Publisher's Synopsis
The controversial artist Lana Del Rey seemed to appear fully-formed with her melancholy viral hit 'Video Games' - but the story started long before. She had written and performed for many years under many names with no fanfare. Each time she changed her name, she was drawn inexorably closer to the finished product - a synthesis of real life and fantasy - that we see now. F.A. Mannan considers everything that has gone into the equation: the music, the poetry and films but also the places and experiences that allow the songs to communicate despite the media circus around them. The guide considers the strange way the music industry and the press operate today, and the feedback loop between these mechanical business processes and the creative act. The tense gender politics and the blurry notions of authenticity the jut awkwardly into Del Rey's faintly otherworldly image are given due consideration.
