There is little wisdom in “Born to Die,” but more than enough pleasure.Ĭritics have been especially pointed in attacking Del Rey’s live performances. But “Born to Die” is a skillful blend of synthetic nostalgia and teen-age emotions, set pieces constructed for a character she has described as a “gangster Nancy Sinatra” and “Lolita lost in the hood.” Anyone committed to taking Del Rey down now would have to be deaf to the gorgeously odd confections that pop affords. The Internet, as always, is a double-edged sword.
Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little. Much of the rest of the Internet is equally interested in Del Rey, although few commenters have been as amusing as Carles. and several other countries and the popular blog Hipster Runoff has rebranded itself the Lana Del Report, with the pseudonymous author Carles writing dozens of obsessive ruminations about her. The allegedly homemade clip for her single “Video Games,” from the new album, has racked up more than twenty-one million views on YouTube since it was posted, last August the song has gone into the Top Ten in the U.K. Grant has benefitted from a similar dynamic. In the last few years, acts like the Weeknd and Salem have benefitted from starting as rumors and remaining cloaked for long enough to drive people to constant speculation-a nervous rhythm suited to blogs and their need for multiple posts per day. Photograph by Nicole NodlandĪ lot has happened to Grant in four years, most of it on the Internet, which is both her albatross and her instrument.
Listen to this week’s episode of Strictly Business below.Lana Del Rey’s music is theatrical, noncommittal, and better on recordings than in person. She then transitioned to New York’s Metropolitan Opera - and then made an even more dramatic shift to chief marketing officer of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation - before settling at TaP Management, where she was named president in 2018. to take prominent marketing roles at major labels, working alongside Clive Davis and Diddy. She began her career with music industry posts in her native Singapore as well as Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. Ong, a veteran of Variety’s Power of Women list, brings a remarkably diverse background to TaP. Millett, who co-founded TaP in 2010 with music attorney Ben Mawson, had previously worked in management for Moby and the Kinks’ Ray Davies as well as his own band. The company also represents many other up-and-coming artists, as well as songwriters and producers, and also boasts a label, publishing company and digital marketing unit. Of course, there’s much more to TaP Music than the above artists. They also discussed Dua Lipa’s decision to release her very party-centric album “Future Nostalgia” just as the pandemic was beginning in March of 2020 - and how, even though it seemed completely out of step with the mood of that time, it went on to win a Grammy and, more importantly, provide a welcome relief and release for so many people, who got their grooves on at home in their pajamas instead of the club.
But it soon turns toward the challenges that she and they faced, first from skeptical record companies, then from Del Rey’s insistence that “Video Games” - “a five-minute song that doesn’t really have a chorus,” as he says - be her first single, and then trying to keep her career on track as it took off faster and bigger than they had expected. The conversation - which took place during the Mondo NYC music and tech conference in October - starts with Millett discussing founding the company in 2010 with his partner, fellow co-CEO Ben Mawson, and how Del Rey’s skyrocketing career basically dominated their first 18 months in business. In this week’s installment of Strictly Business, Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment, TaP Music’s Ed Millett and Wendy Ong go deep about the rewards and challenges of managing such prominent and pioneering artists as Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Caroline Polacheck, Noah Cyrus and many more.
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