FUSE TV - Why Do You Hate Lana Del Rey?

Hey, why do you hate Lana Del Rey so much? I don’t mean her music—to each their own—I mean her. In the two years since that unfortunate Saturday Night Live performance and the subsequent onslaught of jokes and Llama Del Rey memes, Del Rey has captured a fervent following. The online popularity she gained with “Video Games” bloomed into mainstream success as Cedric Gervais’ “Summertime Sadness” remix reached Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. She’s proven herself commercially and to a wide swath of music critics as well, yet the same set of endlessly-recycled reasons to discredit her as an artist still plague her.

Debates about her authenticity are problematic, as far as authenticity even exists in an age where “indie” bands are signed to major labels, and every artist is micro-marketing their origin story via Twitter. If it really bugged you that she changed her name from Lizzy Grant, you’d also dismiss Bobby Zimmerman and Declan MacManus (that’s Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello to you, respectively). Katy Perry recorded a Christian rock album as Katy Hudson before she kissed a girl and liked it. Alanis Morissette recorded two albums of teen-pop prior to Jagged Little Pill. Aliases and reinvention are a time-honored tradition in the music industry, so Lizzy Grant doesn’t cancel out Lana.

“Her father is rich and helped her get famous” is another absurd attempt to discount her success, and not just because Del Rey says she was out of touch with him as she rose to stardom. Whitney Houston’s talent might have languished in obscurity were her cousin not Dionne Warwick, and Aretha Franklin her family friend. Taylor Swift has drawn similar criticism because her stockbroker father was an early investor in Big Machine Records, but nepotism accusations toward Taylor are largely drowned out in the din of award show accolades and her perceived likability.