Lana Del Ray’s song Video Games is absolutely beautiful.
I often look to female artists in order to reflect on my own music; what do they do that works? How do they make music that connects with people?
However, Lana confuses me a bit; there is vulnerability in her music, yet the re-branding of her music allegedly meant lip enhancement, a change in hair color, and a more overt sexuality.
I don’t have issue with any of these things in a judgemental/personal way; everyone makes their own decisions, and obviously her re-branding (from Lizzie to Lana) meant her music was finally widely heard.
However, it bothers me that her equally lovely older songs never got any widespread attention. And it irks me that the re-brand suggests this had something to do with her appearance. Some people say its because her older promotional vids were too amateur, but when I look at them they seem to have the same lo-fi quality as this one, which went viral.
This is what I always fear with music; at some point will we all be asked to sacrifice things for the sake of branding? And if there is money involved, how do we prepare ourselves to resist the loss of our true selves?
Side note: some people protest blog posts about this, saying “but if she’s an artist and you like her music, why do you talk about her image? What does her lip enhancement have to do with it?” I talk about it only because it seems to have mattered in her career just as much as her music, and I wonder whether it should have. I worry that women with talent have to be transformed into sexual objects before their music is celebrated.
Ironically, Video Games seems to be about a woman that’s overlooked.
That’s why I’m blogging about it.
I’d love to hear what you think about this.
