Forget twerking. Or going out on stage in your underwear. There’s a new star in the universe, and her name is Lorde.
That’s the stage name of 16-year-old Ella Yelich-O’Connor, a suburban New Zealand girl who has shot past America’s biggest pop stars the old-fashioned way: with a good voice and solid song-writing. Lorde’s bet seems to be that if you don’t give people something outlandish to stare at, they pay more attention to your music.
It’s paid off: She’s the youngest person to land atop the Billboard charts in 26 years, pushing Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus to second and third places respectively.
She’s done so with music that pokes fun at her own industry. Her No. 1 hit “Royals,” for example, sends up the sleaze and excess too often present in pop culture, especially in music videos — and does so with simple yet rich harmonies. Even the album title, “Pure Heroine,” is a clever play on words that zings pop’s shock culture.
Which raises the question: Who’s the real rebel here? A tongue-wagging Miley sitting on a wrecking ball while naked? Or Lorde, who makes music she wants to make while looking both chic and age-appropriate?
While it’s too soon to tell what will become of Lorde, we wish her well. Whatever else she has achieved, the New Zealander’s break-out success proves you don’t have to act like a tramp to sell to teens.
To quote her chart-topper about all those self-indulgent pop-video cliches featuring jet planes, paradise islands and diamond-bedecked watches, “that kind of luxe just ain’t for us.”