Her songs aren’t just about heartbreak, they expose the emotional toll of the American
Dream, and the expectations forced on women.
Most people are familiar with the works of Lana Del Rey, from summer nostalgia to crying
your heart out her songs have changed the trajectory of mainstream music. However,
beneath the sultry, vintage American aesthetic, Lana Del Rey’s music is deeply political. This
article explores the underlying political themes in Lana Del Rey’s music, especially her
fixation on the American Dream, traditional values, and femininity; and argues that her
lingering sadness reflects a darker critique rather than romanticisation.
Many of her songs are well-known for their male focus, presenting them as sources of
stability, purpose, or escape. In contrast, women are conveyed as an extension of them,
defined through loyalty, yearning, and emotional endurance. Rather than pushing against
this dynamic, Lana leans into it, giving her music a unique perspective. Her music highlights
how traditional ides of femininity expects women to be present, devoted, and emotionally
available, even when it’s their happiness that suffers. The sadness in her music is not just
about heartbreak, it’s the consequence of tying your sense of meaning to someone else.
Lana exposes the fragility of the American Dream and ‘traditional values’ when women are
the ones carrying the emotional burden.
The American Dream promises everything: love, success, lots of money, freedom; a true
fairytale. Lana’s paints a perfect picture of this, with imagery of idyllic California highways, glamourous wealth, and beautiful homes. On the surface everything appears perfect, yet beneath the dreamy aesthetic, her songs repeatedly reveal a dream that looks less like a goal and more like a fragile façade. Her songs reveal this through attractive, dream-like qualities of success and fame being paired with loneliness or an emotional void. The
American Dream exists visually but emotionally it falls short, in the way that having
everything doesn’t guarantee happiness. ‘Off to the Races’, a personal favourite of mine is
one that encapsulates this vividly. Imagery of wealth and money are strung throughout the
song, swimming pools, Chateau’s, and gold coins echo wealth but underneath her life is
described as ‘flat’ and ‘broke-down’, and the man she’s with as ‘bad’. In doing so, Lana
reveals how glamour, and money cannot mask emotional emptiness.
This example not only exposes the flaws in the American Dream narrative but also shows
that stability is dependent on men. Male figures in her songs are the portrayed as the
gateways to stability, safety, and meaning; once they leave, or disappoint, the entire
‘dream’ falls apart. Similarly, in ‘sad girl’, Lana explores what it’s like being a mistress,
showing the one-sided nature of her relationship where she is merely ‘money on the side’.
She’s got the relationship, she’s got the money, both contributors to the ‘dream’ but it relies on external validation rather than independence, leaving it fragile.
If the American Dream appear fragile in Lana’s music, it is because women are often the
ones to hold it together emotionally. Traditional femininity shows up again and again in
Lana’s songs, especially in the way women are expected to love. Her female voices exude
devotion, loyalty, softness, even patience when they are clearly unhappy. Love isn’t shown
as something mutual or fulfilling, rather as something women must work at emotionally,
experiencing disappointment and holding everything together. The women in her songs
carry the emotional toll of relationships, prioritising their partner’s needs over their own,
while the men are framed as avoidant and dismissive. As a result, happiness is never
prioritised or is made conditional, something that might come only if they are loyal or
patient enough. Over time, sadness transitions from being a temporary feeling to something more normal, even expected. Lana treats this as something simultaneous with womanhood, revealing how dark and unfair these expectations truly are.