-------- Original Message --------
I think that Matt Roth has raised a very interesting topic and I would
appreciate if the more extended list of songs, or at least the most
interesting items in it, could be shared with us. I've also noticed in
the recent years that we are witnessing an explosion of "Lolitomania"
in contemporary pop music. Among my personal favorites is Lana Del Rey
(Lizzy Grant, b. 1986), a gifted American singer-songwriter, who
carefully constructs her public image as a mixture of a nymphet and
femme fatale of the 1950s and 60s.
These two songs (the first one is from the 2012 album "Born to Die"
which has sold over 2 million copies worldwide as of July this year)
are her clear homage to Vladimir Nabokov:
"Off To The Races"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBa62ERTykU&list=ALYL4kY05133r8ZzxAu7t9KYxVMWVB17WS&index=11&feature=plcp
"Lolita"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc5bCExt6L0&feature=related
Cheers,
Yuri Leving
--
Yuri Leving
Professor & Chair, Department of Russian Studies
Dalhousie University
McCain Arts, 6135 University Ave.
PO BOX 15000, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
T: (902) 494-3473; F: (902) 494-7848
W: http://russiandepartment.com
http://www.keystogift.com
www.nabokovonline.com
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From: "Roth, Matthew" <mroth@MESSIAH.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 1:00 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS: Lolita in Popular Music
Dear List,
As a sort of whim, while putting together my syllabi for the semester,
I decided to compile a Spotify (internet-based music app) playlist of
songs that have Lolita in the title. I gave up adding tracks after
reaching nearly 100 (over five hours of music). I haven’t listened to
nearly all of them and the diversity seems to be great (there are a
surprising number of German-language tracks). But I thought I would
share one that struck me as particularly clever, in that it clearly
draws on the novel but also tells its own (satirical, I think) story.
There is even an erudite reference to Robert Polhemus’ fascinating
book Lot’s Daughters, which contains a section on Lolita (“Debauching
Lot’s Daughters and ‘The Power of Articulate Art’”)—where Polhemus
makes the novel assertion that we should see the words “char lot” in
Charlotte Haze’s name. Anyway, here is a link to the song by MC Lars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFt44qRlsM
Matt Roth
.