Criticism of Lana Del Rey

[larina 682]

i hade to

 

 

Okay, to me, Lana is literally a fucking goddess. Like, no one is more perfect than her (I'll be real though, she does have imperfections…but I guess these imperfections make her even more perfect as we realise she is only a mere human, and all humans have flaws).

 

I am a big fan of jazz. Sonically, I love Lana's style, although if I were to listen to another artist of the same style, I'm not sure if I would enjoy it. Lana's voice has this angelic quality to it, and to me, it's actually somewhat addictive (I do mention around this time last year of what I called "the drug phase" where I was literally addicted to her and I was not happy unless I was listening to her & it's all I ever wanted to do). It's like there are specks of gold within her voice, a treasure amongst her vocal chords, and each time she sings, a little bit of that treasure comes out with it that was the worse metaphor ever. I do miss Born To Die's orchestral instrumentals, though.

 

Lyrically, Lana's style is so beautiful, so magical, so…poetic, which was in fact Lana's goal (or so she mentioned in Ride's monologue). Her words are so eloquent, they posses a kind of prose. As aforementioned, Lana uses literature within her work, which makes it even more poetic. And personally, I believe her usage of themes like daddies, Coney Island, Americana, gangstas, etc. is very poetic indeed. These images are what inspired her and all poets have inspiration. Not only that, but using these themes and turning it into an aesthetic, a persona, a profile, is yet another very talented and creative thing to do. Also, using these themes to describe her life is also important, maybe these images hold some significance to her? Maybe they are special to her. Perhaps they helped her through some of the difficult experiences she claims to have gone through.

And some of her songs pretty much sound like they're coming from my own mouth, I can relate to them so much. This, the fact that I feel like I'm not the only one, and that she might actually understand me, play a very big part. She's just a very relatable person …to a point, of course.

 

 

Also, sorry if none of this makes any sense, it's like almost one in the morning here and I'm really tired.

[HEARTCORE 18,971]

i want to fight her

[slang 1,532]

i can see why people wouldnt like lana's music or her image. i appreciate criticism of her work and don't get defensive. it's so childish when people get pathetic at stan wars but i think lana can take criticism; people aren't always going to like everything she makes which could improve how she works idk

Criticism of anybody is fairplay, if it's thoughtful and constructive. But it's also fairplay to criticize the criticism. Some of the BTD era strikes me as important just because there was this huge disconnect between what the fans liked and what the critics liked. And the reasons the critics (like the NYTimes and LATimes) gave for not liking BTD seemed an axe-grinding exercise of pushing their tastes onto others. LDR can take some pride in causing a huge discrediting of music reviewing in general. The era caused me to think very carefully about what it means to provide a useful/informative music review.

 

Also the phenomenon of Cedric Gervais seems relevant to criticizing LDR criticism. He received a Grammy for making an original song *less* original (or more pop-radio worthy), whereas Lana Del Rey redoing her public image and (allegedly) her physical appearance (i.e., remixing herself to accomplish popularity, though not less originality) received a critic's feeding frenzy. WTF.

[MinigunsNRoses 17]

Okay, to me, Lana is literally a fucking goddess. Like, no one is more perfect than her [...]

 

wow! That's, like, exactly how I feel about her! (see my signature). Except, like, no, she's not A goddess, she's fucking God!     

 

Also, I agree (to various degrees) with a lot of the other stuff you wrote! XD

[hollywoodsdead 277]

I watched two videos where btd and ultraviolence were reviewed and this guy said that there was a lot of "cliché" you know,like the one of the "bad girl", that the uv's chorus were boring and something like this.

Well, I can't undestand why this kind of people make these videos; you can't review an artist without knowing his past and his way to think... They "judge her like a picture book by the cover like they forgot to read"

[brooklynbaby91 1,386]

Lana definitely has a lot of weaknesses in her songwriting. Like some people have mentioned here, she uses some of the same imagery over and over again. It wouldn't be so bad if she at least varied the way she described these images, but she uses the same exact phrases ("pale moonlight", "red party dress") in a lot of songs.

 

But I think a lot of the criticism (especially from professional critics) towards Lana's songwriting is honestly sexist. She is unabashedly feminine and loves to use girly imagery--gardens, jewelry, makeup, dresses, big Bambi eyes, etc. A lot of her music is written off as silly and not worthy of being taken seriously because she has this image.

 

Meanwhile men who sing about drinking their heartbreak away at a bar with some whiskey are taken seriously. 

 

A lot of reviews of Lana's music are condescending and even use her girly images to talk down about her music, with this attitude like, "Here's that airhead Lana Del Rey singing about twirling in a garden again."

 

This isn't even connected to the people who object to her music because it's anti-feminist. There's just a common attitude that Lana's music is silly. It's like people who automatically look down on Taylor Swift because they know her music is very feminine and about love. Music by "little girls" or by "silly women" is just looked down upon.

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

[larina 682]

wow! That's, like, exactly how I feel about her! (see my signature). Except, like, no, she's not A goddess, she's fucking God!     

 

Also, I agree (to various degrees) with a lot of the other stuff you wrote! XD

 

Mmmh, but, God to me is real & I'm pretty sure He is a male so that's why I say she's a goddess. Otherwise, she's Jesusina

And yayyy

 

 

 

Also, to those who say Lana's imagery is repetitive and that it's a flaw of hers, I actually disagree. It makes it obvious that these things mean a lot to her. It's just like repetitive words in a text: it adds an emphasis to that phrase or whatever it is. Like, I once learnt that blues music often involves repetitive lyrics, and the reason for that is to exaggerate whatever is being said. So, in a more...visual form, I believe this is what Lana is trying to achieve...or it's what she has achieved anyway.