Users related to her emotional lyrics and nostalgia for times they had never experienced. Del Rey became a prominent figure on the platform as GIFs from her music videos were reblogged widely. The album spoke directly to a generation growing up on Tumblr, spending after-school hours indulging in curated nostalgia, filling dashboards with aspirational aesthetics and a longing for past eras. With the release of ‘Born To Die’ a few months later, Del Rey swept us up in her universe of broken-hearted sugar babies with mascara stained tears falling for bad boy bikers speeding down the coast as crumbling Old Hollywood disappears into the distance.
This montage of LA summertime wouldn’t look out of place in a TikTok about romanticising your own life. The heavenly melody was a match for the melancholy nostalgia evoked through grainy vintage clips of American flags, swimming pools, skaters and the Hollywood sign.
“It wasn’t pop until it was on the radio,” Del Rey said. With its sweeping cinematic harp and strings, slow-paced piano, and Del Rey’s distinctive vocals, ‘Video Games’ provided a lo-fi alternative to the EDM heavy mainstream pop that dominated the airwaves in the early 2010s. Posted to Del Rey’s personal account in August 2011 then reposted to her Vevo channel two months later, the video soon went viral, accumulating over 20 million views in just five months. ‘Video Games’ felt like it arrived out of nowhere, another example of overnight internet fame. “What would I say? I feel like everything I wanted to say, I’ve said already.” Six more records and over a hundred songs later, the artist has made her ascent from sad girl Tumblr sweetheart to industry heavyweight, ushering in a new era of melancholy pop.īut it all started with a YouTube video, or so it seemed. “I might never make another song,” Lana Del Rey told Vogue after she had finished recording her major-label debut.
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