As much as I loved the old Radio Disney teenage superstars – cue a younger Miley Cyrus and a still relevant Jonas Brothers – there is something to be said about the lack of talent coming from my generation these days. Yes, I am seventeen, and yes, most of the kids my age are busy smoking weed and “finding themselves” and generally being angsty – sorry, I meant artsy –, but that doesn’t really excuse the fact that we have elected a heinous number of terrifying representatives for ourselves. Granted, it’s not completely our fault, but in all seriousness, we haven’t done much to stop it. We can call Bieber as many unsavory names on YouTube as we can think of – my personal favorites are “harlot” and “flaxwench” and “vicious trollop” – but that does nothing to change the musical climate here in America (and, quite frankly, across the world). Bieber and One Direction and their army of teenyboppers have taken control of mass media, and have unceremoniously brought everyone and everything else down with them. In order to fix this atrocity, I say we denounce the current “Kings of Cool” and replace them with a new Queen Bee, preferably one who’s actually still a teenager herself.
So, by the power vested in me by my computer and this fancy title of “important” I've given to myself, I’d like to nominate Ella Yelich-O’Connor as our new leader. Ella, or Lorde as she’s known in the music world, is quite possibly the coolest musician to come out of New Zealand since well, ever. The sixteen-year-old Auckland native has recently burst onto the international music scene with her EP, The Love Club, and her first hit “Royals”.
I’d like to say that I’ve known about Lorde for a while, but I first heard “Royals” last week, driving home from school playing radio station roulette. It went a little something like this: here I am, sitting in the car with my mom of all people, and I’m flipping through radio station after radio station, trying to find something moderately bearable. I land on Star 98.7 and instead of the typical male vocalist – or the occasional Florence Welch –I hear something instantaneously more appealing. Here’s a girl with a gorgeous voice – think a hipper Adele or a more approachable and likeable Lana Del Rey – actually singing about something interesting and not the typical T. Swift “I love you…I hate you…I don’t actually know how I feel about you right now but I’m going to sing this song anyway”; Lorde is most definitely a breath of fresh air in the typical, superficially driven world of mainstream music.
Yes, she is a little young – “Royals” attests to that – but if you take a look at the other songs on The Love Club, particularly my personal favorite “Bravado”, it is clear that she has an immense amount of talent, but even more than that, she has an immense amount of potential. She’s catchy without being kitschy and marketable without being stereotypical. She writes and sings all of her songs herself, and unlike the recent Katy Perry – the old Katy Perry was hysterical –she never seems to get tiring or repetitive or annoying.
Although this is only her first release – at least in the United States –Lorde gives me hope for my generation of artists. I appreciate her observational skills and honesty –from teenage cliques to ridiculously decadent musicians –, but most of all I appreciate her bravery and skill. I appreciate the fact that she put herself out there at only sixteen –in arguably one of the toughest industries in the world – and I appreciate the fact that, unlike the disaster that was Rebecca Black, she’s actually extremely talented. This is one artist I can definitely get behind.
So, by the power vested in me by my computer and this fancy title of “important” I've given to myself, I’d like to nominate Ella Yelich-O’Connor as our new leader. Ella, or Lorde as she’s known in the music world, is quite possibly the coolest musician to come out of New Zealand since well, ever. The sixteen-year-old Auckland native has recently burst onto the international music scene with her EP, The Love Club, and her first hit “Royals”.
I’d like to say that I’ve known about Lorde for a while, but I first heard “Royals” last week, driving home from school playing radio station roulette. It went a little something like this: here I am, sitting in the car with my mom of all people, and I’m flipping through radio station after radio station, trying to find something moderately bearable. I land on Star 98.7 and instead of the typical male vocalist – or the occasional Florence Welch –I hear something instantaneously more appealing. Here’s a girl with a gorgeous voice – think a hipper Adele or a more approachable and likeable Lana Del Rey – actually singing about something interesting and not the typical T. Swift “I love you…I hate you…I don’t actually know how I feel about you right now but I’m going to sing this song anyway”; Lorde is most definitely a breath of fresh air in the typical, superficially driven world of mainstream music.
Yes, she is a little young – “Royals” attests to that – but if you take a look at the other songs on The Love Club, particularly my personal favorite “Bravado”, it is clear that she has an immense amount of talent, but even more than that, she has an immense amount of potential. She’s catchy without being kitschy and marketable without being stereotypical. She writes and sings all of her songs herself, and unlike the recent Katy Perry – the old Katy Perry was hysterical –she never seems to get tiring or repetitive or annoying.
Although this is only her first release – at least in the United States –Lorde gives me hope for my generation of artists. I appreciate her observational skills and honesty –from teenage cliques to ridiculously decadent musicians –, but most of all I appreciate her bravery and skill. I appreciate the fact that she put herself out there at only sixteen –in arguably one of the toughest industries in the world – and I appreciate the fact that, unlike the disaster that was Rebecca Black, she’s actually extremely talented. This is one artist I can definitely get behind.
Article by Eliza Bigelow.
