You’re Not Hallucinating: 6 Themes Lana Del Rey Never Forgets
Chances are, if you’re in love with James Dean, use the word “dope” as a synonym for “cool,” and wrapping yourself in the American Flag seems iconic, you’re probably a Lana Del Rey fan.
If there’s one thing you can say about Lana Del Rey that she’d probably detest being described as – it would be consistency. After fishing through her discography from Born To Die to the ‘Lust For Life’ single, there are reoccurring themes you can’t shake. And for those of you who don’t know your Lana Del Rey from your Halsey, you may sometimes get songs confused because of the same, for lack of a better term, “thematic pentameter.”
Birthday Girl Lana is probably up on the Hollywood sign right now, crying in the rain wearing her party dress, and if there’s one thing you can do for her, is to bring her a Pepsi Cola and listen to some Bruce Springsteen with her, and she’d probably think that you’re as sweet as sugar.
^^ If you’re fluent in Lana, that should have made you laugh a lot.
At any rate, when you talk about Lana Del Rey’s Music, there are 5 leading themes that stick with her song content (yes, we actually went through and tallied based on lyrical content).
Love (Average – >95% of songs)
Pretty much every song is about falling in love, falling out of love, being so “crazy” in love. Anything involving that will work for a Lana Del Rey Song.
Death (> than 10 songs)
Talking about being haunted by a lover, waiting at Heaven’s gates to see if “you’re hers,” and more, Death is a huge theme factor in her music.
High / Drugs / Drinking (> than 20 mentions)
Though not always specifically coming out to say what drugs she was on, but mentioning the idea of being “high,” as well as comments on drinking, no matter what type of drinking or partying, you can tell the era of thought in Lana Del Rey’s mind must have come from the same era as Mad Men.
Celebrity Name / Song Lyric Ripped From A Song (>15 Mentions)
James Dean. Elvis. Marilyn Monroe. Hunter S. Thompson. Bruce Springsteen. Hotel California, and Stairway to Heaven. All things brought up in Lana’s songs.
Money and Religion (> 15 Mentions)
More often than not, Lana makes mention of having money, doing “tricks” for money, and how God isn’t on her side are all common themes of songs throughout Lana’s discography.
(American Horror Story’s Jessica Lange covered the song “Gods & Monsters,” and that was the clean version to share of this song.)
Diamonds (>10 Mentions)
Shining, sparkling and buying me lots of diamonds are all notes that Lana makes, which honestly, this one was the inspiration for this entire post. After hearing her mention Diamonds more than 5 times, it took some realization that many of the themes are super repetitive.
Now, though this was slightly satirical for Lana’s Birthday, we do wish her the best, and we may or may not be sending her a Thesaurus for her celebration.
Amy Cooper is the type of journalist that when asked “What do you bring to the table,” she replies “I am the table.
