Lorde names her favorite songs of the 1960s

Although the tune is better known for its influence on the Woodstock generation, it’s actually much more universal than many people realize. The entire mentality behind some of Lorde’s best songs could simply be an interpolation of the chorus “Everybody, look what’s going down,” as if she wants to hold a mirror up to society and let them know what’s really going on.

Then again, does anyone really want to make a living just writing songs that upset people? It’s one thing to be able to preach from the pulpit, but people also need to see that you’re human, and a song like “Dedicated to the One I Love” by The Mamas and the Papas is the perfect other side of that coin.

As much as Lorde talks about the bigger problems of the world on her first album, this one song would have been a great inspiration for her work on Melodrama. While it’s not necessarily about the sound, the lyrics about praising your better half were about taking that folk rock and repackaging it as a radio-friendly group, so it’s not necessarily that far-fetched either.

While Lorde could get sentimental when she wanted to, she never wanted to make pop songs based on other people’s desires. Her material had to come from the heart, and even if people weren’t so receptive to it, that was her problem, not something she needed to change about herself.

If anything, the fact that Lorde sheds some light on Nancy Sinatra’s “My Baby Shot Me” perhaps says the most about what her music stands for. Many people of this generation probably know the song from its inclusion on the pulp Fiction soundtrack, but hearing Sinatra’s tortured voice as she sings about an old flame leaving her after years of working together is exactly what Lorde’s sound was all about. It’s wrapped up in a pop package, but if you scratch even a little beneath the surface, you really start to see how many open wounds are still there.

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