SNP’s word of the day: Lana Del Reycist
Word: Lana Del Reycist
Meaning: Discriminating against someone on the basis of perceived inauthenticity.
Usage: “You guys are all just Lana Del Reycist.” — @AlexBlagg on Twitter
You should know it because: First, we (as in we the writers, and also we the internet) wrote about Lana Del Rey. Then, a little before and a lot after she turned SNL into a SNAFU, we wrote about the Lana Del Rey backlash. Now we’re writing about the backlash to the Lana Del Rey backlash. Is this ridiculous and tiresome? Yes. Welcome to Monday.
The L.A. writer and funnyman Alex Blagg tweeted “Lana Del Reycist” the other day, and I’ve already seen it a couple times elsewhere; c’est great, no? Because while some of the LDR criticisms are on the level—she can hardly sing live, and worse, doesn’t seem to care—most of them stem from a deep, deep, Brooklyn-steeped prejudice. Cool kids don’t like rich kids, and they especially don’t like it when rich kids show us all how easy it is to buy “cool.” Del Rey’s hazy, fake-nostalgic pastiche of Tumblr favourites and time-worn clichés is an exposé of taste, of the “indie” in pop. She blew up the myth like a cheap balloon (while making pretty good pop herself). Now the mythmakers are mad. Well, tough stuff. (Personally: I don’t love her affectations either, but why be mad about old news—pop stars sometimes pretend things!—when you can be mad that she projects a regressive view of her sex as both fairer and weaker? I’m not saying you have to be a “strong female character,” Lana, but not carrying yourself like arm candy might be a cool trick.)
On Saturday’s SNL, Kristen Wiig debunked the debunkings of Del Rey (“she has a fake name,” “she didn’t deserve to play SNL,” “ugh, she’s weird,” etc.) while guised as the poor little rich girl herself. In the new New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones does much the same thing (Best, neatly de-romanticizing line: “Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little.”) Do Wiig and Frere-Jones love Lana? Probably not, but someone has to speak out against Reycism.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://fashionmagazine.com/flare/celebrity/snps-word-of-the-day-lana-del-reycist/&title=SNP’s word of the day: Lana Del Reycist&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Lana.jpg&description=
[caption id="attachment_75181" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Illustration by Lewis Mirrett"] [/caption]
Word: Lana Del Reycist
Meaning: Discriminating against someone on the basis of perceived inauthenticity.
Usage: “You guys are all just Lana Del Reycist.” — @AlexBlagg on Twitter
You should know it because: First, we (as in we the writers, and also we the internet) wrote about Lana Del Rey. Then, a little before and a lot after she turned SNL into a SNAFU, we wrote about the Lana Del Rey backlash. Now we're writing about the backlash to the Lana Del Rey backlash. Is this ridiculous and tiresome? Yes. Welcome to Monday.
The L.A. writer and funnyman Alex Blagg tweeted “Lana Del Reycist” the other day, and I've already seen it a couple times elsewhere; c'est great, no? Because while some of the LDR criticisms are on the level—she can hardly sing live, and worse, doesn't seem to care—most of them stem from a deep, deep, Brooklyn-steeped prejudice. Cool kids don't like rich kids, and they especially don't like it when rich kids show us all how easy it is to buy “cool.” Del Rey's hazy, fake-nostalgic pastiche of Tumblr favourites and time-worn clichés is an exposé of taste, of the “indie” in pop. She blew up the myth like a cheap balloon (while making pretty good pop herself). Now the mythmakers are mad. Well, tough stuff. (Personally: I don't love her affectations either, but why be mad about old news—pop stars sometimes pretend things!—when you can be mad that she projects a regressive view of her sex as both fairer and weaker? I'm not saying you have to be a “strong female character,” Lana, but not carrying yourself like arm candy might be a cool trick.)
On Saturday's SNL, Kristen Wiig debunked the debunkings of Del Rey (“she has a fake name,” “she didn't deserve to play SNL,” “ugh, she's weird,” etc.) while guised as the poor little rich girl herself. In the new New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones does much the same thing (Best, neatly de-romanticizing line: “Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little.”) Do Wiig and Frere-Jones love Lana? Probably not, but someone has to speak out against Reycism.){kind=link}