When Lana Del Rey delivered her major label debut single ‘Video Games’ in 2011, the pop world shifted on its axis. The dreamy baroque ballad wasn’t like anything else in the charts, and its homemade music video, featuring webcam shots of a melancholic-looking Del Rey and grainy vintage clips, seemed out of place on MTV.
In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at number nine on the singles chart, a sure sign of Del Rey’s burgeoning popularity. There was something unique about the singer’s mysterious and cinematic sound which led people to want more, and her subsequent album, Born to Die, proved immensely successful. The record is defined by a specific aesthetic, blending vintage iconography with a modern twist. Sonically, hip-hop beats are as prevalent as classical strings, and Del Rey’s lyrics paint a vivid picture of toxic relationships with admirable honesty.
Del Rey has continued to experience supreme acclaim as she has released further albums, such as the rock-inspired Ultraviolence, the sun-drenched Norman Fucking Rockwell and her most recent effort, the eclectic Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. The singer is, without a doubt, one of the most important figures of the 21st century, not only musically but culturally, with her presence consistently shaping a generation of teenagers and young people through her dominance in online spaces, such as YouTube, Tumblr and now TikTok.
While Del Rey’s influence has been acknowledged by artists from Lorde to Father John Misty, few have been as vocal about the singer’s impact as Billie Eilish. The young musician emerged with her tender track ‘Ocean Eyes’, officially released in 2016 when Eilish was just 14. Her debut EP, Don’t Smile at Me, with its recognisable red and yellow cover, launched Eilish to further stardom, and like Del Rey, websites such as Tumblr helped foster her popularity.
For Del Rey’s Interview magazine cover, Eilish discussed the singer’s impact on her, explaining, “You really paved the way for everyone. People have been trying to look and sound like you since you first started. I talk about this with Finneas. You changed the way the music industry hears and sees music, and you changed the way people sing.”
In response, Del Rey exclaimed, “That’s amazing because you do that,” to which Eilish replied, “It’s because of you, dude.”
Eilish explained how Del Rey’s songwriting has significantly inspired her own approach to creating music. She said, “That was one of my biggest inspirations from you — your storytelling abilities and your ability to write from a character’s point of view. I find it a lot easier to write a song if it’s not about my life and if it’s not true.”
Del Rey’s influence on Eilish is more than apparent, allowing the 21-year-old singer to become one of the most successful alternative pop stars of all time. Due to Del Rey’s demonstration that honing a unique and unconventional aesthetic can get you far, Eilish has been able to do the same, possessing an idiosyncratic style that has attracted the attention of millions of fans worldwide.
