Album Anniversaries: The 10th Anniversary of ‘Electra Heart’ and its Impact on 2010s Youth

The Tumblr classic, Electra Heart, has officially turned ten. Despite housing many hits and solidifying Marina’s place as a quintessential pop act, the album has garnered a complicated legacy for its impact on 2010s adolescents.

Written by Adam Cherian

Photo courtesy of Casper Balslev

“The Tumblr Generation'' refers to an early 2010s subculture of kids who used the now nostalgic micro-blogging site. The classic images of all black clothes, self-deprecating humor, and indie pop all come to mind when describing the culture of Tumblr users. Indie-sleaze, and the specific subculture of 2014 Tumblr have been in the zeitgeist as of late. The generation of kids that were in middle and high school when Tumblr was popular are using its aesthetics for a nostalgic look back into their younger days. Acts like Lana Del Rey, Lorde, and Charli XCX are among the many musicians that came to fame on Tumblr. But Marina, F.K.A. Marina and the Diamonds, has a special place in the hearts of Tumblr users.

Her iconic sophomore album, Electra Heart, turns 10 this year. Its legacy lives on as one of Marina’s most popular albums, known for hits like “Primadonna,” “How to Be a Heartbreaker,” and “Teen Idle.” It remains the most commercially successful album by Marina to date, but the album's praise also comes with criticism. Though many adore it, Electra Heart has a reputation for warping the perceptions of love and adulthood for many adolescents by praising concepts like manipulation and distrust.

The album is written through the perspective of the titular fictional character Electra Heart, whose impulsivity and vanity is a satirical take on womanhood in the 21st century. Marina crafted the character’s complexity in a way that stood out among the media’s selective perception of women that ranged from poised to objectified. 

In “How to Be a Heartbreaker,” Marina sings about never feeling emotionally attached enough to miss her lovers when they leave. The track basks in self-awareness, with Marina admitting that her detached demeanor is a defense mechanism she uses to protect herself from getting hurt:

Girls, we do whatever it will take 

'Cause girls don't want, we don't want our hearts to break in two. 

So it's better to be fake, can't risk losing 

In love again, babe

“Electra Heart” is portrayed with this same romantic hypervigilance throughout the rest of the album, as it explores themes of sex, power dynamics in relationships, and narcissism. Electra is a very complicated character, like most people, and is a great example of Marina crafting a complex woman character in a sea of media that only views women as perfect angels or sexual objects. “Sex Yeah” is a perfect example of this. Though it goes into the societal levels of sex discrimination, it provides an introspective glimpse into sexual liberation and why it is looked down upon.

If women were, religiously, recognized, sexually. 

We wouldn’t have, to feel the need, 

to show our ass-ets, to feel free.

These lyrics are a deeply introspective take on how women are so repressed in their sexuality that they feel the need to be promiscuous, even if they do not want to. It is yet another example of how Electra Heart is an album that tackles complicated, mature themes revolving around women in society. Fans and critics definitely applauded the album for this reason. But as time went on, the reception of this album became tricky.

Electra Heart’s complicated legacy comes into play with fans’ treatment of the album. Themes of sex positivity, insecurity, and love made it wildly popular with women and queer audiences and exposed Marina to a whole new batch of queer adolescents. However, a lot of fans failed to realize the satirical nature of the album, and how it was supposed to act as a commentary rather than an instruction book.

The song “Primadonna” is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Its lyrics are embedded in irony and mock the media’s generalization of pop stardom through the lines: “Get what I want cause I ask for it,” and “All I ever wanted was the world / Can’t help that I need it all.” The instrumental plays into the idea of mocking pop stars’ image, with its horribly catchy bubblegum/EDM sound. Though an obvious satire of 21st century pop stars, there is a big chance that many took this song to heart. Many people on social media platforms like Tumblr made an entire persona around the satirical ideas within the lyrics. The sort of “princess aesthetic” of pretending one was perfect and the world revolves around you was claimed by many. This goes into deeper conversations surrounding glamorization of toxic personality traits in the media.

Lana Del Rey is faced with this accusation often, many saying she glamorizes domestic abuse, drug addiction, and unhealthy self-image to children. Marina has also been hit with these accusations, critics saying that Electra Heart has shaped the minds of many adolescents on Tumblr. The exterior of these songs present narcissism, vanity, and manipulation as the examples of how to act. But the true intentions of the songs are different, and add depth to the album.

Marina has gone on to distance herself from the alter ego of Electra Heart, saying it does not represent her anymore. In an interview with The Guardian, Marina talks about how she killed her alter ego “with sleeping pills,” a morbid joke about how many celebrities die young due to drug overdoses. “I had to kill her, it was the end. It was really fun while it lasted but those things are only meant to last a certain amount of time,” Marina said.

Image courtesy of Atlantic Records

Electra Heart’s ten-year anniversary has opened up the conversation of its impact. This album brought a lot of people into the subculture of Tumblr that they otherwise wouldn’t have encountered. But as the years went on, and the “Tumblr Generation'' grew up, many looked at the themes and concepts of Electra Heart as being major influences on their personalities. This definitely changed the reception of the album to one that is more critical. The change in reception is possibly due to how politically minded society is today. Realizing that the person you idolized the most was actually “bad” is very common. But it isn’t Marina’s fault. Whether this album truly influenced adolescents for the worse is complicated. Some may say that it is unfair to give this critique to any artist. Artists are supposed to create music using their experiences. But Marina has made it very clear that Electra Heart is a satire, so it is not her fault that kids decided to emulate the toxic behaviors she was criticizing. There are different archetypes, themes, and concepts that seem to glamorize negative views of womanhood. But it is all on the audience to interpret what that means to them.