Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

About Jennifer C. Lena

Jennifer C. Lena is a visiting professor of sociology at Barnard College. She is the author of Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music, and is currently working on Slumming:The Reproduction of Prestige, a study of wealthy fans of folk art.

Why Hipsters Hate On Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey singing at a microphone

BY THE TIME SHE MADE HER WARBLED NATIONAL DEBUT on Saturday Night Live in early 2012, a thousand conspiracy theories had already bloomed about the singer Lana Del Rey. With looks reminiscent of a ’70s-era Bond girl, a backstory that includes a stint living in a trailer park, and a couple of lush-sounding, grainy-looking music videos, Del Rey had emerged in the summer of 2011 and quickly captivated the online tastemaking elite of the alternative-music scene. You can see her appeal to the indie crowd in this video for her song "Video Games:" http://youtu.be/cE6wxDqdOV0 But when it ... Read More