oh cheer up!
Lana Del Rey’s ‘related artists’
on Spotify seem to show a lot about the status of female vocalists in the music
industry, with females apparently similar to her ranging from Amy Winehouse to
Nicki Minaj to Lykke Li. In the false illusion that a deep soul voice is
similar to jerky pop-drenched rap, it seems that this segment of the industry is
in desperate need of development so that these women may be defined further
than the fact that they possess a pair of tits. It’s undeniable that internet sensation
Lana is captivatingly beautiful with a distinctive, haunting voice; but what
does she contribute as a female artist?
The female vocalist, unlike her
male counterpart, has to come as a whole package. Magazine photoshoots and
gossip columns mean that faces are often more recognisable than a song on the
radio. Picture an all-male band. Can you picture each member, or are even the
lead singer’s features blurred? Now question how many of them are what is
typically classed as attractive. Compare that with the female music market. Adele
may be associated with her physical size as well as her vocals, but at the end
of the day she’s been on the cover of Vogue. So has Lana Del Rey, incidentally.
‘Video Games’ exploded last
summer in a rush of husky American sunshine, followed by the heartbreaking
nostalgia of Lana’s full studio album ‘Born To Die’. In her Vogue interview,
she described the subject matter as ‘being faithful in my mind to the memory of
a particular person’: in short, a relationship gone wrong, broken hearts,
etcetera etcetera. Despite being in her mid-twenties, Lana seems to resemble a
vulnerable teenager in the throes of first love punctuated by hints of
instability, concisely summarised in her line ‘you like your girls insane’.
This theme seems to continue for
the length of the album, teetering on seemingly unhealthy aspects of a
relationship, with ‘tell me you own me’ and ‘I need you to come here and save
me’ displaying signs of female weakness, dependency and submission, something
relatively unusual in a society broadcasting lyrics like ‘come on rudeboy, can
you get it up?’ on music channels and radio stations. Rihanna may be boasting
the sexual liberty of modern society a little too graphically, but Lana seems
to demonstrate equally questionable attitudes where female role models are
concerned. Then again, there seems to be far more pressure on women in the
industry to comply to ‘acceptable’ standards in comparison with the chart-topping
‘I'm on a mission, don't even want to kiss her, honey I won't miss ya when I'm done with ya’ (thank
you Tinie Tempah for your casual sexism – it’s nice to know that a Brit winner
and Mercury Prize nominee is setting such
an example!)
Returning to Lana Del Rey, the
singer sums up ‘Born To Die’ perfectly with concluding track ‘This Is What
Makes Us Girls’ through her admission that ‘we don’t stick together ‘cause we
put our love first’. In a music industry where female bands and artists that
actually write their own songs are the definite minority in the charts, surely
sticking together and standing up for their art is what is needed more than
anything? Lana may be beautiful, haunting and beneficial to the popularity of
female singer-songwriters, but behind her memorable voice what is she really
saying about women in love? It’s a good job that she’s as thoroughly addictive
as the ‘diet mountain dew’ she sings about.
KLH
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