‘Pure Heroine’ is Lorde’s debut album wherein her cultivated lyrics, rich vocals and minimalist backing-beats depict teenage life truthfully and beautifully. Royals points out how there is nothing remarkable about the unattainable “gold teeth, grey goose, tripping in the bathroom” Hollywood-like lifestyle of which is portrayed repeatedly in current pop music. Lorde critiques and dismisses this lifestyle as being too distant from her own, and speaks on behalf of all teenagers when she exclaims, “we don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.”
Not only is Lorde a talented musician, her principles also set her apart from other artists in the music industry. She is a self-titled feminist and formed the stage name Lorde to fulfil her avid fascination with aristocracy – “I liked the word lord and so I just put an ‘e’ on the end to make it feminine”. Lorde recently tweeted a retouched photo showing her with smooth, picture-perfect skin alongside an unedited version which displayed her imperfections, reminding her fans that “flaws are ok”. Her view that surrounding teenage imperfections is also portrayed in the song Team, in which she even lyrically beautifies typical teenage insecurities: referring to braces as “a hundred jewels between teeth” and to people with acne scars as having “skin in craters like the moon”.
All in all, Lorde is insanely talented, a positive role model, and, in her own words, living proof that “there are few limits on what can be achieved by anyone of any age, living anywhere and of any race, because of the web.” Perhaps this publication proves that this is indeed the truth.
You’d be lying if you didn’t admit that the vast majority of today’s pop music sounds identical. The music industry keeps churning out songs that repeatedly stick to an outdated, rigid formula. However, when Lorde (aka Ella Yelich O’Connor, the 17-year-old Kiwi) successfully surpassed the homogenised chart-toppers and earned a US number one single with ‘Royals’, she broke the mould.
Anna Shave
Lorde lowdown
Born: 07/11/1996 - she would be in Year 12!
Her first single was released in Novermber 2012
She was nominated for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards- Royals won song of the year!
Lorde is the youngest person to ever be nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammy's.
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