Lana Del Rey is currently the star child of the hipster pop scene, with her quirky fashion sense, moody lyrics and drawling voice, she's one of the hottest topics in popular music right now. Del Rey has developed a skill of tapping into the mirky and thunderous definition of what it means to be a woman heartbroken, but without the use of the tired medium that is the power ballad. What's more, thanks to her distinctive stage name, the rest of the world can now call anyone who happens to sound like her "Del Rey-ish"...or "just like Del Rey". The crux of the argument here is that her name stands out as sounding somewhat exotic, but it is also oddly fitting of the persona she has developed in the public eye: it just sounds like the name of an alternative pop singer. But had she kept her actual name for her singing career, things might not have had the same results. Lana was born to the perfectly okay and massively uninspiring name Elizabeth Grant. First thing's first, the forename Elizabeth is a slightly formal and old-fashioned one for the here-and-now nature of the music industry, though she could well have kept it as it too would have matched the hipster-happy style of music she produces. Unfortunately for Del Rey, the surname "Grant", where music is concerned, will forever belong to Eddie "Electric Avenue" Grant, so she did the right thing in changing the whole lot. Well, that and in a world where people have short single names, or fancy sounding longer ones, "Grant" just didn't cut it.
