Was SNL's Defense of Lana Del Rey Both Too Strong and Too Weak?

Was SNL's Defense of Lana Del Rey Both Too Strong and Too Weak?

Their defense consisted of knocking down insignificant "straw man" arguments - "Oh, so what that she changed her name, like everyone else" ... "Oh, we've had worse musical acts. She's not that bad in context." ... "So what if she's distant and weird, she's an artist. That's what they do."

Huh? Their response to every point was "everybody else does it," and they never bothered to address the main point at all. Many people pointed out that she's a professional singer, but she apparently couldn't manage to carry a tune.

You have to wonder - did nobody on SNL notice that she was pitchy? That's unlikely. They have a lot of good musicians hanging around. Therefore, you have to conclude that they did notice and chose not to address that point while pushing back against some other points which were unimportant to begin with. Who cares about her name? If the woman had sung like Billie Holiday, she could have called herself Heywood Jablome.

Based on their other responses, here is what I predict SNL would say if forced to respond to the main argument: "She's a singing artist, not a singer. Whoever said that a singing artist had to stay in tune and sing precise notes? Look at Bjork!"

My own response is this: I gave Lana del Ray a B+ because I have no idea whether she can sing. I record SNL and fast-forward through the musical acts, and she looked just fine!