A musical evolution: How Lana Del Rey’s approach to genre guarantees her success
In May, Lana Del Rey teased a collaboration with Quavo, the rapper known for his work in the hip-hop trio Migos. With every post that showed the pair together, as many fans left excited comments as those who were confused. The images show the two hanging out on a rural porch, while another sees them posing in a field that looks as though it’s attached to a farm. Was this going to be a country song? A rap number? Del Rey eventually shared a short snippet that seemed to suggest that the song would be a mix of the two.
‘Tough’ was eventually released on July 3rd, just in time for the most American holiday of them all. The song features plenty of references that you’d typically hear in a country song, with Del Rey opening with the lines “Tough like the scuff on a pair of old leather boots/ Like the blue-collar, red-dirt attitude/ Like a .38 made out of brass/ Tough like the stuff in your grandpa’s glass.” Yet, the song’s country twang is sharply contrasted by Quavo’s auto-tuned trap verses, with a pounding beat threatening to shatter the song in two. Instead, it remains cohesive, with Del Rey right at home within the stereotypically opposing genres.
This is nothing new for Del Rey, though; she has always defied categorisation. Over the course of her career, she has experimented with genres as wide-ranging as rock and jazz to bubblegum pop and hip-hop. Take a listen to her unreleased songs, and you’ll find both sugary could-be-hits like ‘Serial Killer’ and ‘Queen of Disaster’ alongside sultry tracks that seem to exist in a genre of their own, like ‘Mermaid Motel’ and ‘Brite Lites’. With her major label debut, Born to Die, she weaved hip-hop beats with baroque orchestration and pop structures, but with her next album, Ultraviolence, rock, jazz and psychedelia became her primary influences.
From there, she released Honeymoon, defined by a blend of jazz, mellow pop and underscored by trap beats, while albums like Blue Banisters and Chemtrails Over The Country Club (both 2022) were more heavily inspired by country, folk, soft rock and Americana. These albums have sharply different sounds, but you always know it’s Lana Del Rey. Her distinctive vocals, dreamy melodies and personal lyricism evoking vivid portraits of womanhood, America, and the complexity of love and relationships make the songs unmistakably hers.
Del Rey’s ability to maintain authenticity and personality while working within such a vast range of styles and blending sounds that don’t typically belong together has guaranteed her success. It’s clear that, no matter if Del Rey is singing over saxophones and piano or synthetic beats, her artistry is never compromised. This blending of styles made her stand out in 2012 when she released Born to Die – the album possesses such a specific world of its own – and that quality hasn’t disappeared in the years since.
The singer has managed to master the ability to marry different worlds perfectly, something she has always been attracted to, both sonically and lyrically. She loves to merge the past with the present, as demonstrated best by albums like Born to Die, Ultraviolence and Honeymoon. With her debut, she mixed references to vintage Old Hollywood glamour (Marilyn Monroe), classic American poets (Walt Whitman), and locations steeped in cinematic history (Chateau Marmont) with a modern edge, allowing different time periods to coexist flawlessly. This was hugely influential, with the singer inspiring other alternative artists to follow suit.
She has often executed this contrast by collaborating with rappers, blending her retro aesthetics with trap beats to create an innovative blend of old and new. Her breathy vocals couldn’t be more perfect for her underrated track ‘Summer Bummer’, featuring A$AP Rocky, and the pair’s unreleased collaboration ‘Ridin’ is made so brilliant by Del Rey’s playfulness.
The musician has also worked with The Weeknd and Tommy Genesis, proving that just because rap features within pop songs are typically associated with mainstream, chart-topping artists, that doesn’t have to be solely the case. By bringing rap into her alternative genre-blending sphere, Del Rey keeps the door open for fans of all genres to appreciate her work.
Del Rey’s clear love of everything from ‘50s jazz and ‘70s classic rock to 2010s trap and modern country music suggests that it is possible to have a wide breadth of influences and actually take inspiration from them all. She doesn’t limit herself, experimenting with seemingly clashing genres and always making it work. Through her dedication to genuine expression, Del Rey has garnered a large fanbase who appreciate her radical and influential approach to making music.
