Pop music has constantly evolved over the last decade, adapting to new cultural shifts and artistic influences. Among the artists who have a strong influence on modern pop, singer Lana Del Rey dominates the pop industry with her unique music style. She stands out as one of the most special voices. Emerging in the early 2010s with her breakthrough song “Video Games”, she introduced a more melancholic sound. This contrasted with the upbeat, dance-driven pop trending at the time.
But “Lana Del Rey” wasn’t originally known as “Lana Del Rey”. Before her breakthrough, she performed in small clubs in Brooklyn, New York, with different artist names like Lizzy Grant, May Jailer, and others. She released an album in 2010 called “Lana Del Rey A.K.A Lizzy Grant,” but it did not receive nearly as much fame as her first album, “Born to Die” under the name “Lana Del Rey”.
“Born to Die” is one of the most significant albums of its time, changing the music industry and making a path for new pop styles for new artists. “Born to Die” now has over 10 billion streams on Spotify, with three songs having over one billion streams. It is the longest charting female album on the Billboard Top 200,with 626 weeks (over 11 years) and still going, currently on #128 and all time peak being at #2.
After “Born to Die”, Lana changed her style to rather slow and melancholic music, singing about more depressional topics. After “Born to Die” she released “Ultraviolence”, being her first album to reach #1 on the Billboard top 200 and having over 5.4 Billion streams on Spotify so far. This had a big impact on the music industry. The pop industry changed and so did pop artists.
After that, she released six more albums. “Honeymoon” has different music styles combined, “Lust For Life” is her second Number 1 Album on the Billboard Charts, and is the first album with features. The Weeknd, AS$P Rocky (appearing twice), Playboy Carti and other artists were featured on the album, making it a whole experience for itself due to the different feature genres and voices. After that she released “Norman F****ng Rockwell” with her most popular current song “Cinnamon Girl” reaching daily streams of 1.7 Million on spotify. In 2021 she released two albums “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” and “Blue Banisters”, which are probably her least popular albums with both only having a little over one billion streams on Spotify. Her most recent album is “Did you know that there is a tunnel under ocean Blvd” , being released in March 2023 and reaching two billion streams.
She has a good relationship with “The Weeknd”, with having five songs together and the most famous song of them being “Stargirl Interlude”. This song has 1.5 billion streams on Spotify and it proves that their voices are a match. The sound of Lana’s slow, haunting, raspy voice with The Weeknd’s smooth, deep, rhythmic voice makes this song a true blessing for the ears and the reason why this duo is so popular.
Many artists are shaped by Lana del Rey. Billie Eillish said in an interview that she wouldn’t be where she is without Lana Del Rey. Adele answered the question in her livestream whether she likes Lana Del Rey or not and she answered with “I Love Lana Del Rey”. The popular artist Taylor Swift also did a shout out to her, when she received a Grammy saying that “Lana Del Rey is my favorite” and “ A lot of female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have , if it weren’t for the work she does. I think she is a legacy artist and artist of the decade.” Other popular artists that like Lana Del Rey are Olivia Rodrigo, Raye, Charli XCX. This just proves her impact on the music industry with influencing a lot of people and one of the most famous singers up to date.
Lana Del Rey is currently in the making of her 10th studio album called “Stove”. It was first teased as “Lasso” a rather country album, set to release in 2024, but it never came out. In April 2025, she released 2 singles, set to be in the album, “Henry,come on” and “Bluebird”. It was then called “the right person will stay” and was set to release on May 11th, 2025. After it was not released in May 2025 there was a long pause with no information about the current state.On February, Friday the 13th, she announced that she is gonna release a new single called “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” on Tuesday February 17th. It is a rather southern-gothic country leaning song and came with the announcement that her Album “Stove”, which is renamed again, comes out soon. Based on the three released singles there are similarities to “Did you know that there is a tunnel under ocean BLVD”, with its melancholic, dark and quiet vibes. It is expected to come out soon and some people say it might come out in the next 2-3 months and is expected to continue having that slow southern-gothic country style. However, we don’t have an exact date and after the album is already two years late, fans believe that it could take more time. Her fans must continue waiting and being patient.
Despite her delays, she is a successful and impressive artist. She has already won a lot of awards, 183 Nominations for all kinds of awards and 100 of them she won. She also won one of the biggest awards, the award for “Artist of the Decade”. This just proves all the work she does and how big her influence on the music industry and modern pop artists is. Today, she has almost 65 million monthly listeners on Spotify, making her the 24th most currently listened artist and the 26th most listened artists of all time on Spotify with almost 40 billion total streams, with more streams than international stars like Beyonce or Lady Gaga. Due to her influence on the industry, the fans,artists and the music industry agree that she is the artist of the decade.