Bitch Better Have My Money music video (2015)
Last night as I was searching Spotify for music to fall asleep to, it occurred to me to play some of my favorite dark, anguished, and romantic music by women. It is Valentine’s day after all.
Artists like Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, and Lorde are some of the biggest names in music over the last few years and they’ve been making some of the most emotionally complex music. Their songs are agonizing, punishing, and hopelessly romantic at the same time. These women blame themselves for their misfortunes just as soon as they’d cast their wrath on the men or women who caused it.
In storytelling, whether it’s literature or in films, the “femme fatale” is a mysterious and seductive woman. She’s someone who “casts a spell” on her traditionally male “victims” as she ruins their lives — perfect careers and families and all. Her enchanting abilities come from using her beauty and allure to destroy the male character.
These women, for most of history, have represented promiscuity, moral ambiguity, and a rejection of motherhood and the nuclear family. These women have been villains in the traditional stories, who’s agency brings a sense of unease to the stability of family and women’s dependence on men.
The femme fatale’s rejection of traditional society structures had long placed her in the antagonist role. Her desperation to escape her cage as the housewife and submissive woman led her to lie and manipulate her way out.
Over the years, and especially within recent years, the femme fatale persona has become more prominent in music. Rihanna’s transformation from pop princess into a darker, more seductive woman with the release of Rated R is one of the biggest reasons behind the rise of artists embodying this archetype today. Her almost overnight rejection of the person the industry and media had painted her to be was at first taken as a meltdown. It wasn’t who she was — who was this new girl singing about S&M?
Yet over the years, her constant rejection of calming down, settling down, and showing how a multi-dimensional woman lives her life unashamed has been the pillar of her success. The videos for Bitch Better Have My Money and Needed Me, which feature Rihanna reclaiming what is hers and murdering men who’ve wronged her, have racked up over 169 million views and 123 million views.
Rihanna has empowered other women to rise up and show the world they exist too. Lana Del Rey’s rise was due to her “killing off” her old identity and starting anew. Born and originally known in the music industry as Lizzy Grant, she’s now professionally known as Lana Del Rey. Lana’s haunting sound and old glamour visuals create a tragically romantic aesthetic for her music.
Her albums, Born To Die, Paradise, Honeymoon, and Ultraviolence, all feed into traditional stereotypes and show the complexity of these women at the same time. Summertime Sadness was one of the biggest songs when it was released, and one of the biggest songs to also send a message about females and mental health. For years, women in music had been pressured to focus on love songs, even in breakup songs, to focus on the good. Lana’s music and sound provided an outlet for women who don’t have it all together. They’re not “okay” all the time and they’re not perfect.
Breaking into the music industry as a pop prodigy around the same time as Lana, Lorde quickly became a visually stark contrast to most of the sixteen-year olds releasing music. Her look was dark and moody and witchy. Royals, her breakout hit and the song of 2013, was a takedown of the glamorous and lavish hip-hop lifestyle that had been growing for years in the music industry. The rest of Pure Heroine taps into the bitter teenager, capturing their emotional conflict and the growing pains of figuring life out.
Lorde also managed to provide an image for young girls to identify with. While other teenage girls releasing their first album feature sticky sweet songs, with the breakup songs teetering on hopeful and inspiring, Pure Heroine was an honest reality. Her music dealt with the typical teenage social anxiety and romance, yet she brings an eerie and detached mood to her songs. It’s a polar opposite to what Miley Cyrus and even Britney Spears were releasing as teens.
With her onstage presence, all dark and gothic vibes, the unique way she dances brought jeers at first. It’s not synchronized or slick like teenage Britney and Miley. Coupled with the gothic mood, her unashamed dancing has been a break away from how we expect to look at young and female artists. It’s violent and unrestrained — completely unlike the precise choreography of typical pop princesses.
The rise of these three women in the music industry has created a movement of women who are haunting, romantic, seductive, moody, and powerful all at the same time. Rising artists like Halsey and SZA can credit these most recent women as for being the most recent trailblazers. Without those three and their successes in bringing their truths to the ears of the world, a whole new breed of female artists wouldn’t be inspired to be the next femme fatale of music.