It started with Say Yes to Heaven. My son played it for me a few months ago, and I was immediately pulled in — the lush instrumentals, Lana Del Rey’s haunting voice. It was an intoxicating feeling.
Say Yes to Heaven was released in 2023 but it was only last year it exploded on TikTok, introducing a new generation to Del Rey’s unique brand of American nostalgia.
Before that, I’d only ever listened to a handful of her songs, like Video Games and Blue Jeans, but something about this track pushed me to explore deeper.
I started diving into her discography, and it’s been a revelation. Every song feels like peeling back another layer, uncovering hidden gems and stories.
Del Rey’s music is a glittering kaleidoscope of nostalgia, melancholy, and cultural critique.
The more I listened, the more I began to see how she does something extraordinary: she doesn’t just draw from American culture; she reimagines it entirely.
Behind the Sepia Filter: The Art of American Memory
How did you feel when first hearing Lana’s classic track Video Games? Lana Del Rey turned nostalgia into something deeply intimate.
Blending melancholic lyrics with cinematic visuals in the music video, and capturing fleeting moments of love and longing through her unique lens.
Over a decade later, she’s still doing this with her music.
It’s rather like coming across your grandmother’s vintage dress from the depths of her wardrobe and repurposing it for a night out.
Del Rey is a pro at taking fragments of America’s past and making them shimmer with a modern edge.
The American Dream Gets a Gothic Makeover
Del Rey’s version of Americana isn’t all white picket fences and apple pies.
Take National Anthem for instance, where she reimagines the Kennedy era through a dark, almost surreal lens casting herself as a tragic Jackie O figure.
The accompanying video, featuring A$AP Rocky as JFK, challenges traditional narratives about race, power, and American identity.
Her Born to Die (2012) era dripped with red, white, and blue, but there was always something unsettling lurking beneath the surface — a reminder that the American Dream often comes at a cost.
The Evolution of an American Sound
Born to Die (2012) introduced us to Del Rey’s baroque pop meets hip-hop sound, draped in American flags and Hollywood glamour.
By Ultraviolence (2014), she’d shifted towards psychedelic rock, exploring America’s grittier underbelly through tracks like Florida Kilos – trading diamonds for darker dreams.
By the time Honeymoon (2015) arrived, she had mastered the art of blending old Hollywood grandeur with contemporary sadness, crafting soundscapes that felt timeless yet deeply rooted in the now.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019) marked another transformation, embracing the Laurel Canyon sound while subverting the very Americana it celebrated.
The album’s title track opens with Goddamn, man-child – hardly the wholesome vision its namesake artist was known for, but perhaps a more honest reflection of modern American masculinity.
Del Rey’s 2021 album Chemtrails Over the Country Club continued this evolution, diving deeper into the intricacies of nostalgia and identity.
The title track is a standout, its dreamy melody paired with lyrics that evoke a yearning for freedom amid suburban conformity.
The accompanying music video furthers this narrative, juxtaposing surreal, otherworldly imagery with moments of domesticity and leisure.
It feels like a reflection on the quiet, sometimes eerie beauty of American privilege and its cracks beneath the surface.
Tracks from the album such as White Dress and Let Me Love You Like a Woman balance introspection with dreamy Americana imagery, showcasing a quieter, more introspective Lana.
The album feels like a delicate reflection on fame, femininity, and the weight of cultural expectations.
The Poetry of Place
Through her lyrics, Del Rey transforms American locations into emotional landscapes:
- California becomes a state of mind in Venice Bitch
- The East Coast transforms into a noir film in Brooklyn Baby
- The American highway system turns into a spiritual journey in Ride
- Waffle Houses and dive bars become temples of authentic American experience
Musical Milestones: Key Songs in Del Rey’s American Anthology
Paradise Era (2012)
Ride demonstrates her nomadic American spirit, but Cola and Body Electric are equally fascinating explorations of American excess and celebrity culture.
American directly addresses her complex relationship with national identity, while Gods & Monsters explores Hollywood’s darker underbelly.
Born to Die Deep Cuts
Beyond Video Games and Blue Jeans, tracks like This Is What Makes Us Girls and Radio paint vivid pictures of American youth and small-town dreams.
Off to the Races references Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” while exploring themes of wealth and power in American relationships.
Ultraviolence Layers (2014)
Brooklyn Baby perfectly captures American counter-culture nostalgia, referencing beat poetry and jazz.
West Coast reimagines California’s musical heritage with its tempo-shifting tribute to West Coast rock.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! Hidden Gems (2019)
The Greatest serves as a eulogy for American culture, while Bartender and California continue her exploration of West Coast mythology.
The Next Best American Record (although ultimately released on a different album) directly addresses the American music industry’s impact on artistry.
Recent Revelations
Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023) shows her contemplating American infrastructure as metaphor, while Sweet Carolina offers a more intimate view of modern American family life.
Del Rey’s cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads at Nashville’s Robert’s Western World in 2023 demonstrates her ongoing dialogue with traditional American music forms.
Collaborations That Count
Del Rey’s work with The Weeknd on Lust for Life (2017) brings together different perspectives on the American Dream, while her cover of Sublime’s Doin’ Time (2019) reimagines California surf culture through her distinctive lens.
Each of these songs adds another layer to Del Rey’s complex portrait of American culture, proving that her exploration of Americana goes far deeper than her most well-known hits suggest.
The Venice Beach Chronicles
Venice Bitch, a sprawling 10-minute odyssey from Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019), perfectly encapsulates Del Rey’s approach to nostalgic reinvention.
The song starts as a sweet summer love song before dissolving into a psychedelic meditation on time and memory.
It’s pure California dreaming, filtered through a lens that’s both reverent and slightly warped.
Finding Beauty in the Broken American Dream
Del Rey’s track A&W from her 2023 album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd marked a significant evolution in her storytelling.
The song’s shift from old-Hollywood glamour to trap-influenced beats mirrors America’s own cultural transitions.
The “American Whore” referenced in the title isn’t just a character – she’s a symbol of how the American Dream has morphed and fragmented over time.
Blue Jeans and Broken Things
In Ride (2012), Del Rey casts herself as a modern-day frontier woman, searching for freedom on the open road.
The song’s iconic monologue feels like a Beat poem crossed with a Hollywood script: “I believe in the country America used to be… I believe in the person I want to become.”
It’s nostalgia with self-awareness, acknowledging that the past we long for might never have existed as we imagine it.
The Laurel Canyon Connection
Her shift to a Laurel Canyon-inspired sound on Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019) wasn’t just a stylistic choice; it was a dialogue with one of America’s most mythologised musical eras.
Tracks like Mariners Apartment Complex and How to Disappear channel the spirit of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez while remaining unmistakably modern.
Lana’s Legacy: Nostalgia as Resistance
Del Rey’s influence extends beyond music. Her aesthetic has inspired countless fashion trends, from flower crowns to vintage Americana style.
Her approach to storytelling has influenced a new generation of artists who blend nostalgia with modern sensibilities.
Her work has also revived interest in mid-century Americana, sparking a resurgence in retro photography, vintage filters, and old-school fashion.
Even the TikTok trend, like the reimagining Say Yes to Heaven, show how her artistry continues to resonate with younger generations.
Essential Listening: The Americana Playlist
Video Games – Vintage Hollywood romance
National Anthem – Kennedy-era reimagining
Ride – Modern frontier woman manifesto
Venice Bitch – California psychedelia
Mariners Apartment Complex – Laurel Canyon revival
A&W – Contemporary American gothic
For Further Exploration
Similar Artists: Weyes Blood, Bobbie Gentry, Alexandra Savior, Father John Misty
Recommended Reading: Joan Didion’s essays on California
Cultural Context: American Gothic literature, Beat poetry, Hollywood’s Golden Age
Lana Del Rey And The Power of Nostalgia
As we step into 2025, Del Rey’s music continues to evolve, but her core remains the same.
From the baroque-pop dramatics of Born to Die to the psychedelic haze of Ultraviolence and the Laurel Canyon influences of Norman Fucking Rockwell!, her work has always been about reimagining American culture.
Through her lens, even the imperfections of the American Dream become poetic, something worth examining and cherishing.
She shows us that nostalgia isn’t just about looking back – it’s about understanding where we are now, and perhaps even where we’re headed.
In the space between what America was and what it could be, Lana Del Rey continues to create art that feels both timeless and thoroughly modern.
This isn’t just about music anymore. It’s about how we choose to remember, how we frame our dreams, and how we can take fragments of the past to create something vivid and alive for today.
For me, this is what makes Lana Del Rey’s art timeless. Listening to her music feels like driving down a winding scenic route, rediscovering overlooked memories and finding unexpected beauty in them.
It’s not just about America or its culture; it’s about all of us. Lana’s music invites us to explore our past, and transform it into something meaningful.
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