I believe it is a sign of the times. We are seeing the transformation of a singer/songwriter into a full-blown artist happen in front of our eyes. Before there was Internet like we know it today this would not be a transformation we would find controversial. We would not have bared witness to it. Now we have to decide for ourselves if we approve of the way an artist becomes a star. Are we getting the truth? We won’t be sure of it until the artist known as Lana Del Rey speaks for herself.

Have you seen the videos of a young Lady Gaga performing in the bar scene of New York City before she was the biggest pop star in the world? Her name wasn’t Lady Gaga and her stage show was only a small keyboard and a g-string. If her name wasn’t attached to the YouTube clips you could probably debate if it was even her. Those performance videos were of a girl with a dream who showed as much of herself as she could. She showed as much of herself as she knew how to then. She showed as much as she had come up with in that stage of her evolution before she broke out.

Let me introduce you to the controversy of Lana Del Rey.

I became vaguely familiar with Lana Del Rey through video links sent to me by friends. My attention wandered and I barely cared. I knew the song “Video Games” without actually knowing the song at all. I didn’t know who sang it. I didn’t hear any hype. It was, to me, just another video in a sea of videos that I was supposed to watch. I need to be knocked over in order to pay attention to new artists and that hadn’t happened yet.

That was until Rolling Stone posted her latest video. It was highly anticipated and since I had by now become familiar with the name I clicked on their link to check out “Born To Die.” Eat your heart out. This song, this girl, this video spoke directly to a place within me that I can’t even get to. I spent all day trying to chase the feeling playing it over and over and over again until I wasn’t sure I was feeling anything anymore. It hit such an honest place in me that I couldn’t imagine it could ever possibly be a lie. But the critics are weighing in. HipsterRunoff.com claims it is.

Is it? Is she a product of the machine just because she used to look more like the girl next door with a plain wardrobe and smaller lips? Is she a fame whore because she chose Interscope money over being the so-called “indie” YouTube phenomenon?

Her most watched video ranked in an astounding 15 million views. In 2011, though, I am not sure that it is fascinating anymore when an artist is heavily viewed on YouTube since it has now established itself as the place music fans go to watch music videos. The beauty of YouTube is that the videos that get the most views do so because they have the appeal to organically spread to the largest audience, and that is authentic popularity.  Perhaps the magazines that feel fooled by claiming they had found the next best indie artist need to rethink what it means to be indie today when independent labels can spread music as fast as majors and an artist can get picked up and paid for in only a day’s time.

One thing is for sure: she is exposing something that is usually kept well hidden.

I can sleep well at night knowing the style and lyrics of the music itself have not changed since her time as Lizzie Grant (the name she was given at birth).  Unlike Katy Perry, when the industry backed Lana Del Rey they let her keep her music. What has changed is physical. She has new, full lips. Her locks are flowing and perfectly orchestrated. She wears long evening gowns to look like a Barbie while she talks like a hood rat (backing her own claim that she is the “gangsta Nancy Sinatra”, and you’ll hear everyone say that so many times it will become obnoxious). Where I come from we call that “style”. Now the appearance matches the sound. It is a full ‘package’, and the industry has been directly linked to that word since the coming of Barry Gordy and Phil Spector.

What is fascinating to me is that if it is true, if she has become a product of the powerful industry men that want to make money off of her, then it only goes hand in hand with her history of lyrics regarding submission to powerful men. She sings frequently about wanting to be taken over. She wants to be the bad girl to an even badder boy. She wants to be controlled. She wants to be changed. And the rumors have said that she has done just that with her career.

It isn’t a secret that she got her stage name with the help of her team.  Her name is a combination of the old Hollywood actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey.  She also has said she wanted to be a band, but her label wanted her to be a solo artist. That brings me back to my original comparison. Lady Gaga did not name herself either. Nor did she decide her own hair color. In fact, it’s been documented that one of Lady Gaga’s greatest traits early on in her career was that she would listen to the advice of her record label. One of the main developments they made was to dye her hair blonde.

With Lana Del Rey it is all in the delivery so having the entire package does make a difference. Her lyrics, poetically, are mediocre at best. But they are as honest and vulnerable as anyone can say. If she were to strum 3 chords of a guitar and put the same words in a perfect rhyme there would be nothing to sell. She is delivering the emotion as much as the words. She is saying the most normal of thoughts in a way we don’t normally speak.

It took only a split second for Lana Del Rey to go from being a girl that people blog about to the girl booked for Saturday Night Live. She has yet to give a mainstream interview. She hasn’t told us if she’s really from the trailer park (as her lyrics claim) or from a millionaire father (as Wikipedia claims). She hasn’t explained why most of her music mysteriously evaporated off of iTunes spawning more rumors that the industry wanted to shape her before releasing her once and for all. She has talked briefly about the videos that made her famous but she fumbled her way through each sentence every single time. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t know what she is talking about, but it certainly is a reminder of her lack of practice as an artist in the public eye. She did, however, say that Lizzie Grant and Lana Del Rey are the same person with a different name. For the record, I suppose.

The verdict is still out. Thankfully, the music is still good. She is now on the road showing the world for the first time that she can sing in public and not just put images together in videos. But, surprisingly, the reviews are mixed. Each critic seems to back her up as a talent. She can sing. The music resonates with an audience. Yet, each is in his or her own way amazed at Lana Del Rey’s lack of stage presence.  Her lyrics tell the story of a wild child and her videos show a confident lady ready to intimidate with her stare. The attitude in those videos that draw us in, the character of the artist, has not been there on stage. It is more confirmation to me that her lyrics, those that speak of an insecure girl rebelling against something, are genuine. She is not as put together as she appears on screen. She has not fully developed her artistic comfort or credibility. She can sing her songs with an open heart, but she still closes it off when the song is over. She giggles and hides from the pressure of being a character and living in her alter ego. She is only fueling the fire. But it is nice to know that she can smile. I was getting worried there for a while. 

All of the controversy and all of the conversation surrounding the matter of who Lana Del Rey is and how she became the artist she became will one day only be a distant memory easily cleared up when she inevitably speaks to the world. It is only a matter of time until the general population supports her music because they like it and forget that it may have been partially shaped by great A&R and marketing departments. Eventually she will get used to facing the public with the fully immersed attitude we have come to expect and fine tune it with the parts of her self that she unwilling to leave out. She is one of the first to have to figure it all out while the world is watching. She’s been recording music for a long time, but she has had to assume the role of a mainstream artist over night. Her tour was booked before her album was finished. A-list television appearances are booked before her album has been released.

It appears that we (her and us) are all figuring this thing out together.

Take a look at the music video for “Born To Die”. It is worthy of turning someone into a star: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bag1gUxuU0g&ob=av2e 

And a personal favorite of mine, “Kinda Outta Luck”, from the past. This is a song/video with all the makings of the stuff that she would eventually be known for: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gg8pZYjCTM

-Stefanie