The Lyrical Appeal of Lana Del Rey: An Analysis of Her Music and Its Relationship to Teenage Girls
Abstract:
This paper explored Lana Del Rey and her impact on young girls. I discuss and search for aspects of her music and personality that appeal to young teen girls. Lana Del Rey’s art is very influential, and her popularity is testament to that. Delving into her lyricism and what it says about the experiences of women reveals a lot about the role of gender in our society and how it affects young girls.
Lana Del Rey has, for years now, been a topic of opposing opinions and discussions based on both negative and positive outlooks. Yet her impact on her audience, specifically teenage girls, is what maintains her relevance in pop culture. Her music is known for its melancholic and movie-like qualities. Her music and themes have been inviting young women to feel and further think about their deep emotional vulnerabilities and to explore themes of sadness, longing, and a sort of romanticized despair. This paper aims to examine how and exactly why Lana Del Rey’s lyricism speaks directly to the emotional lived experiences of teenage girls, and why her work remains so captivating and relevant over a decade later to this specific demographic. By analyzing Lana Del Rey’s lyrics and pulling from various discourse about pop culture figures and their role in gender and mental health expression we can try to better understand how Lana Del Rey’s work relates to the broader conversation about female emotions, their lived experience and how art is used to cope with or express this experience.
One of Lana del Rey’s most important and apparent themes in her music is her portrayal of deep vulnerability. Lana’s artistic persona is a portrayal of a woman who is basically drowning in feelings ranging from angst, melancholy, nostalgia, heartbreak etc. Her music also uses cinematic and cultural references that resonate with a lot of her listeners. All these aspects of her music are representative of the “sad girl” archetype. The “sad girl” archetype is a trope that resonates deeply with many teenage girls. The “sad girl” aesthetic is characterized by the romanticized view of sadness as a form of self-expression. Similar to the emo or goth scene, this aesthetic celebrates emotional depth and accepts the expression of sadness as a way of taking control and as a source of power rather than something that should be hidden.
Lana Del Rey’s music encompasses this sensibility, portraying sadness not as weakness but as an artistic and feminine force. Making being emotional (something that is claimed to be stereotypically a feminine characteristic) a characteristic of strength and intelligence. Forming a constructive way to process and express these emotions that teenage girls feel. Helping create a more positive association with these emotions. Ironically, her lyric from “Terrence Loves You,” she says, “I lost myself when I lost you / But I’ve still got jazz when I’ve got those blues/” These lyrics perfectly sum up the effect her music has on her listeners. When they’re feeling as if they can’t make sense of their emotions, at least they have music that can. Their emotions unravel in front of them as they listen. Not necessarily making sense of their feelings, but helping them accept that fact. Another characteristic of her music that seems to attract girls in their teens is her vivid descriptions of love that is destructive. For example, the lyrics of Born to Die, “Come and take a walk on the wild side / Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain/” speak to the lived experience and very real feeling of being pulled into a sort of destructive love and the strange high one can receive from being in one. The song’s themes of doomed love, vulnerability, and resignation resonate highly with teenage girls, whose experiences of first love, heartbreak, and identity formation are marked by intense emotional highs and lows.
Teenage girls in particular resonate with this type of emotional lyricism because Lana’s lyrics speak directly to the rollercoaster of emotions that is present during one’s time as a teen. Young girls are navigating a world that demands emotional resilience while simultaneously shaming emotional vulnerability. Lana Del Rey’s music provides an escape for these girls, offering the space through which they can express and process their feelings of sadness, longing, and loss without shame or judgment.
One of Lana’s songs, “Fuck It I Love You,” is a great representation of her ability to turn personal struggles into lyrics that act as a tool to deliver concepts that adolescents feel but may be hard for them comprehend or express. A part of the song that stands out is “But one day I woke up like / “Maybe I’ll do it differently” / So I moved to California‚ but it’s just a state of mind / It turns out everywhere you go‚ you take yourself‚ that’s not a lie/” The fleshing out of the feeling of wanting to start new somewhere else is clear but what’s even more introspective about these lyrics is Lana’s delivery of the idea that leaving or starting new won’t automatically change you. There’s an essence of urging people who are listening to feel a sort of acceptance that you can’t run away from yourself. These lyrics reveal this reality and force her young audience to become aware of the urgency to accept oneself and not run away from their problems in hopes that they’d magically disappear.
In “Summertime Sadness”, Del Rey channels a sense of fatalism that resonates with the teenage experience of love and loss. The song portrays emotional release as both a form of escape and a form of self-discovery. For young women experiencing the highs and lows of adolescence, “Summertime Sadness” functions as a musical space where sadness is not only validated but glorified. As the song progresses, Lana Del Rey sings, “I just wanted you to know / That baby, you’re the one / I don’t regret you, the one,” evoking the complex feelings of both nostalgia and heartbreak. This lyricism taps into the overwhelming emotionality that is felt by teenage girls, whose identities are still being shaped by relationships, both romantic and platonic. Lana’s willingness to embrace sadness in her lyrics normalizes these feelings and provides a space for emotional release. As the journal article “Billie Eilish and the Feminist Aesthetics of Depression: White Femininity, Generation Z, and Whisper Singing” suggests, the pathologization of female emotional distress, where sadness is either trivialized or cast as an abnormality, frequently dismisses the authentic emotional experiences of young women. Lana Del Rey’s music, in contrast, offers a counter to this dismissal, reframing sadness as an essential, powerful, and even beautiful part of the human experience.
Another key element of Lana’s appeal to young girls is her ability to encompass a holistic persona. Lana’s music is the opposite of one-dimensional. Be it lyricism-wise, tone, or instrumentally. Her music constantly depicts a diverse range of experiences, emotions, personalities, and genres. Very much similar to what it is like being a teenager. Constantly changing, experimenting, with emotions that are never steady. She is also unafraid to include topics seen as taboo by our culture in her music. This is a conversation that is controversial, and her openness to sharing these experiences in her music can be argued as being both positive and negative. Both arguments being very valid and holding some truth. Lana Del Rey subverts the traditional notions of femininity through her music. She embraces questionable morals and decisions and portrays a woman who is unapologetically emotional, flawed, and complex. Something that is raw and less curated and polished in comparison to her female pop star counterparts. It’s discussed in “The Least Culturally Sensitive Singer Still Loved By Everyone.” by Jonah E. Bromwich that “when Beyonce was singing about girls running the world and pop stars were obsessed with empowerment, Del Rey was crooning that ‘My old man is a bad man. … He loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart’ and that ‘Heaven is a place on Earth where you tell me all the things you want to do.’ Her 2012 debut ended with the song ”This Is What Makes Us Girls’ — the definition being ‘We don’t stick together, cause we put love first.’” Her music was introducing topics and realities that many female artists in her genre avoided. This subversion of the conventional female pop star image is a major part of her appeal to young women, who are increasingly skeptical of the narrative of the always happy, empowered woman who makes no mistakes.
To delve deeper into her controversial lyricism, which is likely one of the reasons teens find her music appealing, we have to analyze her album Ultraviolence. The album includes tracks like “Shades of Cool” and “Ultraviolence,” which display themes of abuse and self-destructive behavior in a way that challenges the depiction of love as generally innocent or surface-level without risks in pop music. In “Ultraviolence,” Del Rey sings, “He hit me, and it felt like a kiss,” using dark and provocative imagery to explore the complexities of an abusive relationship. The complex nature of being in love and mistaking abuse for affection. A very real thing experienced by many women. While this lyric is undoubtedly controversial, it underscores Lana Del Rey’s willingness to confront uncomfortable emotions and relationships head-on, offering a space for young women to reflect on the complexities of love, power, and vulnerability. Bringing awareness to these concepts and issues.
This kind of lyricism appeals to teenage girls who are often navigating the confusing waters of romantic relationships and emotional intensity. As the article “Billie Eilish and the Feminist Aesthetics of Depression: White Femininity, Generation Z, and Whisper Singing” proposes, “This mocking of depression in young women is insidious: empirical scientific study reveals that adolescent women “are twice as likely to experience depression compared with men” on account of socially learnt and internalized gender inequalities, which lead to potentially “increased vulnerabilities to depression in girls.” the “sad girl” archetype is about reclaiming sadness as a form of self-expression that resists the commodified, sanitized version of femininity often marketed to young women. The version that ignores the very alienating and isolating reality of being a girl transitioning into an adult body. Del Rey’s work rejects the idea that women must always be “nice,” “sweet,” or “good.” Instead, presenting a more complex, multifaceted view of womanhood. For young girls who are grappling with identity and wondering what is acceptable to feel and be, Lana Del Rey’s music offers a reflection of the messiness, complexity, and authenticity of their experiences. Somewhat eliminating the shame and feelings of being misunderstood through the exposure of traditionally taboo concepts that are generally left out in pop music.
Lana Del Rey’s music also appeals to teenage girls through its nostalgic qualities. Songs like “Video Games” and “Young and Beautiful” explore themes of idealized love, longing, and the passage of time, all of which evoke a sense of nostalgia. In “Video Games,” Lana Del Rey sings, “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you / Everything I do, I tell you all the time heaven is a place on earth with you/” framing love as something all-consuming and comparable to heaven. This lyric reflects feelings of intensity that are usually projected onto romantic feelings for adolescents, who sometimes feel as though love and identity are inseparable. Similarly, “Young and Beautiful” captures the universal teenage fear of growing up and losing one’s beauty or youth. The line “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?” speaks to the fragility of youth and the pressure teenage girls often feel to hold on to their beauty, relevance, and “innocence.” This fear of temporary beauty resonates with young girls who are coming of age in an era of hyper-visibility and constant comparison on social media. Lana Del Rey’s nostalgic lyricism offers an escape from these pressures, inviting her listeners to connect with a simpler, more idealized version of love and youth.
Another very important conversation is femininity and the ways Lana Del Rey tackles the subject. As discussed in “Editors’ Introduction for NANO Special Issue 16: “This Is What Makes Us Girls”: Gender, Genre, and Popular Music,” while some critics believe her music promotes violence in relationships and can be interpreted as “glamorization of tortured love as a hallmark of femininity,” some believe that Lana Del Rey can be viewed as a a kind of “theorist of gender and genre.” Basically, saying that Lana is attempting to make a claim about the role of femininity and its dependence on the presence of men. She acknowledges that the male gaze is a kind of motivation for women in some instances but she also turns this concept around and challenges it through the idea that “If the heterosexual male gaze largely determines the screen upon which popular cultural desires are projected, Del Rey shows us that the figure in the screen can always gaze back–or step out of it–“to destroy” the status quo.” This is relevant to young women and teens because listening to music that addresses the presence of the male gaze (a very real thing that many heterosexual women deal with) and normalizes flipping the script and being the “gazer” can be a driving factor in developing a healthier sexuality. It is imperative for young girls to understand that male desire doesn’t exist on its own in a heterosexual relationship. It teaches reciprocation and builds healthy ideas of how to interact when attraction is present.
Lana Del Rey’s lyricism speaks directly to the emotional and psychological landscape of young girls, offering a powerful platform for the exploration of vulnerability, sadness, and self-discovery. Through her poetic lyrics, cinematic and seductive soft-spoken sound, Lana Del Rey invites her listeners into a world where emotional depth and complexity are not only celebrated but glorified. Despite the critiques and pathologization of her work, Lana Del Rey remains a key figure in the pop scene, providing young women with the space to explore the full range of human emotions in a society that often seeks to minimize or trivialize their experiences. Through her music, Lana Del Rey has created a legacy that resonates deeply with the emotional lives of young teen girls, offering them a refuge for their most authentic selves.
Link to Conference Paper Presentation:
Works Cited
Holmes, Jessica A. “Billie Eilish and the Feminist Aesthetics of Depression: White Femininity, Generation Z, and Whisper Singing.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 76, no. 3 (2023): 785+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 19, 2025). http://dx.doi.org.ccny- proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1525/jams.2023.76.3.785.
Kappeler, Erin, and Ryan Tracy. “Editors’ Introduction for NANO Special Issue 16: ‘This Is What Makes Us Girls’: Gender, Genre, and Popular Music.” NANO: New American Notes Online, no. 16 (2022): 1b+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 19, 2025). https://link-gale- com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A709025994/AONE? u=cuny_ccny&sid =bookmark-AONE&xid=762e6d35.
Bromwich, Jonah E. “Lana Del Rey.” The New York Times Magazine, March 15, 2020, 33(L). Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 19, 2025). https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr. ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A617460434/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE &xid=bc9d5ecb.
