Lana Del Rey

that was MUCH better than snl though

yeah the talent is unambiguous there, it's just that the material is still kind of terrible

it still blows my mind that like 20 minutes before the LDR performance SNL ran the 'You Can Do Anything' sketch where entitled YouTube performers declared "I tried, and therefore noone should criticize me." it's like they knew what was going to happen.

http://cdni.condenast.co.uk/272x408/s_v/VogueMar12_V_31jan12_b_272x408.jpg

"fascinating"

why is her head taking the place of the letter G?

http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/the-culture-edit/2011/10/20/lana-del-rey-interview

VOgangstanancysinatraUE

per the vogue blog post i think you mean "Ghetto Monégasque"

she is good at coming up with these taglines for herself, cf "Hollywood sadcore"

"she" is good at coming up with the taglines "for herself"

haha again with the puppet business

Not the puppet thing, but come on, those taglines reek of PR people.

"I had no idea about the fashion shows," she told us. "But I think they chose Video Games because it embodies summertime sadness. Fashion is inspired by youth and nostalgia and draws inspiration from the best of the past. I think both the song and the collections touch on the light and the dark side of life."

she is definitely very shrewd about marketing herself, while at the same time not shrewd at all about how to not make it feel like marketing

her interviews are like a wordcloud of the phrases she wants people to associate with her

actually kind of brings me back to something i thought about Vampire Weekend a couple years ago -- like they were almost TOO savvy about not just what they were going for in terms of image/signifiers to the point of spelling it out for people constantly, which might have almost motivated people to get all meta about it because critics already had so much of the work done for them of just covering the basic surface level aspects by the artist

ok strike the "not just" from that sentence, kind of awkwardly hanging there unresolved

I don't know, I'd blame Myspace for all that more than marketers. How many indie rock bands had "crunk" or "hip-hop" in their description?

actually kind of brings me back to something i thought about Vampire Weekend a couple years ago -- like they were almost TOO savvy about not just what they were going for in terms of image/signifiers to the point of spelling it out for people constantly, which might have almost motivated people to get all meta about it because critics already had so much of the work done for them of just covering the basic surface level aspects by the artist

― some dude, Friday, February 3, 2012 10:42 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this actually makes a lot of sense the more i think about it.

somedude OTM about the wordcloud.

watching that letterman thing it seems like her puffy lips effect her singing! and that song just seems weirder and weirder to me every time i hear it.

and no matter how much sex scandal stuff about letterman we know he just can't stop leching...talk about retro.

mad men HAS to be dave's favorite show of all time.

her tone is exactly that of the press release - but i don't think she's unique in it, i've noticed this tone creeping into more and more places of late, whether that's hypeblogs or churnalism

did you just make up "churnalism"? or is that a real thing?

maybe it's the profession of music critics who write about choons

it's a neologism used by uncreative journalists to complain about uncreative journalism

well, it's specifically about rehashing press releases in the guise of journalism

mad men HAS to be dave's favorite show of all time.

― scott seward, Friday, February 3, 2012 7:02 AM (11 minutes ago)

lol otm

how does the word 'churn' relate to plagiarizing or rewording PR exactly?

i think dave likes LDR because she basically looks like julia roberts in the 90s when she was dave's favorite guest to flirt with

'churn' is kind of either stirring something. you're coming up with a "new product" but you don't really add or remove anything. so if you rearrange words in a press release and publish it..

err, I mean either stirring something or it's used to reference turnover within a field

i'm surprised this term hasn't made it to the US yet

hollywood adcore

(love "churnalism" btw)

"Churn out" means to mass produce something with little regard for quality. I thought "churnalism" refers to the fact that these press releases etc. are reproduced across the media without any real work going into it.

that too, it's a very versatile phrase

yeah, i dig it.

So I finally listened to this and I suppose there's some potential, but I can't help but feel that I'm listening to Hooverphonic b-sides.

Lana Del Rey's major label full-length debut album, "Born to Die," is off to a fast start. Industry sources say that the set may sell between 60,000 to 70,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, Feb. 5. That should easily give the album at No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200 chart next week.

remember when albums could sell a million copies on the week of their release? sigh.

The awkward chorus of "Off to the Races" makes me think of Annie's "sexy" song in that glee club episode of Community.

this was exactly my reaction the first time i heard it! especially that little giggle she does on "singin' in the garden."

That has to be deliberate though, doesn't it? The squeaks on 'harlot' and 'starlet' come across as very knowing, rather than a ham-fisted attempt at sexy.

Yeah it's definitely knowing, that makes me cringe all the more though.

it's too bad they don't let baz luhrmann make movies anymore, think of the mileage he could get out of lana

Dude you know he's doing The Great Gatsby right now, right? It's a good job Lana's come along so late in the day because there's no way in hell he'd have been able to resist that one.

IN 3D!

http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif'I don't think I'll write another record. What would I say? I feel like everything I wanted to say, I've said already.'http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif

What does her Interscope contract say?

Liz Phair brings...something:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/02/04/liz-phair-on-why-lana-del-rey-scares-rocks-boys-club/

Let me break it down for you: she’s writing herself into existence. She’s giving herself a part to play because, God knows, no one else will and she wants to matter in this life. As far as I can tell, it’s working. I went straight to iTunes and bought her new release “Born To Die” in toto (how often do I do that??) because it was more than a collection of songs or a performance, it was a phenomenon. Maybe all the more so because she’s not overwhelmingly talented.

hats off Ms Phair. she's Number 1 in the UK album chart as of this evening and the album's outstripping the rest of the Top Five put together with 117,000 sales in a week. a phenomenon indeed as the good lady points out.

Maybe all the more so because she’s not overwhelmingly talented.

good backhanded compliment

She bought the album though.