Who Is This Lana Del Rey Person and Is She Awesome or Awful?

Wikipedia says, "Elizabeth Grant (born June 21, 1986), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter." But the Interwebkinz say, "Whooo? Whaaa? How? For realsies? Cool? *Facepalm*"

From what we can tell, Lana Del Rey is the new darling of the indie music world. Or else she's the soul-sucking embodiment of all that is wrong with everything in the world ever in the history of man. Either way, she's getting a lot of hype—and a lot of our Googling allowance this week. (We have a quota to fill.)

As set forth in the Declaration of Twitterpendence (ratified and signed into law at the Conference of Facebook in 2001), everyone MUST HAVE AN OPINION. Before you form yours, some things to consider:

1. Her Look. Del Rey has described herself as "the gangsta [sic] Nancy Sinatra." She backs that up with '50s-style flowing curls, an impossibly plumped pouter, hip-hop bling, and nailz. She may or may not have the same affliction as Keira Knightley, where it is physiologically impossible for her to fully close her mouth. Also, she kind of looks like Pam from True Blood.

2. Her Sound. Kind of like a sexier Adele or a soberer Amy Winehouse, her sultry, husky, haunting ballads sound like they should be floating from smoke-filled piano lounges full of washed-up actresses. She sings about video games, Diet Mountain Dew, blue jeans, and driving in cars with boys without devolving into predictable syrupy pop.

3. Her Name. Lizzy Grant was carefully christened Lana Del Ray (after the Old Hollywood actress Lana Turner and an '80s model of Ford) by her management and label (Interscope, who also gave the world Limp Bizkit and Lady Gaga). Before you scoff at the calculated marketing of it all (because that's what it is), remember that Bob Dylan was once Robert Allen Zimmerman.

4. The Backlash. The hipsters are piiiiiissed. They thought they'd found their new edgy, authentic pin-up girl. That is until they realized a major label had manufactured her. Perhaps they are just pissed because they actually liked Lana Del Ray before they realized they were so easy to manufacture for? Hrrmmm....

Will you be buying Lizzy/Lana's album when it comes out in January?

Related post: The Perfect Playlist: Music Snob Edition