Lorde is still riding that counter-culture with new single Team and its accompanying video. The singer-songwriter offered up this explanation on the visuals via her Facebook page (which thankfully means I don' t have to spend all day trying to decipher the meaning behind it):
“This video was borne from a dream I had a few months ago about teenagers in their own world, a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was Queen. I dreamt about this world being so different to anything anyone had ever seen, a dark world full of tropical plants and ruins and sweat. And of this world, I dreamt about tests that didn’t need to be passed in order to be allowed in: sometimes the person who loses is stronger. Enjoy.”Source: Facebook
With lyrics like "We live in cities you'll never see on screen. Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things" and "I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there", the song echoes many of the hipster-esque, nonconformist sentiments of her massive single Royals. It's potentially a risky strategy releasing the pair back-to-back as the similarities could lead to the Diva being labelled a one-trick pony - lyrically, at least. But considering Royals is on course to spending its tenth week at number one in the States, it only makes sense to try capitalising on that success. Gotta get those coins!
Thoughts?
I have mixed feelings about Lorde. She does craft great songs with minimalist, effective instrumentation with often interesting and beautiful lyrics and good pop sensibilities with a capable enough voice. But I don't like this air of pretentiousness about her. Very early at the start of her popularity, she's called out Selena Gomez's Come & Get It for being anti-feminist (which it is not), has made snide remarks about other artists also. She seems like a typical teen who thinks she knows more than others about life and whatnot, which I assume is why most of us Americans like her, since we're exactly the same way.
ReplyDeleteI completely detest lorde. She's very basic in my opinion, which is funny because she tries to present herself as clever and innovative which she isn't. It doesn't help the fact that she has talked down towards several other artists and genre's which I don't personally care for either but that doesn't seem to give me the right to make baseless claims like she does.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't call Come and Get it anti-feminist, she just didn't agree with the sentiments of the song. She said, "But I’m a feminist and the theme of her song [Come & Get It]
ReplyDeleteis, ‘When you’re ready come and get it from me.’ I’m sick of women
being portrayed this way.”
‘When you’re ready come and get it from me.’ I’m sick of women being portrayed this way."
Read more at http://www.gigwise.com/news/84574/feminist-lorde-slams-selena-gomez-single-come-and-get-it#5Ew01t274ocbUP48.99
‘When you’re ready come and get it from me.’ I’m sick of women being portrayed this way."
Read more at http://www.gigwise.com/news/84574/feminist-lorde-slams-selena-gomez-single-come-and-get-it#5Ew01t274ocbUP48.99
‘When you’re ready come and get it from me.’ I’m sick of women being portrayed this way."
Read more at http://www.gigwise.com/news/84574/feminist-lorde-slams-selena-gomez-single-come-and-get-it#5Ew01t274ocbUP48.99
I wish the lyrics explored more of the world she had dreamt up. It sounded fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand everyone (people in which I interact) obsession with her every word.
ReplyDeletePoint taken. But I think that kind of thinking is somewhat flawed, because Selena as a woman should be able to express sexuality however she wants. If she wanted to criticize the portrayal of females in the industry, she probably should've started with the males who are really the ones enforcing the negative portrayals.
ReplyDeleteWhat other genres has she slandered?
ReplyDeleteare you really taking a debate, discourse and point of contention about feminism and making it about men? lol.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5812407/miley-cyrus-wrecking-ball-swings-back-to-no-1-on-hot-100?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=photo-vs-link - Miley may end her run
ReplyDeleteBasically all of Hip Hop and Rap.
ReplyDeleteI think I heard her bash Kanye west or someone else.
ReplyDeleteLorde is a bit bittersweet for me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do respect about people and artists is not caring what people think. She's a young girl who sorta blew up, and with the whole world watching her, she's still voicing her raw opinion on other artists and their music. Now, she never directly BASHED artists, she gave opinions and thoughts on their music really (except for David Guetta, that one was pretty harsh). The bitter part is that this criticism is really immature. Having and being entitled to opinions is fine and great, but if everyone voiced their opinion the world would be chaos. Heck, if I said everything that comes through my head, I would be expelled from school....that's where maturity plays a part. There's a certain amount of respect and wisdom one must have. Being young sorta makes people go easier on her because she hasn't had real experience in the real world. But once it hits her, I hope it hits her hard. I don't want her to go down, she's a great lyricist and a refresher from mainstream music. But someone does need to teach her a lesson, tough love. Can't say anything you want, life just doesn't work that way.
Team is an awesome song by the way. I hope it doesn't get overplayed like Royals did.
I like the fact that she feels the need to be blunt and honest, but her material isn't dark enough for me... I want grudge, blood, sweat, suffering, ect....She's OK....just too soft...
ReplyDeleteThis 35 year old Woman is nothing but a 'Lana Del Rey'- tribute artist. As "talented" as she may appear to some, she comes across as extremely arrogant, self-entitled and sanctimonious in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteHer 'mainstream/commercial' relevance and significance, something of which she so willfully loathes, will have become a mere fragment of the distant past in a couple of months.
NEXT!!!
My main point isn't about Lorde as a feminist, it's about Lorde someone giving unnecessary comments that are plain rude. Then I mentioned in an aside that if Lorde really was a feminist, she'd recognize that her comment about Selena would be wrong, and how there are so many worse anecdotes that are available in the music industry, especially by men. I do consider myself a feminist, but that is not even the main point here.
ReplyDeleteI think what she says isn't so much rude in itself. It's more that we are not used to artists giving their opinion on other artists.Usually they are real diplomatic. For a young girl to do so when she herself is hardly a proven artist comes across as rather rude.
ReplyDeleteHave to say though...kinda agree with her Selena point of criticism. And that didn't sound to me as a criticism of how Selena expresses her sexuality as much as a criticism of the message a song like that sends out.
The two are not necessarily the same. I understand the song is by the two Norwegian male producers who also use Rihanna as their voice.
As a feminist myself, I certainly object to any suggestion it is a feminist expression of a woman (Selena's) sexuality tbh.
she bashed taylor swift, miley, drake, nicki (which im not mad about) and countless others
ReplyDeleteits one thing to have an opinion but another to talk down to everyone else in the industry when you only have one hit song out
I don't even know who to reply to because there is sooo many things wrong with what people are saying about Lorde. She has repeatedly said how much she LOVES Miley, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Taylor Swift. You can't just go around saying she has "bashed" or "slandered" artists or a whole genre (!? are you kidding me!?) when time after time in interviews she says the exact opposite, its completely idiotic and misinformed. If you don't find her as creative and a clever as I do, that's cool your call, but don't go around saying she hates all these different things when she has been basically screaming the contrary. As for the Lana Del Rey comparisons, I really do not understand them at all, as they are COMPLETELY different artists, with two very separate distinct sounds.
ReplyDeleteno.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to confess that I'm a fan of Lorde, but while I do agree that the album did drag on a bit at times, with the 'minimalist' production possibly a product of being hastily produced, claims like these which are ironic and arrogant just rub me off the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteTHing is, the irony of you pointing out how she is making baseless claims is that this post is in itself is in fact baseless. Let's deconstruct this.
'I completely detest lorde. She's very basic in my opinion, which is funny because she tries to present herself as clever and innovative which she isn't.'
I don't think she is presenting herself as being innovative as much as she is developing on the theme of teenage angst, which in itself is a very popular theme in literature--understandable because she has academic parents, including a poet of a mother (literally). Also, stylistically and 'technically' her songwriting is certainly well above most pop artists which in itself is not a hard thing to do. She may take an additional hour thinking about her lyrics, while her contemporaries take 30 minutes to write the lyrics of a song, but that additional hour would still make her a better songwriter.
'(...) that doesn't seem to give me the right to make baseless claims like she does.'
But you just did, lol .And everyone has the right to make baseless claims like that. And they're not that baseless. Come and Get it and Blurred Lines do present lyrics that hold women into a subservient role, which, if presented without context, is essentially misogyny. It's not her task to filtre her words because impressionable people might adopt her claims. Artists can never be general role models. Historically, artists strive in destruction. In a healthy society, there'd be no destruction.
And for the below statements, she didn't 'slander' these rappers as much as she said their lyrics are irrelevant to her life. Media has a great way of manipulating people.
As for the blog post itself, your stance against her shows :P (and don't deny it because you had said in the comments section how you didn't get the hype on her). Lana Del Rey is also a one-trick poney that recycles her lyrics, and yet you didn't display the same worry on her as you did on Lorde. For the record, I like Rey's earlier songs. But Burning Desire just irked me off.
Alright. Point taken on the baselessness of my blog post. I won't deny it was written during a fit of aggravation towards Lorde. However when I had written Baseless- I actually just meant rude. Which is already supported and explained within other posts of the article. However I would disagree and say that she is trying to present herself as new and innovative. The biggest hype around her and her promotion is her rebellious attitude (not very new) but also the "Simplicity" of her arrangements and lyrics. Simple is the key word with her for some odd reason and its sending her across as "incredible" "new" and "Different" when in reality she demonstrates...nothing of which should garner this sort of praise. How exactly is her songwriting above pop standard? I find it to follow mainstream pop standard pretty efficiently. Her lyrics might be a bit more "Complex" than other songwriters but to say this is above more simple lyrics is more subjective than anything else. And one more thing. I don't like Lana. I don't hate Lana necesserily but I definitely do not like her. I wouldnt even compare Lorde and Lana together. Lorde seems to be an amalgamation of the entire hipster movement, whereas Lana is a alternative "Vintage Hollywood" artists. Two completely different art styles for completely different tastes.
ReplyDeleteI disagree re the lyrics of Blurred Lines.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I was referring about Diva's blog post regarding Lana, not you ^^.
ReplyDeleteI'd disagree about Lorde being a rep of the hipster movement, but agree on the fact that people are pushing her to be thus. The reason why Royals is popular is because of its niche--youth ennui and nostalgia. And I agree on her album being dull.
ReplyDeleteHer lyrics are above the normal standard because of their sensibilities to the rhythm, tempo, etc. She literally has a bank of wordplays. I'm not saying that it's one of the best (see Owen Pallett's lyricism. This damn man knows how to write), but that it has more potential than most pop artists, one of the main reason being is that it's consistent and seemingly personal; I mean, if she can sustain the same dull atmosphere throughout an album, then surely you can ascertain that she's not just playing a persona for kicks.
Sounds a bit dark Robin LOL
ReplyDeleteI would be completely okay if she gave her opinion on artists, but it bothers me that she didn't even bother to show any grace or respect while commenting on them. It's completely fine to say "I don't like his music" or "I don't find them appealing to me", but it's pretty rude and inappropriate to say someone's flat out gross, or that you think an act shouldn't be famous. It's like walking up to someone on the street saying "that shirt is so gross, ew I don't know why anyone would wear that."
ReplyDeleteAs for Selena, I honestly do not see anything about the song that is anti-feminist. It's clearly not a feminist anthem to turn up at the next abortion rights rally, but I don't see anything blatantly anti-girl about it. I know people think Selena is objectifying herself, but I see it as her taking control of her body, saying what her man is or isn't allowed to do.
It is a huge dig to to call out another woman for demeaning women like Lorde's did to Selena.
ReplyDeleteIt's to the point were "Feminism" is used to oppress other women.
So now a girl can't
make a song about waiting for her lover without being on the defense, yet men can? Hm....
The problem with Lorde, there's a time and place and way to criticize musicians or songwriters without being snobby about. Either she hasn't master that or doesn't care to... the latter is fine as long as she doesn't complain when people call her out for lacking tact.
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