BADLANDS [halsey] // Lyric Analysis

Prologue

The name "Badlands" is a reference to Halsey's state of mind while she was writing the album. She used it to give a physical place as a metaphor for a desolate and lonely mind. She created it as an escape from her real life struggles and pictures it as a dystopiad Las Vegas.

In her opinion, the metaphor was that even with no escape, there is still optimism that there is somewhere else to go.

It is the world she finds 'outside' "Room 93".

According to Halsey, this album is a  that focuses on the fictional and  known as The Badlands. The city is surrounded by a desert wasteland, keeping its inhabitants captive.

The record was inspired by post-apocalyptic movies such as "Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element", both for the location and the goings-on.

She said ""Badlands is just a greater body of work. It's a place; a metaphor for my mental state. The Badlands are isolated. Chaotic. Commercial. Gluttonus. And midway through the record the preagonist makes a decision to escape, though unsure of what lies beyond the only place they've ever known. Thi symbolizes my choice to leave a depressive state of mind and seek solace in a more optimistic place. Leaving behind the devastation but carrying the baggage still. It's darker, more industrial. And we've attempted to create a physical space with sound. It's an adventure; it's a movie with no pictures."

At CampBadlands in Milan (March 5th 2016) Halsey explained the development from her EP, to this album, and the (future) second record. "I was a girl who grew up in a small town and the few times I had the chance to go to the city that was exciting and different, but it all happened inside of a place, the city wasn't the world at all and that's what Room 93 was and it's about. Then I moved to California, I started in the music industry, started meeting new people and the world became a little bigger than just a hotel room, and that's what became the badlands. So, for the second album, I think, since I got to travel the world now and I met lots of people, lots of you guys, it would be what happens once that you're out of the badlands, what comes after that."

Musically, the album is mainly rooted in electropop and alternative pop sounds.

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what do you love the most about Badlands?

I love how Halsey was able to create a whole word to express herself and share it with her fans and music lovers.