Not With A Bang

So who is this chick Lana Del Rey and why are people so pissed off about her? GOOD magazine has a pretty insightful take on why she’s caused such a fuss:

The controversy over Del Rey isn’t about her music. It’s that she’s “inauthentic,” apparently the worst thing an indie music star can be. Hipster RunOff ran a feature titled “Lana Del Rey EXPOSED: B4 she was alt, she was a failed mnstrm artist without fake lips,” asking, “will she fool the Indiesphere?” The Los Angeles Times flipped Lana’s self-promotional press portrayal as the “gangster Nancy Sinatra” to “ersatz femme fetale.”

But for indie music, “authentic” designates anything but genuineness—it’s just a fetishized form of cool. When artists are labeled authentic by indie tastemakers, it means they’ve internalized a standard image of indie success and have re-invented themselves accordingly.  We congratulate them for saying and doing on their own what they (or Pitchfork) wanted them to say and do all along. Is this so different than Del Rey saying and doing what she is “told” to do?

Yes, that was a pretty terrible performance on SNL. But at least we know she has a voice, (unlike some other SNL musical mishaps) even if it seemed she forgot how to use it. It could be said that SNL was a bit of a fluke, especially when compared to other live tv performances she’s done.

Like a good contrarian hipster though, the fact that she gets slammed by some hipster blogs and musicians is actually kind of a bonus for me.

I’m really digging her singing style. Its a little jazzy, a little trashy, and filled with melancholy. Its too bad that in some of her interviews she sounds like a total ditz.

I guess I’m just drawn to nostalgic singers who are on occasion, something of a hot mess.