Lana Del Rey’s Search for Authenticity

Lana Del Rey is cancelled. Everyone’s favorite sad-core alternative singer has found herself in multiple controversies in recent years, coinciding with a shift in her musical production and visual expression. 

In the past year, the singer has worn a mesh face-mask during a meeting with fans amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, dated a police officer, and made tone-deaf remarks about the sexual themes in popular music.

Additionally, these controversies coincided with a shift in her musical and aesthetic choices. Her October release “Let Me Love You Like a Woman” was panned for its single artwork, which was made by Lana herself on PicsArt. Many parodied the release as “Let Me Love You Like a Republican” on Twitter and commented on her lack of effort. 

In 2019, she faced similar criticism for her single’s cover art, an iPhone selfie of Lana, her self-shot music videos, and her “pedestrian” fashion choices on tour, compared to higher-budget productions earlier in her career. To much attention, Lana wore a dress from Dillard’s at the 2020 Grammy’s, to which she was nominated for Album of the Year and Song of the Year for Norman Fucking Rockwell, drawing attention to her minimalist-style change. 

The shifts in her persona are a departure from her early career. Lana’s 2012 debut was met with mixed reception. Her vintage aesthetic, glamorous stage name, and damsel-in-distress persona were thought to be “inauthentic,” raising questions about who she is beyond an faux-feminine homage to 60s americana. In many ways, the reception to her 2012 release Born to Die, which spent a record-breaking stint for alternative records on the Billboard 200 Album chart, was clouded in skepticism about her artistic integrity. The album was received just as she was: repetitive, predictable, and unreflective of her personhood. 

Over the years, she has had time to grow comfortable within her niche in the alternative genre and her cult-like fan base. Even with a more relaxed take on production and wardrobe, her music videos and tours are as popular as ever. In many ways, Lana doesn’t need to be “unproblematic” to guarantee an audience, a perk of an established artist who can rely on the dedication of her fans. 

When questioned, she is often dismissive of the importance of these controversies. She doubled down on her statement, never issued an urgent apology for the medically ineffective mask, and ignored fans’ worries about her production effort. She simply doesn’t care what the public perception of her is. 

Loyal fans see her evolution over the years as a slow descent into chaos, her powerful debut album, Born to Die, followed by less polished, messier releases like Norman Fucking Rockwell. However, Lana’s public persona represents a dedication to authenticity that has increased with time. Big budget videos and performances in her debut led to skepticism about her artistry, while laid-back production and aesthetic choices led to praise from critics for her new work.

Lana’s controversial remarks about sexual themes in music centered around her frustration at being called anti-feminist during the early years of her career, as many suspected her to be glamorizing submission, sugar-daddies, and infidelity. She wrote: “I am fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse.” While these criticisms grew fewer and fewer as the years went on, her statement demonstrated her fixation on these critiques of her persona, making Lana seem petty and obsessive. 

Perhaps her growth as an artist are all forms of answering this original critique, those that left her looked at skeptically in popular media. While it is easy to see these changes as a lack of effort, it can also be seen as a re-adjustment of priorities. 

As Lana has paid less attention to wardrobe and production, she has also received critical praise earning her a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year at the top of this year. These changes are representative of the fact that she is as authentic as ever: without a single care about her public image or what cover art she puts on her latest single. As seen with the double-video for “The greatest” and “Fuck it i love you” in 2019, which had a high production budget compared to its companions, she puts in the work when she feels it is necessary. 

Perhaps the controversial, edgier Lana Del Rey we are seeing recently is her form of reclaiming artistic authenticity. She doesn’t care how she is seen, and her art seems to be more grounded in herself than ever. If the effort to remain unproblematic and high-budget is not necessary to retain her fan base and aids in her authenticity, perhaps it is a change she has intentionally made for the better.