“All the music you loved at 16 you’ll grow out of”: Charting Lorde’s musical evolution through the lens of girlhood
When Lorde first burst into the pop music scene as a young naïve teenager from New Zealand, there was no telling of the reckoning that she would provide to the genre at large over the years. She started by reflecting on the rushes of adolescent freedoms and has transformed into gender identity ruminations amid the place for women in the modern world – and, by all accounts, she’ll only continue to keep moving.
It’s worth remembering that Lorde was only 16 when she scored her first-ever number-one single. In this sense, she has been a musical beacon for an entire generation of young women as they, too, make their way into the real world, learning the realities of relationships, self, and society as they go. Above anyone else, she has been the soundtrack to all those moments, becoming a sonic supreme leader under whom young women everywhere will fall in line.
In my own case, Lorde’s music has marked some pretty significant eras in my life – first at 11, then at 14, 20 and now 22. Within the spectrum of anyone’s life, this is a seismic evolution, but when you feel there’s an artist who has perfectly encapsulated every beat of that changing tapestry, you’re bound to form an intrinsic connection to their back catalogue.
Whether it was fantasising over first crushes to the sound of The Love Club, or just not knowing how to keep up with the pace of hedonism on the forthcoming Virgin, it seems every facet of Lorde’s back catalogue has spoken to a specific moment in my memory, just when I needed it the most. I know I’m not the only young woman who feels this, and indeed, it’s a journey that makes Lorde’s musical evolution through the lens of girlhood an even more exhilarating ride.
The sonic evolution of Lorde through girlhood:
‘Royals’ – ‘The Love Club’
When Lorde first released her debut EP The Love Club, aged 16, in 2013, it seemed this fresh voice on the scene would be one to stay, invigorating an alternative edge coupled with smooth chart sonics that immediately turned heads. She was a revelation in one sense, but given that Lorde had first been discovered by music executives at the tender age of 12, the project of bringing her brand to fruition had been long-fought.
While from my own perspective I don’t think I even knew what Grey Goose or a Cadillac was at the age of 11, ‘Royals’ instantly captured this sense of naïve dreams that anyone could be in charge of their own path. In retrospect, it was quite the proclamation for a 16-year-old to make as their introduction to the world, but this blazing boldness was only the first taste of what was to come on Lorde’s sonic road.
‘Ribs’ – ‘Pure Heroine’
When it came to releasing her debut album Pure Heroine only seven months after The Love Club first hit the airwaves, there was nothing more exhilarating nor exciting to the adolescent self than one’s newfound freedom, epitomised perfectly on the song ‘Ribs’. Juxtaposing the dawn of a new life with the anxiety of realising your past truly for the first time in all your young years is a concept rarely understood by anyone except a teenager, and it was a subject Lorde tackled head-on.
Whether it was house parties, being left home alone, or finally learning to appreciate the value of your friendships, those heady early days of adolescence were dizzying for anyone, to say the least. ‘Ribs’ was equally a song to soothe the soul and induce palpitations – because no matter how embarrassing people may say it is, there was nothing like hearing your own life summed up in song, and realising the endless vastness of youth that lay ahead.
‘Green Light’ – ‘Melodrama’
Fast forward a few years, and although on the surface nothing much had changed, the fabric of everyone’s sense of identity – including Lorde’s – had altered entirely. The landscape was suddenly surrounded by partying, drinking, clubs, and hedonism, and the ultimate elixir to this breakneck speed of life was ‘Green Light’.
By the time I reached the age of 18 myself, that song seemed like the pinnacle of everything I thought, felt, and looked in the moment. Screaming the lyrics with my best friend as we drunkenly made our way through the city streets – young, just starting university, feeling on top of the world with no concept of what lay beyond – we were, of course, naïve, but also just loving life. There’s no better making of a memory than that.
‘Stoned at the Nail Salon’ – ‘Solar Power’
Despite the rushing speeds of ‘Green Light’ representing the highlight of life only a few years before, the turning out of your teenage years and into your 20s does inevitably change your outlook irreversibly, as adult life starts to creep in and the realisation hits that the previous cornerstones of everything you once knew have suddenly shifted.
While I can’t say I’ve ever been stoned at a nail salon myself, the song still nevertheless resonates over every note and beat of the passing of time it laments. There’ one line in particular that stands out – “All the music you loved at 16 you’ll grow out of” – and while it is searingly true in many respects, it can never apply to Lorde. Sure, you may have moved on from the specific eras the songs were released in, but the universality at their heart will never leave you.
‘Man of the Year’ – ‘Virgin’
Now we reach the most current chapter, in which Lorde’s reflections on her sense of self, gender, and mind-bending reality combine into one unstoppable force on ‘Man of the Year’. By all accounts, speculating on the nature of her upcoming album, without hearing it until its release on June 27th, Virgin looks set to be Lorde’s most confronting efforts yet, and with it, the themes are ever more complex.
In recent weeks, the singer has spoken of her own sense of gender fluidity which permeates the single – and whether you can personally relate to this or not, it does evoke all the feelings that life stirs up as you progress further into adulthood. ‘Man of the Year’ is equal parts tender, harsh, viscerally sexy but also sincere; a dizzying concoction by any standards, but one that summarises this moment of life so perfectly, when none of us know what we’re doing, and are just trying to find a way through. Of course, Lorde is never going to hold all the answers, but as long as she keeps soundtracking the ebbs and flows of girlhood – with all its theatre, insularity, and everything in between – somehow it seems like we’ll eventually work it out.
