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I realize Lana Del Rey has inexplicably become the most divisive figure in music to come along in quite a long time, but some of these comments cross the line from criticism to cruelty. Some of these made me literally gasp and say to myself, “holy shit, they PUBLISHED that?!” I’ve not heard her album, but I’ve heard Video Games and Blue Jeans and Born to Die (the song), and while not masterpieces, they’re good songs. The snippets I’ve heard of the rest of the set on iTunes gave me a similar impression. I kind of feel like this is going beyond the work and now they just want to attack her personally. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t necessarily go to bat for Lana; I like her, but I’m not a huge fan. Still, it’s not hard to see just how far this has spiraled out of control.  There is definitely godawful music out there, and if they want to criticize it, then fine. But from what I’ve heard from LDR, it’s nowhere near deserving of some of the things said here. Hell, I wouldn’t say three-quarters of these things about Rebecca Black, and Friday is one of the worst songs I’ve heard in my life. The reviewers quoted here sound like they’ve gone far beyond the bounds of proper critique and resorted to, basically, name-calling. I’d be willing to bet they were among her original fans who thought she was an indie darling, and are still butt-hurt over the fact that that was basically a ruse. And if not, they’re just adding fuel to the fire, trying to bring her down any way they can just because it’s the fashionable thing to do.  I write reviews in my spare time (albeit on games and not music), and if I have a problem with something, I try to explain it neutrally and eloquently. And I’m an amateur. These people are PROFESSIONALS. It absolutely astounds me these people can sleep at night slinging mud rather than constructing a valid argument. How is it that the Mock Turtle has a better code of ethics than people who get paid to review and critique things? It’s one thing if it’s meant to be a tongue-in-cheek, overtly derogatory review in a long line of tongue-in-cheek, overtly derogatory reviews (see also: Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame), but if you’re supposed to be serious, how is this acceptable? Music is subjective, and if you want to hate Lana Del Rey, be my guest. Just do it without sounding like a whiny 7th grader on Facebook.  Side note: you say these are 26 quotes, and that’s true, but not once do you explicitly mention that the quotes come from only five reviews. Misleading much? If it was from 26 different reviews, you’d have a better case (since I’m assuming the entire reason this post was put together was to blast LDR). /rant