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

[Deleted Member 23,729]

I still think it’s funny that my discovering of Lana was when Taylor ripped off the Ride music video; I remember the first time I had ever heard of Lana was in December 2012 when Taylor released the I Knew You Were Trouble video and all of the comments were about how she stole Lana’s idea. I looked up the Ride video and watched it to see what all of the fuss was about and the rest is history  Lana’s always been my favorite throughout the years, but I feel like how often she releases music actually started leaving me kind of oversaturated last year so in 2021 I probably listened to her the least I ever have. But I’m past that and excited for the new era, and I also recognize that she has not only grown as an artist but as a person, and it’s not fair to expect of her what people expected 10 years ago. We’re watching her legacy unfold on her terms and it’s very refreshing

[TRENCH 15,450]

I’ve told this story a few times on this site but not fleshed out. I discovered Lana when I was working at my local library, (I was 16, this was in 11th grade around January 2013) as we had to have volunteer hours in order to graduate  high school. At that moment I was learning to add music to my iPod/iTunes and wanted to expand my music experience (the only music I knew about was whatever played on the radio; I didn’t knew albums or artist discographies were a thing until 2010… I was a late bloomer in general) so I started to rent out CDs like crazy from the library. One day I’m organizing the CDs and see Born to Die and thought to myself “huh, I’ve been hearing about this woman a lot, let’s see what’s this is about”. So that night I popped the CD in a CD player and… nothing. I processed absolutely nothing. But something told me to burn the whole album to my computer and to give it a second chance. And I’m so glad I did. I took me weeks, but slowly song by song, I was loving the album. I think the last two songs that took me the longest to like was Born to Die and National Anthem because of how sonically dark they were compared to the stuff I’ve heard in my life to that point. 

 

When I say Lana single-handedly opened the door for me to the world of music, no lies are told. I went into a vortex of new information; because of Lana I learned about demos and instrumentals. When I found her unreleased music on SoundCloud (I think Puppy Love was the first unreleased song I’ve heard of hers) I fell in love even more. Because of her I found Marina and Lorde and it just keep snowballing from there, learning about new artists and genres, and ultimately the beginning of my music collection. I joined this site sometime in 2013, and I remember already being here for a while when we were collectively freaking about about her announcement of Ultraviolence at the Tropico film premier (which I can’t believe I witnessed all of this in real time). 

 

My interest in all honesty, as others here have mentioned, has dwindled. It’s a combination of the fact that I’m getting older and I don’t have as much time to invest in “stanning” as a 26 y.o., her lack of interest in keeping the hype up on every album cycle, or her ignorant, clueless-not-in-a-malicious-way behavior. Which is menial compared to many other artists, but I just don’t waste my time in “defending” her like a stan would anymore. 

 

I still don’t like COCC, but now I’m connecting more with NFR and BB more than in the past. I don’t think we’ll ever get some of the clever lyrics and more upbeat music from the BTD to LFL time period, but this new record has me intrigued and hopeful that it won’t sound like the last 3 records (where I enjoy the majority of the songs, i just don’t find them to be cohesive records).

 

She will always be my #1 and I will always  enjoy her songs , even the ones I don’t like (which are very few in total). She’s my comfort artist and I am very lucky to grow up alongside her music which has been there for me; especially Honeymoon, which I regard as my top favorite record of all time and click with the most on a “spiritual” level if you can call it that. I complain about the direction she goes as an artist, but two things for certain are that I am glad she has short periods in-between albums, and that she single-handedly shifted the music world. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by TRENCH

[Make me your Dream Life 88,871]

I'm excited. There was a part of me that really embraced the combination of NFR and BB, and really took Chemtrails to heart during the pandemic. This album cycle, feels invigorating. The promo, the interaction, the QUALITY of the visuals, and the music's so dynamic and tender, and beautiful, and is even further elevated/ progressing/ advancing in sound. I like to think Text Book was a kind of floodgate from Chemtrails' title track, where ocean blvd. sorta just gushes out all this beauty. it feels a bit like a resurgence and of course, newness of sound, but i'm just incredibly happy about the dynamism AND heart that this album holds. it's incredibly enlivening, and spirited and wholesomely moving. even the sexual references feel a bit more forward and noble to some extent. 

we just got the album like a week ago, but i've been enjoying it at a steady pace and it just gets better and better the more i explore it. 

[bluechemtrails 27,324]

I've been a fan for two years now and still have no idea who this woman actually is.

[Make me your Dream Life 88,871]

w her deactivating/ leaving her honeymoon acct., in a strange way, I kinda feel a bit relieved by it somehow. i was wondering and felt how blue banisters seemed to be an album that best encapsulated her career then, and with this bright release sorta touching on things in a nice and freeing sorta way, it feels consistent to do so. 

I was thinking about the role of how social media plays a part with interaction of course, and to this it makes me think that she'd rather just get back to her inner world, and of self rather than having to interact after the journey she's already shared with the world. honeymoon, maybe serving as a reminder of the type of phase, and how she's already written about intergenerational trauma, how society views her versus who she is and the dynamics that play when ur not in a direct mode of popular thinking etc. I like to think she's done this because she's accomplished what she wanted to and no longer needs to play that kind of game, being an outlier of a star past aside of course. 

I was kinda surprised that she even shared another record and i wanna say that it can't be her last given her penchant for expression and wanting to release the activity in her mind and so on, but regardless, I'm still very much happy and content to've been able to feel the same way w blue banisters to now. 

fully aware of the parasocial, and have had lots of fun speculating on the pre releases to the point of actual manifestation ( still didn't appreciate the side jabs but i can't articulate anymore to be willfully misunderstood anyway), I wanna say that it's been such a journey being able to identify things she sings about, and almost to what it feels like personal degrees, to go thru similar situations and being able to actually feel kinda protected in this way *cue the coconut song* 

it's fulfilling and also refreshing to be a Lana fan personally. I am gonna miss her perspective and trying to understand where she's coming from and be able to revel thru that, but we've got lots of material and the album's still very much fresh, and lends to me listening to how much of a late summer day blue banister feels like. 

I do wish she'd release another video for this album, but I guess candy necklace's vid about pitfalls sorta goes in theme so I'll take that as a form of theme consistency. 

[Make me your Dream Life 88,871]

updated the thread with, another question that I think coincides with the original.
Thinking about public perception, and trends that hover around being a Lana fan, and what that might mean. Do you think some of it's justified, exaggerated, somewhere in between? 

What Does Being A Lana Del Rey Fan Mean To You?

[Embach 45,095]

I realised that ever since I became a fan of hers I had never stopped thinking about her. Like every day I am thinking of her. But like naturally, not in an obsessive way.

[Quincy 4,506]

Where am I now? I’d say I’m an obsessive fan, but not in a bad, cringey or stalkerish way. 
 

Spoiler

 

It wasn’t always that way. I discovered her in 2013 when I was going through a pivotal change in my life and Summertime Sadness resonated to me. I’d even go as far as to say it was a significant driving force in helping me through that period of my life. 
 

I’ll never forget when a good friend of mine asked me what Lana songs I liked around that time and I could only name SS. Mind you I had just recently discovered her. 
 

That friend opened me up to more of her “less mainstream” music. My playlist grew gradually over time. By the time Lust for Life came out, I had listened to pretty much every song of hers, but I wouldn’t say I was a huge fan just yet. She was a top artist for me, but not #1. 
 

During 2020 and the pandemic, I found myself even more isolated and cut off from the outside world. I spent a lot of time digging deeper into her library and some of the songs that I had overlooked, opened up my mind. It was around then when I’d say she became my favorite artist. She helped me through yet another turning point in my life and solidified herself as a huge part of my life. 
 

For whatever reason, I didn’t find myself particularly excited by the release of Chemtrails or Bannisters. I listened to some of the songs, but I was more of a “classic” Lana fan. Those records didn’t diminish my admiration for her, but they flew under my radar. 

Something happened in late 2022. Was it the hype of LDR9? Was it something else? All I know is that the anticipation I had for her new release was unlike anything I had experienced before. If she wasn’t already, now she had become a daily part of my life. 

 

Rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her, listen to her music, relive fond memories of seeing her in concert, etc. I always considered myself a deep thinker, straying a bit from the mainstream. Her music speaks to me in a way that nothing else can and she fits my vibe just right. Anything I’m feeling or going through, no matter how extreme, there’s a Lana song to help me get by. It’s like I had a void without her and she’s filled that void. 
 

I often dreamed about seeing her live and until a few weeks before it happened (her Rogers, Arkansas show this past August), I thought the day might never come. 
 

Seeing her three times helped fulfill that dream, but more importantly, helped turn my year around. I was going through a huge funk this summer and it snapped me out of that. In a way, I feel greedy and privileged, but I’m not a selfish person. I hope everyone who hasn’t, gets the chance to see her. That starts with Lana hopefully playing more gigs across Europe next year and in other places too. 

[triangles19 2,463]

The thing with Lana is that it's all about the music, and the aesthetic too but the music first. What I'm the most obsessed with is precisely her albums. In our Spotify era, being able to release this kind of albums is rare and very precious + All of the songs we have (released or leaked) are, more or less, cohesive, like a big story of the LDR persona so I can't stop to imagine some "What if" and I make concept albums frequently (what songs? what imagery? what format?). And I don't feel any "stan" side in my experience of being fan of her music.

I remember when Off To The Races surfaced on YouTube, I sent it to my best friend and told her it was the music I was waiting in my life. Just after that, Video Games conquered the world.
I never stopped collecting each leak and celebrating each release. Some people mistake this passion for her music for idolatry, they ask me if I want to meet her in person or stuff like this and I always answer that I don't think I would even like her as a person. And I 100% don't care. She has something quite facinating in the way she looks and in the way she speaks oc but to me LDR is the name of a musician before everything. I haven't seen all her live performances, haven't seen or read all her interviews, and I don't care, but I know everything about her music for sure.

And what I love with Lanaboards is that this kind of thread you're reading right now is secondary, the main threads are the pre-release ones and the leaks ones, and so it's all about the music.

Sorry for my english

[Make me your Dream Life 88,871]

NFR and Blue Banisters are hitting right now, season wise. IYLDNTM's just perfect for that indoor cozy feel