The Lana Del Rey Dilemma

"What are you watching?" My brother walks into the room, glancing at the TV warily.
"Saturday Night Live." I answer sheepishly.
"Why?"
"Daniel Radcliffe."
"Oh." he walks away without question.
So while you do have to be kind of drunk to enjoy Saturday Night Live, I really just wanted to check in with the lovely Dan Rad, who was actually pretty fun. But I don't think hardly anyone remembers Dan was hosting that night. They remember Lana.

A few months earlier, I'd heard an early version of one of Del Rey's songs (Diet Mountain Dew) on my favorite XM radio station. I kind of liked it. It was kind of dreamy, a little bit sixties, a little hip hop, ect.
And then came that legendarily horrid SNL performance.

This isn't a defense of Lana Del Rey. This is a dilemma for me.
I watched both of the performances on the show. I had been flipping channels during the commercial breaks and landed on SNL again just as they started playing Video Games. I thought it was a skit at first.

So of course the next day I went and looked up the studio versions of Video Games and Blue Jeans and a few others. The only one I really fell for was Video Games, and to be honest, I still like it.

I didn't know the whole SNL thing was gonna blow up like it did though. I just thought it was a weird flop. I still think a lot of people are over-reacting to it.

The thing is, it finally made me realize something: The indie community can be fooled by the big guys.

Seriously, when the original Lana Del Rey EP came on the scene, everyone was digging it. I thought it was just ok. She really was a gangster Nancy Sinatra. And then she finally sang live. She has become the Rebecca Black of the hipster community.
But Lana Del Rey still has some charm in my mind. She's got a really mellow melancholy sound, and sad as it is to say, I did enjoy her stuff for a while.

However, I tried to listen to all of Born To Die on Spotify, and her voice became annoying after the first few tracks.

So lets move on already. Let the fans be fans, and the rest of just move on. Who knows? I might hear something I like from Del Rey in a year or two, but I'm done for now.

-Randi

P.S. Sorry if this doesn't make any sense.