Taylor Swift and Lana del Rey are two of the most popular female artists right now. We all know that "1989" is one of the best-selling pop albums of all time, and Lana is the most-streamed female artist on Spotify. In short, we love them both. But they're so different.
Taylor is the sweet, (not so) innocent girl who spends her time with her cats, DJ boyfriend and glamorous group of powerful girlfriends. She never curses when she sings or speaks, her songs are about dating, and she uses clean language to discuss everything that comes with it. She spends a lot of her time in the spotlight, trying to change the music industry and, honestly, the world one day at a time. We constantly hear about what good ol' T-Swizzle is up to.
Now, Lana is the bad girl who dates producers and spends her time out of the spotlight, indifferent to change. When she is in the spotlight, we see her smoking cigarettes, dropping F-bombs and being "chill." Her songs are about a plethora of adult topics — drugs, addiction, abuse, sex and love — and she conveys her angst through curse words. We never hear what Lana is up to. Actually, we don't really know all that much about her, except for that her music is ballin'.
These two women are so different personally and stylistically that their popularity is almost a contradiction. Taylor has a more modern style to her while Lana keeps things classic. Taylor believes she's a feminist; Lana wouldn't define herself as one. Taylor is a strong presence on social media while Lana just recently got Instagram. Taylor stays blonde while Lana constantly changes shades of brown. Taylor uses auto-tune in her recordings, but Lana stays pretty true to her voice. Taylor discusses heartbreak from an independent yet hurt perspective, but Lana embraces the sadness and loss that comes with it.
To me, these two women represent the two personalities that the women of Generation Y want to have. They want to be a mix of the two: sweet and innocent with lots of friends while smoking, drinking and remaining mysterious. They want to be independent from men while embracing their sad emotions and letting the men they love take control. It's very interesting to see.
So, why do we love them so much? Why can we be fans of them at the same time when their styles are so drastically different? Maybe the combination of these two women is the true representation of the women of Generation Y. We can be sweet and have a lot of friends and enjoy our lives while running wild and staying out of the spotlight. Maybe we should just "be young, be dope, be proud...like we're 22."
