

The Paradise EP and her epic “Ride” video soon followed, expanding on Born to Die’s themes of romantic fatalism, while galvanizing an emerging cult fanbase that hung on her every word.

“Lana Del Rey” became an instantly identifiable aesthetic, the same way the likes of David Lynch, Mad Men, Margaret Keane, or Amy Winehouse had before her. Del Rey took the girl-group, Nancy Sinatra pop stylings of the ’60s, and fused it with modern cinematic production and a glamorous, Hollywood-inspired image, to create a kind of hyper-real 21st century Americana. Lana Del Rey on Finding Her Voice and Following Her Muse: 'I Have Never Taken a Shortcut'īorn to Die, her 2012 major-label debut, arrived with impossibly high levels of both hype and trepidation, to decidedly mixed initial reactions.
