them. LFL and NFR’s rollouts might not have been that healthy for me though: I was anxiously waiting and scrolling everywhere I could for some infos about those. It’s at the end of NFR that I « took a step back », in a way, and not wait for her albums for my own happiness. 
COCC and BB are very very good, but they do not resonate as much with me. There are incredible songs on each, some I love, some that are part of my story almost. BB is the one of the two that connects with me the most, especially this summer, but both these albums didn’t necessarily transcended me upon release. 

[sunday afternoon 1,037]

Are you a newer fan, or have you known about her for years now?

 

Fan since August 2011, I cried a lot when Amy died and Lana arrived afterwards, I took refuge in her. An article from a music site had presented her as a "new artist who is making the buzz this week", I thought that she would be an artist not very interesting but that I will listen to see because I had no more homework to do and then...

Video games was like love at first sight, I can't explain. I remember sitting in front of my computer and not talking until the end. I knew from this video which relates to memories, this homemade, this voice, this melancholy that Lana was gold, she already had a great mastery. I classified it immediately among the great ones. I did not doubt for a moment, I knew she would follow me all my life.

 

Has your interested grown, or dwindled?

 

I'm not going to lie, I'm disappointed with her albums and her projects since Lust for life. But my interest in her does not diminish because she is fascinating. I like to know what she is doing, where she is going, the meaning of her songs, her lyrics, her life. Her life is connected to music and I really like that. If I remain faithful it's because I still hope that she will make an album with BTD, UV, a bit of HM and LFL.
On the other hand since NFR!, I haven't listened to her projects more than 5 times (except Wildflower Wildfire, Blue Banisters and Text Book which I like), the rest is anecdotal. But I wait. For example these latest shoots are the best in a long time, so it's not lost. Every news of her is cool.

 

Where are you now in your fan journey? 

 

I don't really know... I can't say I'm what you call a fan because I never bought anything from her and I never got the chance to see her in concert. The only thing I bought from her is the Born to die album (although I almost bought Paradise and UV on vinyl - damn nice boxes! - I wish I had because they didn't were no longer available a few weeks later). But I think the material is nothing. I have immense respect for her work and her journey, all the creativity she can give. So I'm a fan of the shade, it doesn't prevent having an unlimited admiration for what it can do.

[Hannus 1,618]

I have been a fan since january 2012, and there have been highs and lows for me. Now i’m in a “low” period, as we currently are waiting for new music (and don’t have much info about it yet, so no fun speculating yet either), plus i couldn’t connect to bb and cocc as much. It might be because we are in different places in life, i don’t know. But i will probably start stanning hard again as soon as we get any info abou new music.

 

Spoiler

[Ultra Violet 18,984]

I'm a listener of 10 years (i think October will be the official decade), and Lana has remained in my top 3 artists this whole time. She was my #1 back in 2013-2015, because those eras were everything I ever wanted, and even tho I haven't felt such a "favourite" moment with her music since 2015-16, she remains in my top 3 artists because of the huge impact she had on me then, and how much she still interests me. Nothing will top that and I can be happy about it. 

Right now I feel like less of a big stan and more of an older fan that will obviously keep in close with the news, but no longer expects her new releases to be my new favourite thing, if that makes sense. It's taken me long enough to be happy about sinking into an old familiarity with her music, and im learning to be more grateful with what we have than expectant for new and better things.  

I probably sound like someone talking about music from like 30 years ago, but I FEEL these years gone by ok  I was 15, now I'm turning 26, its a long time!

[baddisease 17,938]

I've been a fan since the Lana Del Rey EP dropped (this one). I read about it on a New York City-centered blog (forgot what it was called). I fell soooooooo in love with her music and her image. I still feel that way, honestly. I connect to her music really deeply and can't see myself unstanning any time soon.

[Louise 1,473]

Fan of the fans of Lana Del Rey - who some are minor celebs themselves, to me - and LDR since before the video for VideoGames got redone, due to copyright issues. That is, I appreciate the original, with Marilyn Monroe images, that got changed out to more neutral images. Being old, it surprises me there are young artists who already are fully realized as an artist at a very young age! Lana is not the only one . . . Lana is of that category, to me. Million Dollar Man was my favorite for years . . . Since I have some kind of PTSD about studio recordings, Lana is one of the first to have been filmed by many different fans from many different angles . . .

so, that is a fun discovery. I do that with other artists, too. If I find out one of my favs performed, I look up the fancams!

So BB is the first Lana Del Rey studio album I purchased. Someone on these boards called bb "crowning achievement," and that is what it is, to me. The vocals, the melodies define "recording artist," to me. Since the history of the recording artist, at the turn of the last century, the early 1900s, when records were invented.

Since you-all are relaying good information on the next album, it got me thinking . . . This is where I am at. I saw the Sun leak:

LORDE HELP HER Lana del Rey embroiled in row with ‘rip-off’ rival Lorde over claim she copied two songs
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/3713599/lana-del-rey-lorde-claims-ripped-her-off/

Because Lorde spoke against Lana when Lorde first appeared on the music scene, I do not listen to her music -  it's just a personal choice. Everyone has a threshold. If a celeb crosses a threshold, you lose interest, or never take an interest in the first place. But it is more than the two songs. The lead guitarist who is layering riffs over some Lana tunes and posting them on tik tok and twitter said the one he song he did of Lorde sounds like "MAC slowed down, lol."

So I anticipate this matter will show up in new music. It should. What a violation to steal melodies from artists. It burns me up!
Louise

[Rorman Nockwell 56,719]

On 7/31/2022 at 10:06 AM, Ultra Violet said:

I'm a listener of 10 years (i think October will be the official decade), and Lana has remained in my top 3 artists this whole time. She was my #1 back in 2013-2015, because those eras were everything I ever wanted, and even tho I haven't felt such a "favourite" moment with her music since 2015-16, she remains in my top 3 artists because of the huge impact she had on me then, and how much she still interests me. Nothing will top that and I can be happy about it. 

Right now I feel like less of a big stan and more of an older fan that will obviously keep in close with the news, but no longer expects her new releases to be my new favourite thing, if that makes sense. It's taken me long enough to be happy about sinking into an old familiarity with her music, and im learning to be more grateful with what we have than expectant for new and better things.  

I probably sound like someone talking about music from like 30 years ago, but I FEEL these years gone by ok  I was 15, now I'm turning 26, its a long time!

This is pretty much exactly how I feel, too (and we are almost the same age so my timeline is similar)

I don't love her current direction but I'm okay with that, and she will always be one of my favourites. 

[Make me your Dream Life 87,860]

Right now at least, I'm still so very much satisfied with Blue Banisters, I seem to like it more and more as time passes, which, I loved it before, but it just simmers great to me. I think, starting towards NFR, I felt a lot more in tune with her music personally, and it felt like a lot of times, I was going thru similar stuff, to lesser extents, but similar nonetheless, and it's like a whole new dimension kind of opened for me when i listened. it was freaky, but i was, and still am real thankful (mind u i'm not one to open up), that it made those experiences feel less hollowing. friends, i found them better, but when i was alone and just aching, her stuff's been a great facilitator towards healing and an overall great reminder of strength moving past things. 

to the true to life art form that nfr summed up in different layers, to the world's lockdowns and chemtrails transitioning towards blue banisters eventual facing and acceptances, i feel perfectly content still simmering in the album's maturity and solidness of lasting. i'm slightly curious in which direction she'll go next and the questions, but part of me's also content, and honestly just truly proud of the progression from nfr to bb that solidifies the album a lot more for me as a classic. 

i've always been interested in the world of emotions and i'm really glad i found her to listen to. it made a lot feel less alien. 

[Crazy Husband Thief 3,904]

I obviously still love her but her lack of energy and motivation to actually do anything new or exciting has majorly decreased my interest in her. Boring music videos shot on iPhones, empty promises, lame tour setlists and just in general rather monotonous country/folk music is not what I signed up for.

It‘s hard being a fan of hers these days (and here I thought that HM era was the worst it could get) and I‘m definitely not as invested in her anymore but I can’t write her off just yet. I still think she has it in her to surprise me.

[Semafori 1,516]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:41 PM, Brow Bone said:

Title.
Are you a newer fan, or have you known about her for years now?
Has your interested grown, or dwindled?
Where are you now in your fan journey? 

A fan still, but i don’t expect much more out of her as an artist, last albums were not exactly that good

[Make me your Dream Life 87,860]

i feel like this album's a new cycle from her past albums. or at least a kind of resurgence and i'm real excited for the rest of it and what it might mean

[bluesandroses 121]

honestly i'm still new (no bullying pls)  i started listening around late 2020 or early 2021, even though i've already heard dcma a few years back. i saw someone doing a review of ldr albums and i got curious about honeymoon because some people said it's an underrated album of hers. so i began streaming it, and i fell in love right away... i thought of it as similar to some high class wine. after honeymoon i streamed born to die next, and the rest is history. i admit that getting into all of her albums was a gradual process for me, but being around people who love her music (virtually) and reading some of her interviews about the writing process/thoughts and feelings behind her work made it quite easier and even more worth my time. as of today i appreciate lana a lot more, i have so much respect for her as an artist and as an individual too. as she opens up more in her most recent work i could see myself finding even more common ground with her --- her presence and words give me a lot of comfort. listening to her is a very personal experience to me like flipping through intimate, old journal pages. compared to her previous eras she seems to be doing a lot less promotion and has a scarcer social media presence, but i'm just glad that she is taking her time doing what she loves, working on her projects and spending time with friends and family.