In the wake of the already-notorious Lana Del Rey performance on Saturday Night Live two days ago, it might be instructional to look up the actual definition of Hype: “To publicize or promote, especially by extravagant, inflated, or misleading claims.”
Now you may have fallen in love with her song “Video Games” and watched the video incessantly, in which case you don’t feel that hype is even an issue here.
But if you are that certain type of music fan who spends as much time reading blogs as you do listening to music, you are probably in the “Lana Del Rey Hype” camp. The retro-styled American singer made her debut on SNL and by all accounts (mine too), it really was quite awful. I truly think I’ve seen more confident and interesting Karaoke performances.
Her first official album does not come out until the end of this month, making her the second artist to perform on the show without a release ( Natalie Imbruglia was first in 1998). I certainly don’t judge who ever booked her. For the past few months she has been all over the internet, and hey – isn’t that where the music is happening these days? But the general consensus is that she really isn’t ready for prime time… not that that really matters anymore. Or should it?
HAS HYPE GONE TOO FAR?
DO ARTISTS NEED MORE TIME TO DEVELOP BEFORE THEY BECOME THE NEXT BIG THING?
Photo by kerryj.com