How Lorde changed what it meant to be young
“Oh how fast the evening passes cleaning up the Champagne glasses”
- Sober II, Melodrama

Lorde has been a staple in the Indie music scene ever since she made her debut with The Love Club EP in 2013.
As a young, wallflower of a teenager, her dark bops completely contrasted the stereotyped notion of youth. Gone were the songs about crushes, heartbreaks and sex. Instead, we get songs about the drawbacks of popularity, that innate need to be ‘the popular one’ and the happiness she feels when she’s alone.
Little did she know, just a few months later, a certain song decrying the materialistic narrative of pop would transform the music industry.
At the age of 16, Lorde released the lead single of her debut album, Pure Heroine. As a relatively unknown New-Zealand singer, the raw, minimalistic track wasn’t expected to create much of an impression.
However, Royals would go on to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 9 weeks straight, rivalling Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time as one of the most successful teenage singles of all time. At the 2014 Grammys, Lorde would win 2 of the covetted golden record players, including Song Of The Year.
Unlike Britney Spears, or for that matter, unlike any mainstream music at the time, Pure Heroine, like its lead single, focused on the aspects of youth often hidden from the spotlight. Gone were the teen crushes, petty breakups, shade anthems and sex bangers. Lorde connected to those that wanted more from their youth. The ones that yearned for acceptance, maturity, joy and peace. In Ribs, she mentions what seem to be special anecdotes of her teenagehood, from the parties that took place at her home, to the slow struts through the midnight streets. In Ribs particularly, she plays around with the concept of nostalgia, and how she longs to return to a happier, more innocent time in her life.
In Buzzcut Season, she addresses the media in general while also talking about her fame and its irreparable consequences. She sings, “…and I’ll never go home again…”. While this line refers to Lorde’s new found fame, which will keep her away from home, its also a reference to the escapist desire that many of the youth feel in a world thats only becoming more and more materialistic. As will be noted, escapism is a topic that’s addressed heavily on Pure Heroine as well as on her sophmore album Melodrama.
The album, conincidentally, comes just a year after another major shake up in the musical industry released her debut studio album in 2012. When combing through Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die, its clear where Lorde’s despise towards materialism in pop comes from. In Royals, she opens with, “I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh”. This is in stark contrast to Del Rey’s National Anthem, where she sings, “Money is the anthem, of success” and “Take me to the Hamptons, Bugatti Veyron”.

It’s her 2017 follow up, Melodrama, that really changes the narrative of being young. Using the metaphor of a house party, the 11 tracks on the album create this cohesive narrative involving the often intense fluctuation of emotions she felt after her first break up with her boyfriend. In today’s time, people have come to expect diss tracks along the lines of Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran in the aftermath of a break up. Lorde however, at just 19, showcases more maturity that anyone I’ve seen in mainstream pop. In songs like Liability, she expresses the insecurity she feels in a relationship, and how she might be the one who is causing the demise of their relationship, singing “They say, “You’re a little much for me, you’re a liability”. On Green Light, she craves for closure from her previous relationship, and how she ‘wants that green light’. It’s about how her emotions are holding her back from moving on and how she has to wait for them to give her the green light and move on.
On Supercut, she reminises on the relationship with her ex, and how she removed all the downs and spliced all the good parts of the relationship into a ‘supercut’ and played it again and again. On Sober and Sober II, she asks, “what will we do when we’re sober”. What will we do when, after we party all night, after we enjoy the peak of our love, what will we do when we come to terms with each other? The closest she comes to ‘dissing’ her ex is on Writer in the dark, where she talks about how he probably regrets having “kissed a writer in the dark”. Interestingly, the song serves as Lorde’s ‘Lana moment’ where she talks about she’ll love her ex forever and also embodies a Taylor Swift Blank Space moment where she belts out, “I’ll love you till you call the cops on me”.
The entire album is a sort of self-evaluation and a reflection on the relationship. It showcases Lorde’s growth as a result of the break up, both as an artist and as a person. As an example, on songs like Sober and Perfect Places, for the first time, she curses. This was absent on her previous album. However, it should be noted that she curses only at time of extreme emotion and distraught. She never uses it when its not neccesary, contrasting the current situation of mainstream music, where profanity is prevelant.


The closing track, Perfect Places, is the one that deserves the most attention. As the only song on the album that calls back to the lyricism of Pure Heroine, the track details the aftermath of this metaphorical party. 'Perfect Places’, in this case, refers to the feeling of being high. This can either be the one that comes from drugs or alcohol, which are common at parties, or it could be a reference to the high of a relationship, similar to the one depicted in Sober. It’s the escapism from this materialistic party that she is expressing. She wants to go to a place that brings her actual joy, a perfect place. Not just a temporary one. This is the same escapism she showcases on Pure Heroine, with tracks like Royals and Team.
This 'Perfect Place' could be a variety of things. It could be a healthy, stable relationship, it could be her artistry and songs, it could even be spiritual. But at the end of the day, she does admit that, in the context of a party, there is no Perfect Place.
“A couple rebel top gun pilots flying, with nowhere to be”
- Homemade Dynamite, Melodrama

