Lorde, of worldwide music fame, surely has thoughts on a lot of things. Maybe everything. But today, we at this website care only about what she thinks of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
This interview published over the weekend with The Guardian contains said thoughts, which are markedly different from ours. Kirk, for example, “had a hell of a lot of fun messing around with it”. I think “the rollercoaster demo makes me a little bit sick”.
But Lorde? Having messed around with a demo that gave her “the sensation of being in a room watching a musician sitting in a studio”, she said “It’s like being in someone’s filth, but on a pure level it’s nice. Kind of like communism.”
Messrs Zuckerburg and Lucky, if you ever need a box quote for the Rift’s commercial launch, you are all set.
UPDATE: Seems this demo actually took place last month. Now this is a more common train of thought:
today i tried oculus rift for the first time and it was wonderful until after, when i sat brainstorming all the ways it will ruin us
— Lorde (@lordemusic) June 9, 2014
Lorde: ‘The critics I care about are people the same age as me’ [The Guardian]
Comments
117 responses to “But What Does Lorde Think Of The Oculus Rift?”
…who?
this. No idea who she is.
and why is her opinion more important within the gaming industry?
Rift is gonna be huge outside of gaming. I can see why a musician is excited about it.
Lorde also happens to be awesome. 😀
I disagree most strongly.
About Lorde, about the Rift shaking up the industry.
If Rift takes off now that Zuckerberg owns it, it’ll be huge both in and outside of gaming
I personally never thought it’d take off at all.
That was supposed to mean that I DO think the Rift will shake up the industry. I’m just illiterate today.
I can’t stand vocalists that bung on an American accent to sing. I also can’t stand bogan vocals, so I guess I am going to whine either way.
She sings the howling song, for those who are not familiar with her name or face.
Weird Al actually made the song good last week.
Who’s this guy?
Not more important just different. It’s like getting a famous comedian or athlete’s perspective. I wouldn’t say Dave Grohl is more important than John Carmack but I’d find his take on gaming interesting none the less.
I don’t think Lorde has anywhere near the legend status that Carmack and Grohl have, which is what gives their opinions some weight, at least in the public’s mind. Lorde is currently just a young musician that’s been marketed well over the last year or so. Not in the same league at all.
Grohl’s opinion does have weight, and he is a fan of Lorde. Here’s some quotes from him “There’s something about her that represented or resembled the Nirvana aesthetic,”, “She has an incredible future ahead of her as a writer, performer and vocalist.”
To be fair, the potential benefits of the Oculus Rift is being able to virtually attend ‘front-row’ seats for Sports & Entertainment. But I do agree, this is perhaps better suited for Gizmodo and not Kotaku.
Exactly. I’m a big “Weird” Al fan, heard on his latest album that he parodies one of her songs, and I was like “who?” I thought he only parodied well known artists.
I dunno he parodied iggy azalia and thats kinda digging through the dredges granted I like his version of it
Have no idea who the hell he/she is either.
His parody of it is called “handy” and as someone who works in the handyman industry its very true haha
To be fair, Fancy is kind of the biggest song of this year. Iggy Azalea is fucking massive right now.
Iggy Azalea and Lorde are rising stars.
Lorde will be longer lived than Iggy, but they’re both on the up.
It’s not a surprise that they’re not well known.
Well, it’s kinda surprising that Lorde isn’t well know apparently, since she’s a crazy good singer, and is only getting bigger.
I don’t think their styles are very popular for this kinda audience though, which may be why.
Just youtubed it, and yeah, never heard it before.
I’ll have to take your work for that. Since i’ve never heard of them..
she won two grammy’s and sold over a million albums, sung for Nirvana on their ‘reuinion’ tour and is on the Hunger Games soundtrack.
I’m not a fan, but she’s kind of a big deal. people know her. she has many leather bound books and her apartment smells of rich mahogany.
SON OF A BEESTING! @pixel_the_ferret_viking
….. Really?
They play her on every radio station, her song “Royals” was number 2 on the most recent triple j hottest 100 (and currently has 307+ million hits on youtube). She’s a 17-18 year old from NZ, taking the mainstream pop world by storm and isn’t a huge piece of shit…. we need more “Lorde’s” of the world !!!
What does she have to do with gaming? Nothing really, but it’s still interesting to see what an “outsider” thinks of all this new tech.
Don’t listen to the radio, probably why I’ve never heard of her.
This
Yeah fair enough, I don’t really either.
…. although I do walk through shopping centres and goto the gym so with enough saturation they’ll get you 🙂
Everyone here is just so edgy, I’m very impressed. Not only has no one ever heard one of the most overplayed new artists in recent history, but they don’t know anyone else who’s ever mentioned her or her music. Considering the amount of times I’ve heard her music played in public, or seen her on TV (and I don’t really even watch TV), I think it’s fair to assume that none of these people go out much or watch TV, or live with anyone who does any of those things.
So good job I guess, you’re all officially too cool for society in general.
if only they would continue the trend and stay out of society in general…
I would if I could.
It cracks me up seeing these people taking pride in ignorance.
When it comes to over-promoted ephemeral mainstream pop-trends, ignorance is an achievement worth celebrating.
You’re just pissed off because you know who she is and have had to listen to her shit for the last year or so, aren’t you? 😉
Hahaahh nice.
That’s a bit unfair. So now I HAVE to know all about celebrities? I can’t just not care? I can’t even name all the main voice actors in the Simpsons.
Even though I have heard her song, why should I go out of my way to research her life?
It’s not about not knowing something. It’s about all the horrible comments in this thread by people who claim to not know about her.
Even you are commenting an awful lot on a post about someone you claim to not know about at all. Why? Why post at all if you “don’t care”
How is that any different than commenting on any other topic you might not know about?
Half of this tread reads like “I don’t know who Person X is so they must be shit and irrelevant and I hate them”.
Don’t use not knowing someone as an excuse to hate them. Personally I find it incredibly unlikely for someone to not hear about lorde unless you never listen to the radio, watch the news, read the internet or watch TV. But whatever, that’s not the point.
The point is just because you haven’t heard of someone doesn’t make them a horrible person.
I merely made a joking comment about not knowing who they are and it just blew up from there.
I’d say the ire comes from the assumption that we SHOULD know about a person who has nothing at all to do with games or tech, and more so that their opinion on it should be of value to us.
I thought it was a bunch of dudes who dressed up like monsters and won Eurovision, then they went and posted a picture of some girl. So I got no idea what’s going on.
haha thats Lordi, great band
I have an iPod which is usually in my ears when I am out in the shopping centres to drown out the noise of the place, including the rather annoying radio they play to distract customers. I don’t watch TV on a regular basis and if I do it’s either ABC, SBS or 7Mate. We have the radio at work but it’s background noise, just so the place isn’t dead quiet, if I am paying attention it’s cause there’s a song on I like, for example The Eagles or Guns N’ Roses. Since they like Gold FM at my work which plays a lot of 70’s & 80’s hits mixed with some new generation stuff. I also don’t go to clubs that play that kind of music, I like my rock music, so i’m more likely to go to the pub with the live band on a Saturday or Sunday or go to a gig of a favourite band of mine.
I’m not edgy, I just don’t give a shit for what current music has to offer in a genre I don’t care about. Saying that i’ve heard Royals by Lorde and thought it was the most over hyped thing.
Just because some of us aren’t aware of what’s current and trendy in music doesn’t mean we’re social outcasts who never leave the house.
Just the cultural equivalent.
Every time I hear of her all I can think is how we need more Lordi. My much preferred band 🙂 And yes they know they’re taking the piss!
Perhaps they measure success by the number of game soundtracks an artist’s songs appear on.
She seems to not be a piece of shit. She also seems to be a super opinionated teenager who thinks she has the world worked out in a way that only teenagers can.
Her one song that was famous was musically pretty boring and thematically ridiculous. I hope to hell she’s a flash in the pan. You can be a nice person with left leaning views and NOT be a pop star.
Pretty hard to please some people I guess…..
White kid who has never known poverty writes an inoffensive, musically uninspiring song romanticising the poverty she has never experienced. Other white people who have also never experienced poverty get all misty eyed about how goddamn bohemian she is. White kid becomes famous, ludicrously wealthy, signs a huge deal with MAC cosmetics because she’s apparently a feminist or something.
Pardon me if I’m not on the hype train.
Someone can only write about something they have experience with ? Well I’m glad you know Lorde’s full personal life and can make judgement on her otherwise you’d seem a bit silly.
Especially on the notion noone should complain because people have it worse. I think you’ve solved global complaining with that.
I less than 3 you Sir Gehrin 🙂
<3
Key word: romanticise.
Getting all wistful about the adventures and freedom that comes with the life of a boxcar hobo is fucking ridiculous and obviously insulting to the homeless guy who spent his life living in empty transport containers. If she wrote a navel gazing song about how wonderful life is as a black woman, or a displaced civilian survivor of war, she’d be openly ridiculed because she’s romanticising something shitty from the safety of her life of relative comfort. How is this any different?
Like the song all you want, but pretending that it’s some kind of tale of worldy experience from a great poet is hilarious.
Her one song is pleasant-sounding and a deliberate effort to downplay the need for fame and fortune. Of course, she still name-checks a number of high-profile brands and has become famous basically overnight so the whole thing is sort of ironic on a level that you’d assume it’s a bloody parody.
The website you’re currently commenting on is called Kotaku, and is a hive of nerds that don’t go outside and only listen to game soundtracks. Lorde is cool tho.
When I listen to the radio a lot of songs just become white noise. Even if I recognise the song after I while, I never care enough to learn about the band/singer or their life story.
Maybe I’m different but I don’t really care about celebrity worship.
This isn’t anything to do with celebrity worship though. There’s almost no way you couldn’t know who Lorde is. She’s been an enormous presence in popular culture over the last 12 or so months.
This is literally the first time I’ve heard about her. Like I said, I don’t keep up with celebrity gossip.
Do you read any news sites? Papers? Popular opinion/editorials?
Surely at some point she would have been mentioned in an article or the sidebar of an article you were reading?
Plus the fact she’s a Kiwi and anything Aussie/Kiwi making it big will usually get fairly well reported in the Aussie press.
It’s pretty easy to drop out of mainstream pop-culture crap.
I was fortunate enough not to know who Lady Gaga or Rianna were for years, until they were introduced to me by friends who’s interests are a little shallower than mine.
I don’t pay any particular attention to pop music and so on either but it’s so in-your-face it can be hard to avoid it at times. I find it very hard to believe that you hadn’t heard of Lady Gaga for instance. You are rather judgemental of your “shallow” friends as well. It works both ways, plenty of people who are into pop-culture may not have heard of the latest indie video game that people gush about on here but it doesn’t make them any worse or better as people.
We live in an age where we have the likes of Google and Wikipedia at our fingertips, there really is no excuse for being ignorant any more. When something comes up like this where I don’t know who somebody is or what a topic is on about, I check out what it is because I like to be well-informed. I got over the cool apathy thing years ago.
I’m not one to always be like “HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHO KE$HA IS” etc etc.
…. chalk it up to “There was a kotaku article about Lorde, apparently she’s famous. Now I’ve heard about her…. “amazing””.
My point is her reach has now gotten into these comments, META !!
First time I had heard about was during the Triple J hottest 100.. Only artist in the 100 I knew before Australia Day was Daft Punk 😛
Ive heard her name mentioned, dont know any of her songs.
I dont go out of my way to listen to radio songs though.
You’re so cool not to know who she is. Let me guess, you don’t even own a TV, either.
She did a passable cover of The Replacements’ “Swinging Party” and don’t care enough to look up anything else.
I don’t even know what that is.
What about Lordi? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU
They were the first and best!
Now, this I can get behind.
Not knowing current popular muscians is the first stage of becoming too old.
Ha! Jokes on you, I didn’t know any popular musicians back in highschool or primary school!
I would question whether you have been sheltered in a cave all your life, but it would be a pretty good cave to have internet access.
Neo Kaiser was always old. Sprung fully formed from the forehead of Zeus.
Yeah, it’s called Straya Internet. Functions like it’s in a cave.
….i like lorde…. 🙁
I LOVE THE LEADER!
ME TOO
Sadly I know who she is….The joy of having four daughters 😐
I am actually a huge fan of her first album.
I didn’t think there was anyone who wasn’t. Guess I was wrong.
I don’t really stay current on music so I don’t own her album yet. I like her song Royals though. It’s pleasant.
I think the big part of is it is that the people making comments haven’t heard of her at all and assume she’s just another musician everyone insists is super important/influential but nobody will remember two years from now*. A lot of people just flat out don’t hear new music they’re not searching for which is turning mainstream into sort of a weird niche (judging by the picture I assume she’s alternative-ish but still big primarily in the mainstream outlets).
It’s super easy to get music 24-7 without a radio, TV becomes less relevant every passing year and actually watching things via channel surfing is fast becoming obsolete. Ten years ago it was hard not to know who was big even if you tried to avoid that stuff. Now they’re so easy to avoid you almost have to make a conscious effort just to know they exist. Thus to a lot of people her opinion on anything comes off as totally irrelevant (it would seem almost offensively irrelevant judging by the comments =P ).
*Not that I’m saying she has no substance. I wouldn’t know one way or another. All I know about her is that she looks pretty and apparently makes music.
Well said.
I’m a 35yo stay at home mother. I watch Jimmy Giggle all day and even I know who Lorde is (although you will forgive me for occasionally confusing her with Lana Del Rey). Lucky her that she got to play with an Rift. The rest of us will have to keep waiting.
So much hate in this tread… damn I thought the community here was generally nice. Remind me to never talk about music….
I really can’t believe some of the comments I’m reading here…
I’d understand if it was about some douche like Kanye but it seems like Lorde has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way just by existing.
You don’t know who she is?
Second in the triple J hottest 100. #2 single played on every radio station. Number one album in Australia and New Zealand. Sure, you may not listen to the radio, but she’s been a big part of our popular culture for at least the past twelve months.
You fucking hipsters.
Didn’t you get the memo? It’s cool to know nothing about mainstream culture and sports.
Bingo !
her last sentance is spot on i wonder how it will ruin us or the first step into the matrix…or have i already done that an i no longer notice….damn
Given the state (god damn motherf**king repetitiveness) of Australian radio, it’s fairly difficult to listen to any radio station nowadays, let alone enjoy it.
Nevertheless, the people at the top of the article whinging about “who” and “who cares” are the ones who aren’t engaging with the culture and acting snooty about it.
Well if they genuinely don’t know who the article is about “Who?” is a valid question, however I agree it’s not something worth whining or acting snooty about. I feel people would’ve been more interested had she given a game or two a go and shared her opinion (she’s 17-18ish right? Probably played a few N64 or PS1/PS2 games as a kid). The demo she did comment on is unlikely to gather interest here it seems.
If you don’t know who Lorde is, google is seriously a click away.
Remember, it’s those outside of hardcore gaming that are going to need to be sold on VR goggles.
It’s not a valid question. That’s what Google is for. It’s clearly meant in a derogatory way. The first sentence says “of worldwide music fame”
The first sentence may say that, but the people making derisive comments obviously don’t feel that way. However some of them likely do not know who she is and for them it is a valid question, derogatory in nature or not, the question is valid as long as they want an answer. As for using Google no one has to, a lot of people do, but no one actually has to.
le mad
thanks for your insightful rebuttal.
I lol’d at “You fucking hipsters”
Just because I don’t listen to Justin Bieber, doesn’t mean I don’t know who he is. (Although, I really wish I didn’t).
Exactly.
Do I listen to Lorde? not particularly. Have I heard of her and do I know some things through basic cultural osmosis? Yep.
Him I do know about (unfortunately).
I don’t listen to the radio and hardly watch any TV but if something’s popular I tend to find out through one channel or another but this is the first I’ve heard of Lorde, or her popularity. I am now unable to say that ever again, but just know that popularity doesn’t mean instant awareness.
But that’s on you.
Haven’t heard? Fine, you’re one of the lucky 10,000.
It’s the people sneering upthread that have raised my ire.
NOT MY FAULT I LIKE TWO BANDS THAT NO ONE HERE HAS EVER HEARD OF
😛
I liked her version of Everybody Wants To Rule The World.
Hmm, I’ll have to hunt that one down and see how she interpreted it. It’s one of my favourite Tears for Fears tracks (after Head Over Heels).
*Waiting for someone to say “who?” ;p
I’ve heard of this one, seen the video clip, kind of enjoyed it. Not ‘top 10’ enjoyed, but it was a mild ear-worm for a few days.
For anyone asking why her opinion should count for anything, you should probably do a bit of a read of the lyrics of ‘Royals’ sometime, maybe watch the accompanying video clip.
To me, at least, and without getting to ‘arts degree’ wanky about it, it seemed like a fairly self-aware and insightful comment on the glamourous social expectations/dreams encouraged by media vs the relative mundane reality pretty much everyone experiences. And if she was making that kind of commentary at 16 (or however old she was at the time), she might just have an opinion worth listening to on other things.
*without* getting too ‘arts degree’ wanky about it?
😛
Clearly you’ve never seen just how wanky that can get. 🙂
(with a 30yo co-writer) – you forgot that. Not just a16yo’s work.
I did not know this. Interesting! Well, that makes the lyrics and video a little less impressive. 🙁
Just going to jump in and point out that she’s been under the wing of UMG since she was 13. There must have been quite a lot of technical and production coaching in the lead up to all those songs that people like.
That doesn’t diminish the accomplishment whatsoever, what is does do is provide scope and clarity to the carefully crafted media image and social myth of a young artist working her way up through the industry from a point of relative obscurity a la overnight fame.
Disclaimer is that I don’t mind the music she fronts, it’s catchy at worst and a platform for social commentary and interesting covers at best.
She got paid by facebook?
**Giggles**
So when does the occulus rift get released? Not preorders for a hard to use dev version but the consumer version?
No set date yet.
I wonder how many people in this thread haven’t used the oculus rift and don’t care about lorde ? Because their opinion on lorde using the rift is as irrelevant as lorde is to them.
The mass appeal of Lorde really surprises me. Royals isn’t a bad song. It’s not at all to my tastes, but I can see that it’s a well made track and can understand why people dig it. Some people at least – the folks who listen to alternative music. What it seems to lack, even more so than Gotye’s track that blew up last year, is commercial appeal. It’s a low key, minimalist dub and hip-hop inspired track that seems far too weird for your average commercial pop music fan to grok with.
And yet here we are hearing the singers thoughts on fashion. Pop culture is odd. Or maybe I’m just not with “it” any more. That seems like a reasonable possibility.
Here I was thinking the amount of fucks I couldn’t give could get any lower…
All I could think of reading this comment thread was Abe Simpson’s speech to Homer in Homerpalooza.
“I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I’m with isn’t *it*, and what’s *it* seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you…”
The issue with the Rift is this. you can’t see what your hands are doing IRL. So while its cool and immersing . when you play games that still need keyboard inputs as well, makes it impossible!
we need to figure that part out! first.
Thats where Track IR has its PRO’s is you still have full control IRL. but then you dont get the immersion of the rift. so we need to merge both techs.
To all the people complaining, i tend to stick to music from the 1920’s-50’s, but as far as modern music goes Lorde is pretty great 🙂 Plus, just be glad it isn’t some douche like Kayne!!!
Games media continues to give weight to self promoting individual with dubious gaming credentials. Business as usual, I see.