Music

Read Liz Phair's 'Wall Street Journal' op-ed in defense of Lana Del Rey

by Nicole Villeneuve

Rolling Stone recently asked 90s indie rock icon Liz Phair for a soundbite opinion on Lana Del Rey (who is apparently not planning on making another album, by the way), but Phair had more to say and took her longer opinion to the Wall Street Journal instead.

Phair, who is no stranger to critical lashings herself, writes that Del Rey’s (debated) self-constructed route is something she’s fought for and encouraged for years.

“Lana Del Rey is exactly what I was hoping to inspire when I took on the male rock establishment almost twenty years ago with my debut record, Exile In Guyville,” she says, adding, “I would argue that the uncomfortable feelings she elicits are simply the by-product of watching a woman wanting and taking like a man.”

“I don’t give a f— about your labels, I just want to hear the true voices of women self-expressing—smart ones, stupid ones, ugly ones, beautiful ones, good ones, bad ones, fat ones, thin ones, all of it–until the profound silence that has resounded throughout history is filled with a healthy chorus coming from our side of the aisle…as a recording artist, I’ve been hated, I’ve been ridiculed, and conversely, hailed as the second coming. All that matters in the end is that I’ve been heard.”

Read the full op-ed over here. And while you’re at it, watch Saturday Night Live and Kristen Wiig’s Del Rey defense below.