The tallest poppy of all

and ambivalence due to some sort of perceived diminished authenticity.

It wasn’t so much the song, but the spectacle around its release.

Lorde had teased new music and the world was very excited about it. Really, how dare she.

‘‘Lorde has become such a commodity.’’

‘‘So sad that America got its claws into her.’’

Ella Yelich-o’connor is not a commodity but her music is. It means she can eat, tour and make more music. Good for her and, so long as the songs don’t sound like they were only crafted to sell records, good for us.

But people like to keep their poppies short and don’t like sharing them. Pure Heroine was ‘ours’ before the rest of the world caught on. Lorde was ‘ours’.

That’s over now, so let’s deal with it and take a moment to marvel at the standing she has achieved.

Thirty years ago it was an accomplishment for a Kiwi musician to reach the top of Ready To Roll - and that was a New Zealand chart show.

International success for Kiwi music was the stuff of myth. To hear OMC’S How Bizarre play on The Rick Dees’ Weekly Top 40 in 1997 was like a breach in the space time continuum. Americans were listening to this song out of South Auckland. How?

Twenty years later and click on any music website of note, and near the top is Lorde and a link to Green Light or an image of upcoming sophomore LP Melodrama - in an era of pop when the aura of ‘the album’ has been pecked apart by Spotify playlists.

Irrespective of whether you care for her songs or not, it’s to Lorde’s credit the focal point has remained the music - or the treasure hunt for it.

She isn’t having tantrums on airplanes, trying her hand at reality TV, or pimping perfume. Media and fans around the world aren’t crowing over where the video was shot or how much it cost to make, they’re talking about what the song’s about and how it makes them feel.

That’s all the authenticity any pop song needs.