akashiver | On Lana Del Rey

I'm definitely in the camp of those appalled by Lana Del Rey's SNL performance. It's not the indie-pop switch, the name change, or her so-called stilted delivery. It's the sight of a 1% - er flubbing an opportunity that the musicians of the 99% would kill for.

To be the headline musician on SNL? BEFORE YOUR "DEBUT" ALBUM HAS BEEN RELEASED?!!! Dudette, if Daddy's $ buys you an opportunity like that, grab it with both hands. Lip synch, take voice lessons, do whatever you need to do - but turn in a good performance. And try to at least look like you care.

I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes here. Del Rey has a mediocre voice, but with studio engineering, it sounds pretty good. Conparing SNL to her previous "live" performances, it looks to me like one of 2 things happened: a) either Del Rey & crew really thought her voice was ready for primetime, or b) SNL told Del Rey & crew that she couldn't lip synch a few days before she went on air, giving her no time to figure out how to turn in a respectable live performance.

I suspect it's b. One of the things that makes her performance so bizarre is that it looks like she's focusing on her gestures more than her singing, even when she's flubbing notes. And at the same time she doesn't look confident: in her heart, she knows she's not ready for this. She looks like someone obeying instructions: "Just stand out there and flip your hair around, sweetums. Nobody watches SNL for the music."

But you know what? I like her music. Even if it's co-written and evidence of money rather than raw talent... it's still pretty catchy. I like the Lolita references and the self-conscious portrait of unhealthy relationships. It's more interesting than the luvy-duvy pop out there.