{"id":11428,"date":"2014-03-05T14:41:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T19:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bostonsurvivalguide.net\/wordpress\/?p=11428"},"modified":"2014-03-06T10:12:46","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T15:12:46","slug":"lorde-the-pure-heroine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bostonsurvivalguide.net\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/lorde-the-pure-heroine\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorde: The Pure Heroine?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I ask a lot from my music. A strong beat, something tuneful or catchy, isn’t enough for me. It’s not enough to hold my attention, and it’s not enough to inspire me to write. There has to be philosophical inquiry, social observation, searching, or struggling, scathing commentary, yearning, mourning, hunger. If it doesn’t provide me with answers, at the very least it has to ask the right questions. Whether it does this in words, in music, or both, I really don’t care. But it has to do something.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if Lorde<\/a><\/strong> can be trusted. Is she the youngest philosopher of our time, or a savvy business woman light-years beyond her earthling age? In either scenario, if she indeed is the author of these coming of awareness tales, precociously making her social observations and spewing her venom towards mainstream culture while starkly framed by the skeletal remains of modern tribal electronica, then she’s a genius. <\/p>\n

“All the double-edged people and schemes.
\nThey make a mess then go home and get clean.
\nYou’re my best friend, and we’re dancing in a world alone,
\na world alone, we’re all alone.”
\n– A World Alone<\/p>\n

Does it matter if she’s genuine? For her legions of teenage worshipers looking for a role model who won’t sell them out, it matters a great deal. For the rest of us, she’s intriguing regardless. This young woman seems to have her eyes wide open, experiencing while reporting on the moral conflicts and torn emotions of teendom, bombarded by the seductive lure of sparkly objects yet wary of becoming part of a demographic, a foot away from the conveyor belt of consumerism and status envy, a short ride to the slaughterhouse. Lorde claims to be different, not influenced by mainstream culture. She says she’s not a “white teeth teen” (her words). She burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere with a beautiful unautotuned voice and razor sharp insights. This is at a time when the pop music landscape is littered with liars, and we’ve all grown tired of being taken for fools. Visionary or charlatan—which is it, Lorde?<\/p>\n

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Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor<\/a><\/strong> was raised in an Auckland suburb, where her upbringing included support and encouragement from her mother Sonja Yelich<\/a><\/strong>, a prize winning New Zealand poet. Immersed in literature, arts and a fertile imagination, she chose Lorde as her stage name because of a fascination with aristocracy.<\/p>\n

“But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
\nJet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
\nWe don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair.”<\/p>\n

“And we’ll never be royals (royals).
\nIt don’t run in our blood,
\nThat kind of luxe just ain’t for us.
\nWe crave a different kind of buzz.”
\n– Royals<\/p>\n

I’d love to believe her. Maybe I’m just old and jaded; I don’t know. But nothing would make me happier than to come upon an empowering role model for young women who isn’t a material girl twerking across a stage in latex and bondage gear.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that growing up in a literary household (and reading authors like Kurt Vonnegut<\/a><\/strong> and Raymond Carver<\/a><\/strong> in her pre-teen years) gave her a richly diverse palette from which to create. It’s traditional storytelling with the buzzwords and catchphrases of today’s youth, reveling in contemporary culture while at the same time rejecting it in favor of individual identity.<\/p>\n

There’s a unique perspective that comes from living on a small pair of islands<\/a><\/strong> more than 2,500 miles from the nearest mainland. You see everything happening in the world—the riches, the excess, the hypocrisy, the lies—and yet, you’re removed from it somehow, like a child staring in at an adult’s dinner party from the other side of the glass window. Or, in Lorde’s case, an old soul housed in a teenage body, looking in at a high school prom.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if Lorde is the real deal, and if she’ll go on to reach even loftier heights of perception. Will she become ensnared by the lure of celebrity, a believer in her own legend, or will she continue to be an objective observer of her own predicament?<\/p>\n

“I was frightened of every little thing that I thought was out to get me down
\nTo trip me up and laugh at me”
\n“But I learnt not to want
\nThe quiet of the room with no one around to find me out
\nI want the applause the approval the things that make me go”
\n– Bravado<\/p>\n

“Pretty soon I’ll be getting on my first plane
\nI’ll see the veins of my city like they do in space
\nBut my head’s filling up fast with the wicked games, up in flames
\nHow can I fuck with the fun again, when I’m known
\nAnd my boys trip me up with their heads again, loving them
\nEverything’s cool when we’re all in line for the throne
\nBut I know it’s not forever.”
\n– Tennis Court<\/p>\n