Is Lana Del Rey being controlled by her label interscope and being shut down!?

[Groupie Lover 1,242]

Hello everybody, my name is Gonzalo, i'm @lanastarboy on instagram, i decided to start this topic because of the weird story of Lana's second LP "ULTRAVIOLENCE" 
Here is what i have for discussion !:
 
1) Rolling Stones Interview with Dan Auerbach ( http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-lana-del-rey-fought-to-get-her-radical-ultraviolence-lp-released-20140718 )
 
1.1) 
"There was a lot of bull:) I'm not used to," Dan Auerbach tells Rolling Stone
 
 "The label says, 'We're not going to give you the budget to extend this session unless we hear something.' And we send them the rough mix and they hate it and they hate the way it's mixed. And it's like, 'Thanks, asshole.'… I think Lana put her foot down. Maybe it's normal for her, but it's not normal for me.  Really rubbed me the wrong way.  I got really defensive because I thought it was bull:).
 
"The story I got told," he continues, "is that they played it for her label person and they said, "We're not putting out this record that you and Dan made unless you meet with the Adele producer. And she said, 'Fine, whatever.' And she was late to the meeting, so while they were waiting, the label guy played what we recorded for the Adele producer and he said, 'This is amazing, I wouldn't do anything to change this.' And here's the kicker: Then all of a sudden, the label guy said, 'Well, yeah, I think it's great, too.'"
 
 
Del Rey acknowledges a six-week period this past spring when Ultraviolence was in limbo. "I mean, I think there were people they wanted me to work with," she says. "I don't know who they were. When I said I was ready, they were like, 'Are you sure?'" She laughs. "'Because I feel like you could go further.'"
 
 
"On this album, in my opinion, you didn't want her to try to do something," adds Janick's predecessor, Jimmy Iovine. "I felt she hit a bull's-eye. Everybody's saying to me, 'We need a single,' calling me from Europe. I said, 'You don't need anything.' It's a very coherent body of work, and thought any other conversation was a distraction."
 
 
Janick and Jimmy Iovine are both Interscope Chiefs and they were the ones who defended Lana against the main label in Europe, also when they said 'We need a single,' they wanted Lana to make a pop hit like in 2012.
 
2) http://www.nme.com/news/music/lana-del-rey-114-1245121
 
2.1)
He adds: “She impressed me every day. There were moments when she was fighting me. I could sense that maybe she didn’t want to have anybody think she wasn’t in control because I’m sure it’s really hard to be a woman in the music business. So we bumped heads a little bit, but at the end of the day we were dancing to the songs.”
 
3) http://radio.com/2014/06/12/lana-del-rey-interview-maleficent-ultraviolence/
3.1)
LDR: Dan said that everything on the record, all the songs have this kind of narco-swing. So whereas the beat and the verses on “West Coast” were really direct, the chorus naturally slipped into this half-time beat. I just remember everyone at the label being like, ‘God, it’s getting slower at the chorus?’ And we were like, yeah!
 
4) Also years ago there was an image floating around of a music video  that was intended for the UV Era but was scrapped, the music video included the water girls that we have now seen in the MTWBT AND FREAK Music Video, these girls also appeared in Neil Krug's 2014 Photoshoot named "Pale Fire", this photoshoot was allegedly for an upcoming single of the album but in ended up being scrapped off the record.


 
5)The original music video for the song "Ultraviolence" was the Freak Music Video that they recycled for the Honeymoon Era, sadly it was rejected because it would be controversial due to the fact that it was a tribute to the Jonestown Massacre, Interscope permitted Lana to recycle the material along the song Freak when there was not a lot of buzz surrounding her image.
 
6) Scrapped Homemade Video for "West Coast" and "Pretty When You Cry"
 
 
 

Edited February 8, 2017 by evilentity
Edited to remove shouting.

[Lauren Bacall 768]

the way you typed this gave me a migraine

[trayertrash 7,210]

A label controlling an artist? Oh wow. So unheard of.

In other non shocking news I'm still a fat feminist. 

[Melania 2,386]

i think point 5 is the most interesting, that they wouldn't let her release the music video she wanted to make because of the buzz around her at the time..

makes you realize how much power the label has, even over such an creative artist like lana..

[Creyk 11,677]

Well, yes. All signed artists are being controlled by their label bosses to an extent. I think Lana gets more freedom than most though, since she doesn't even try to be commercial.

 

We know she had to cut a lot out of the West Coast video because her label didn't like the scenes featuring drug usage so there is that for example.

[Groupie Lover 1,242]

the way you typed this gave me a migraine

sorry girl its my first time starting a topic

[SlowGinFizzzz 15,354]

Well, yes. All signed artists are being controlled by their label bosses to an extent. I think Lana gets more freedom than most though, since she doesn't even try to be commercial.

 

We know she had to cut a lot out of the West Coast video because her label didn't like the scenes featuring drug usage so there is that for example.

^ This, basically.

 

If an artist is signed to a (major) label, of course the label gets to have a say on what's happening. But considering they let Lana release Ultraviolence and Honeymoon even though they probably would have preferred some kind of BTD 2.0 and, maybe even more importantly, the fact that they let her not do any promo makes me think that she has relatively much freedom and independence.

[Groupie Lover 1,242]

^ This, basically.

 

If an artist is signed to a (major) label, of course the label gets to have a say on what's happening. But considering they let Lana release Ultraviolence and Honeymoon even though they probably would have preferred some kind of BTD 2.0 and, maybe even more importantly, the fact that they let her not do any promo makes me think that she has relatively much freedom and independence.

Good point!

[Amadeus 11,333]

ah yeah the lana del rey "pop hit" that was Born To Die, a total sellout album, no creativity, a fake, a scam, she didn't even sing on most of the songs her daddy bought her ghost vocalists.

 

There's been a lot of negative reactions when UV songs premiered so i really don't think the reactions from her team/label were much different to those of her fans. 

[SlowGinFizzzz 15,354]

ah yeah the lana del rey "pop hit" that was Born To Die, a total sellout album, no creativity, a fake, a scam, she didn't even sing on most of the songs her daddy bought her ghost vocalists.

 

There's been a lot of negative reactions when UV songs premiered so i really don't think the reactions from her team/label were much different to those of her fans. 

LMAO I'm dead. 

[terrenceloves 58]

the uv era was fucked up. The whole black beauty mess too

[Groupie Lover 1,242]

the uv era was up. The whole black beauty mess too

ikr

[kitschesque 9,881]

I've always been thinking of BTD songs being produced the way we reffer to them as "final versions" because the label had so much to say about the record.

 

Then UV era happened and they tried to persuade the same way of handling Lana's creative thinking and the Auerbach drama started. They failed. That's why Honeymoon is the way it is. The way Lana wanted it to be.

 

Idk. Random thoughts here. Not facts.

[cashcomesquick 5,381]

What kind of control does she have regarding having rights of her own music? Always wondered about that

[lanasgirl 3,800]

I've always been thinking of BTD songs being produced the way we reffer to them as "final versions" because the label had so much to say about the record.

 

Then UV era happened and they tried to persuade the same way of handling Lana's creative thinking and the Auerbach drama started. They failed. That's why Honeymoon is the way it is. The way Lana wanted it to be.

 

Idk. Random thoughts here. Not facts.

 

This is actually a really interesting thought though. 

 

I understand people have different music tastes and all but I really dislike seeing all the negativity about Honeymoon, people calling it the album they listen to when they want to sleep and all that.

 

Lana recorded many calm songs in the beginning. I feel like she went back to her roots for Honeymoon but also showed how much she has grown. The songs are obviously not at all comparable to Sirens (very different musical style and all) but still, to me it feels she finally got to do the music she always wanted to do but couldn't because she needed to make an album like Born to Die first.

 

(I'm not saying that she hated making BTD, "please don't let me be misunderstood"    )

 

I'm sorry if any of this has already been discussed before, I'm just rambling. 

[Amadeus 11,333]

I think the label let her do her thing with HM because UV kinda worked (even though she bullshi*** her way through the era). Seeing as her label had 15 people in mind they wanted Lana to work with i can see her having more people on board for LDR5, not only because the label wants her to though. I don't think Lana would release a record she didn't want to do, she always described how she wanted to go for the orchestral american beauty soundtrack aesthetic with BTD and was pretty proud to achieve that, so it's definitely not that BTD was forced onto her or smth (especially when she already went into the direction with some of her demos around 2010-2011).

Her label wanting to have a say in her records is pretty standard for any musician under a major label and that's good because it can prevent the artists from having no idea how to handle their career.

[surfnoirswing 2,483]

Why wouldn't a record label want controversy for their artists ? A controversial music video for UV wouldn't have been bad press, if people talked about it, heard the song, saw the video the album could've done much better commercially.

I don't understand why Interscope would block the video but thought HBTB would be a good first single

[kitschesque 9,881]

I don't think Lana would release a record she didn't want to do, she always described how she wanted to go for the orchestral american beauty soundtrack aesthetic with BTD and was pretty proud to achieve that, so it's definitely not that BTD was forced onto her or smth (especially when she already went into the direction with some of her demos around 2010-2011).

 

What I meant was that the final versions of the tracks were polished to the core and some of them have been re-arranged to fit the album concept (Lolita, TIWMUG). The two I've mentioned obviously had plenty of versions floating around, although I think it's still important to note the production of BTD was very consistent to the point every 5 seconds there are the same samples throughout the whole record, the same tempo of the beat comes through etc. Yo, Haynie You still can achieve consistency using plenty of instruments and different concepts, not necessarily making the whole thing after one fashion.

 

Although this probably isn't as suprising as I'm trying to make it seem - same stuff probably happened with UV and HM but we didn't get the demos as massively as with BTD. I'm still longing for them.

[Masochism 15,400]

She is controlled by the illuminati guys 

[CatchTheBreeze 1,681]

the production of BTD was very consistent to the point every 5 seconds there are the same samples throughout the whole record, the same tempo of the beat comes through etc. 

 

That's actually why I don't like BTD as much nowadays as I loved it 2012 (I still love it but it's not my favorite Lana record) – the production now sounds a bit boring (to me) compared to the stuff Lana released later on.