Lana Del Ray

  On 2/7/2012 at 5:20 PM, Squee said:

- I think she's beautiful

- I think she has a great voice

- I really like Video Games

- I don't care how she's promoted

- Fuck you

I see you have been reading the "Art of Trolling" book.

honey is that tr00?

wasn't this girl in sixteen candles?

  On 2/7/2012 at 9:31 PM, Kanakori said:

  On 2/7/2012 at 5:20 PM, Squee said:

- I think she's beautiful

- I think she has a great voice

- I really like Video Games

- I don't care how she's promoted

- Fuck you

 

sixteen candles movie

  On 2/7/2012 at 11:25 PM, chassis said:

  On 2/7/2012 at 5:20 PM, Squee said:

- I think she's pumpable i suppose those lips might be fun.

- I think she has a great an ok mediocre voice

- I haven't heard Video Games remix

- I couldn't give a toss how she's promoted

- Fuck you

 

My thoughts exactly

  On 2/8/2012 at 12:37 PM, xxx said:

  On 2/8/2012 at 5:59 AM, jules said:

wasn't this girl in sixteen candles?

Strange...I was dicking around in FL yesterday morning and considered a "John Hughes" version of "Video Games".

http://soundcloud.com/alswearingensindianhead/videogames-purple-rain-version

haha this is awesome!

edit

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/Update:-Kristen-as-Lana-Del-Rey/1383269

kristen wiig responds to lana's SNL performance. enjoyed

I'm going to come to a weird sort of Lana Del Rey defense here. I don't love her or anything, but after hearing a few tunes and seeing the backlash, I'm actually hoping she takes this whole thing and internalizes it and becomes a better artist for it.

Just hear me out, because everyone is going to laugh at me for this:

Those universally maligned SNL performances are weird and off and way more emotionally engaging than the studio versions. They're actually interesting. Her voice on the studio product sounds drugged and hollow but there's a nice nostalgic (if totally unoriginal) timbre to some of her lines. But the SNL live performance is on the edge of disintegration and the timbre is there but raw and totally unpolished.

See, if you're marketing effectively to "indie" "hipsters" or whatever you'd highlight that. You'd say, go for it Lana, go way the fuck off key if it's "honest" and "authentic." You'd let her cultivate that. Throw in a goddamn Waits cover, Lana. Sing about how fucking emotionally empty you are and disguise it as a love song in which you define yourself completely by your lover. Play underground for 6 years before you even cut a professional EP.

Obviously, the girl has backers and they cut corners, and they're trying to package something that should be left in its raw state into a glossy, ironic mainstream package.

I'm not going to engage in hipster bashing here, because (for one thing) hipster doesn't always mean the same thing. But there's a miscommunication, I think, because of that lack of definitional clarity. Born to Die (the album) is glossy, dying Hollywood signifiers with a vaguely threatening Americana cover photo. It's all irony and surface. It's empty. It seems like its being marketed to the shutter shade glasses crowd, the type of nu-hipster who responds to ke$ha's line about brushing her teeth with a bottle of jack. Not the dingy basement music club type of indie kid, who for better or worse strives for "authenticity."

The album is definitely a mass-market product. But this girl doesn't have a mass-market voice. She has a legitimate off-her-rocker unhinged and apparently heartfelt voice, but it's fucking obscured by the lush, mellow, ambien-drowned product. All pop is marketed and focused grouped and packaged, but what we've got here is a bit of a mess, and it's pissing off that dingy basement type of hipster/critic/watmmer/neighbor/you/me because they feel manipulated or appropriated.

I don't know if Lana might prefer the mass-market angle. She probably wants broad appeal. She's a rich girl. She uses the Hamptons as a signifier but she might actually have summered there, god help us. That doesn't help her case.

What you have is a marketing mess, because the album is empty pop that hints at underground appeal whilst aiming directly for the charts. Yeah, skipping the hard work, the dingy basement clubs and hoarse vocals and that lived in feeling.

But the irony is the SNL backlash seems to be: Lana, you aren't polished enough. You let that shit get away from you. Lol, you got a little choked up by your silly empty song. You didn't even use the same vocal arrangement as the album!

I think this tension is interesting. Way more so than her album.

Yes, you are being manipulated and she is being packaged. That's the nature of pop music. But her own marketing angle has fucked up something that might actually have potential; that lived-in resonance that somehow this nervous kid channeled on SNL. The stuff that might actually appeal to the dingy basement authenticity craving types.

If that SNL performance were the only hint at that other voice, I'd write it off and say maybe this little pop starlet ingenue type actually gave a bad performance.

But then I took a listen to one of her demos, just for shits and giggles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvXTSTlTDSg

I think, ladies and gents, that's the real Lana Del Rey. It's pretty unruly. It's almost Newsomesque, right down to the pseudo-Appalachianisms and different voicings in the delivery. It's part of a stripped down arrangement and it has some actual fucking feeling to it. The authenticity isn't because of the lyrical subject--which like her album is pretty phony and empty and aiming at certain signifiers-- but it's in the way she engages with it and fits her voice to it, and communicates some real feeling.

In other words, it's off and maybe deliberately so but it's a good performance.

I think that voice has potential. I'm not a fan and I'm not trying to polish a turd but I think that voice has potential to actually communicate genuine human emotions instead of the iconic ironic dark americana type thing that album cover is trying to convey.

So I guess she's at a crossroads and can pursue the dulled and polished and multitracked mainstream angle or she can take the rejection to heart and communicate it with her voice, with actual emotion, and who gives a fuck if it comes across as weird.

But the possible twist!:

Apparently she wrote and recorded a full album before Born to Die. Apparently she pulled it from iTunes etc before it really got going. Apparently her handlers are intent on re-releasing it, but would only do so after Born to Die gets her attention. So is my reading of this just another marketing angle? Are "they" trying to create that tension of expectation I mentioned above with the intention of actually courting the group that favors the weirder, less "produced" shit? Would that redeem her or would we see through it? Does it matter? Isn't it all just pop anyway? Everyone knows Tom Waits can sing pretty too, right?

This whole thing is like a little mini course on the psychology (and psychological manipulations of) the music industry. It's interesting for that reason alone.

Lana, so far, is not very interesting, despite the extensive word diarrhea in this post, and again, you get a tension between that tabula rasa girl and all these Harkonennian plans within plans. That tension is interesting, and that potentially weird voice is interesting.

tl;dr I would have sex with her.

  On 2/8/2012 at 11:09 PM, baph said:

tl;dr I would have sex with her.

I'd fuck her once; just so she could know what she's going to spend the rest of her life missing out on.

or she could just be like a new Bridgette Bardot.

the last and least liberated woman of post-war america

I just listened to her two snl performances on youtube while browsing other tabs. this was probably only the second time I've listened to her for more than a few seconds. why are people ragging on her vocal performance? sure, she's not the most technically accomplished singer to ever perform on the show, but she's definitely not the least, either. it seeems like male vocalists are more able to get away with technically bad vocals than women, or is it because of the way she's dressed? she's sort of singing in a histrionic style similar to morrissey, not that I think she's as good a vocalist as morrissey. I really don't understand why people would rag on these performances, and I'm not even a fan.

  On 2/9/2012 at 5:03 AM, nene multiple assgasms said:

I just listened to her two snl performances on youtube while browsing other tabs. this was probably only the second time I've listened to her for more than a few seconds. why are people ragging on her vocal performance? sure, she's not the most technically accomplished singer to ever perform on the show, but she's definitely not the least, either. it seeems like male vocalists are more able to get away with technically bad vocals than women, or is it because of the way she's dressed? she's sort of singing in a histrionic style similar to morrissey, not that I think she's as good a vocalist as morrissey. I really don't understand why people would rag on these performances, and I'm not even a fan.

yeah, I was going to say that somewhere in my 68988980 word essay above, but didn't quite.

I saw one guy go from listening to shitty goregrind to criticizing her vocals. It's what prompted me to look into the SNL stuff.

It's as if autotuned melismatic post-vision of love rnbisms are necessary for one's enjoyment of any female vocalist these days. The least commodifable thing about LDR is the sort of histrionic and unhinged delivery she used on SNL and in that demo I posted, and yet everyone has gone from criticizing her for being a commodity to not delivering an edgeless MOR performance.

Note that in the later Letterman performance she plays it just as safe as on the album and all of that weird and interesting stuff is gone.

you guys are deaf, it was awful.

compare it to her performance in letterman. That was A LOT better and one could say it was actually a great performance. I hope you are able to tell the difference.

and that demo sounds even worse than cocorosie's first album as far as vocals go.

yeah i sent her jools holland performance to someone who likes her and they said it was awful, like an xfactor audition. but i prefer it, i suppose because i'm a weirdo.

edit: oh i was assuming the SNL performance was the same as any other, haven't actually seen

Nobody said it was technically good. It wasn't. It was just actually interesting, as opposed to sterile and dead inside.

Her Letterman performance wasn't technically brilliant either. It was just devoid of anything interesting.

  On 2/8/2012 at 11:09 PM, baph said:

I'm actually hoping she takes this whole thing and internalizes it and becomes a better artist for it.

she's not an artist. she's a spoiled little millionaires daughter playing dress-up.

"I'll take 'Albums That I'd Actually Listen To' for $500, Alex"

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:08 AM, digit said:

  On 2/8/2012 at 11:09 PM, baph said:

I'm actually hoping she takes this whole thing and internalizes it and becomes a better artist for it.

 

she's not an artist. she's a spoiled little millionaires daughter playing dress-up.

Did you read the rest of the post? Like the part where I acknowledged she's a spoiled little millionaires daughter playing for broad acceptance?

I don't really give a shit about Lana Del Rey. All I said was that I hope she becomes a good artist. All that means is I hope she someday communicates something honest through her music. Because I don't hate her. Because hating her is fucking weird. She's a fucking pop act. I don't forever foreclose her ability to become a decent artist based on her economic circumstances.

The reason I think she's even worth discussing is because the marketing manipulations are bizarre and misfiring or attempting to appear to be misfiring, and it's an interesting insight into the pop music industry and also her apparently horribly unpolished and unacceptable vocal deliveries on SNL actually seemed to hint at a person with some actual feeling for what she was singing, which is kinda sorta the point of popular "art" and a little rare in this overproduced morass.

And this creates this weird ironic tension between hipster types decrying her lack of authenticity and the people who want her to sound more polished.

In other words, it's posts like yours that make this girl discussion worthy.

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:17 AM, Holy Cow said:

"I'll take 'Albums That I'd Actually Listen To' for $500, Alex"

 

tl;dr I would have sex with that

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

I don't really give a shit about Lana Del Rey. All I said was that I hope she becomes a good artist.

error. contradiction.

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

Because I don't hate her. Because hating her is fucking weird.

she's a bored rich girl and she's a poser. that alone is grounds enough to hate her in my book. we really don't need more people like that in the world.

but the real reason to hate her is that she is being given opportunities & exposure that far more talented and deserving people than her will never get. why?

because daddy is rich & has connections and she is good looking. this bitch comes out of nowhere and is suddenly on saturday night live while far more talented artists that actually have something to say never get their break and toil in obscurity until they die.

fuck her. fuck her dad. fuck the whole media 'team' behind her. fuck her carefully crafted image. and fuck the whole fame system that perpetuates this kind of bullshit.

let the whole internet chew her up & spit her out.

oh, what will poor lizzie grant do when all her recording artist dreams have been shattered?

i guess she will just have to amuse herself with her modelling contract & summering in the hamptons. my heart bleeds.

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

The reason I think she's even worth discussing is because the marketing manipulations are bizarre and misfiring or attempting to appear to be misfiring, and it's an interesting insight into the pop music industry...

the marketing isn't misfiring. it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. it's putting her in the public eye. lizzie grant is misfiring because she is inexperienced, not very talented, and has no belief or drive behind what she does other than 'i want to look cool in the media and be famous'. yeah. great, baby... get in line.

you put her on an actual stage where she has to prove herself and she chokes like any inexperienced performer would. nothing terribly interesting about that.

We should have a Lana Del Rey lips emoticon.

  On 2/8/2012 at 11:09 PM, baph said:

I'm going to come to a weird sort of Lana Del Rey defense here. I don't love her or anything, but after hearing a few tunes and seeing the backlash, I'm actually hoping she takes this whole thing and internalizes it and becomes a better artist for it. [snip]

 

tl;dr I would have sex with her.

This is a very great post

I liked your past too, baph. I think she has an interesting voice, but that the songs she's sang with it so far are just dull.

  On 2/9/2012 at 9:51 AM, digit said:

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

I don't really give a shit about Lana Del Rey. All I said was that I hope she becomes a good artist.

 

error. contradiction.

Sorry. It's not a contradiction. I don't have any strong feelings for Lana Del Rey, but I don't want her to crash and burn. If I wanted her to crash and burn, like you do, I would have strong feelings for Lana Del Rey. I pretty much want every human to be happy and successful and a productive and positive influence on society. That's sort of the default position. Because I'm not an asshole.

My feelings towards you are pretty fucking nonexistent but I hope things work out well for you. Because you're a human, and I'm a human.

But if you're some kind of sociopath, yeah, then I fucking care that you continue to be miserable.

  On 2/9/2012 at 9:51 AM, digit said:

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

Because I don't hate her. Because hating her is fucking weird.

 

she's a bored rich girl and she's a poser. that alone is grounds enough to hate her in my book. we really don't need more people like that in the world.

but the real reason to hate her is that she is being given opportunities & exposure that far more talented and deserving people than her will never get. why?

because daddy is rich & has connections and she is good looking. this bitch comes out of nowhere and is suddenly on saturday night live while far more talented artists that actually have something to say never get their break and toil in obscurity until they die.

 

fuck her. fuck her dad. fuck the whole media 'team' behind her. fuck her carefully crafted image. and fuck the whole fame system that perpetuates this kind of bullshit.

let the whole internet chew her up & spit her out.

 

oh, what will poor lizzie grant do when all her recording artist dreams have been shattered?

i guess she will just have to amuse herself with her modelling contract & summering in the hamptons. my heart bleeds.

I love how not actively hating her is enough to piss you off this much. She bothers you. You care about Lana Del Rey. I do not. If you think my post was some kind of ringing endorsement of Lana Del Rey, because I don't actively hate her or wish her ill, then may I submit that there is seriously something wrong with you?

Jesus, she's a fucking pop singer. She's not Bernie Madoff. Don't buy her stuff. I'm not.

  On 2/9/2012 at 9:51 AM, digit said:

  On 2/9/2012 at 7:41 AM, baph said:

The reason I think she's even worth discussing is because the marketing manipulations are bizarre and misfiring or attempting to appear to be misfiring, and it's an interesting insight into the pop music industry...

 

the marketing isn't misfiring. it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. it's putting her in the public eye. lizzie grant is misfiring because she is inexperienced, not very talented, and has no belief or drive behind what she does other than 'i want to look cool in the media and be famous'. yeah. great, baby... get in line.

 

you put her on an actual stage where she has to prove herself and she chokes like any inexperienced performer would. nothing terribly interesting about that.

Oh boy. I don't think you understood what I was trying to communicate. It's reactions like yours that make this interesting.