After a brief false start to her career under her given name of Lizzy Grant, the pop chanteuse Lana Del Rey emerged fully formed with her 2012 debut Born to Die. Her music — self-consciously retro, Xanax-glazed, minor-key balladry laden with Twitter-ready punchlines — has not changed much since then. But the critical consensus around its artistic and cultural merit has profoundly, and with it, our conception of what it takes to be a true pop star.
The year Born to Die was released, Pitchfork, at a crossroads between its indie roots and its current status as the millennial equivalent of 1990s-era Rolling Stone, lauded on its year-end list art-damaged freaks such as Swans and Death Grips, fussy indie traditionalists Grizzly Bear and Tame Impala, and the 1990s veteran Fiona Apple alongside cusp-of-mega-stardom performers Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean.
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