“God, it’s brutal out here,” then 17-year-old Olivia Rodrigo sang in her now mega-famous hit “brutal.” The song is a crashing, punchy opener that sees Olivia lamenting “ego-crush” and how she’s not “cool” or “smart” and “can’t even parallel park.” This is a song for the teens who grew up in an era of social media, influencers, and clout-chasers. This is Olivia Rodrigo hurtling us into the new decade with all that she’s learned from her predecessors mixed with the currency of her youth. Bow down, because now, Olivia Rodrigo holds the baton.
When “driver’s license” was released in January 2021, it was an immediate hit. It’s now broken multiple records, reigned supreme on TikTok for months, and inspired many tears. Spurred by the drama of the relationship between her ex-boyfriend, High School Musical The Musical The Series (HSMTMTS) costar Joshua Bassett, and his rumored new girlfriend, Sabrina Carpenter, another singer-actress, the song exploded on the internet. Suddenly, Olivia Rodrigo was a household name. There were rumors swirling left and right about the trio of young stars, and chatter about publicity stunts on social media. Regardless, “driver’s license” and its longevity isn’t some huge conspiracy. With notes of her idols Taylor Swift and Lorde, the song is clever, catchy, with the kind of angst you can only feel so acutely at seventeen. Not only did it become a Gen-Z anthem, but its popularity spanned generations as its poignancy hit older listeners with memories of the heydays of the aforementioned Swift and Lorde.
Olivia was just three years old when Taylor Swift’s debut album was released, and four during Taylor’s now-famous 2007 CMA acceptance speech where she coined it “the highlight of her senior year.” Now, a TikTok on Olivia Rodrigo’s account using that audio has 27.4 million views. As a self-professed Swiftie, Taylor’s influence is easy to pick out in Olivia’s debut album sour. The lyrics are raw and specific, as deeply personal as an open wound. That’s a page right out of Taylor Swift’s book. Anyone who’s grown up in the era of Fearless and Speak Now and the saga of the 27-second phone call from Joe Jonas knows. All of it is eerily reminiscent of the drama between Olivia, Joshua, and Sabrina. Like Olivia’s song title, the love triangle has given the world déjà vu.
Like Olivia, Taylor Swift’s career kicked off around the age of seventeen. And like Olivia, Taylor made her name on her self-made songs that felt so personal it was like reading them off the back of a wrinkled napkin. Swift became wildly popular for those lyrics, for her bold honesty, her penchant for hiding easter eggs in her songs and album art, and her chain of high-profile boyfriends that subsequently became the subjects of said lyrics. While Olivia, whether intentionally or not, has the boyfriend part covered, she’s also mastered the art of lyrics so personal it feels like you’re talking to a friend. That was the main appeal of Taylor Swift back then – after the music industry churned out manufactured pop star after pop star, the rough-around-the-edges brashness of Swift’s early country music was a change that was needed. She was a master of laying it all out, take it or leave it. And that was the magic of it all. We all saw a piece of ourselves in Taylor Swift. Now, as a 25-year-old who lived through the height of Taylor Swift’s rise, watching Olivia Rodrigo debut is particularly heartwarming. I recognize that same tenacity, that same raw youthful brazenness.
She’s the culmination of not only Swift, but all the pop stars who’ve come before her and reshaped the landscape of pop music. “brutal” and “good 4 u” feel like odes to early 2000s pop-rock like Avril Lavigne and Paramore. Both songs have also drawn comparisons to the 2003 Lindsay Lohan film Freaky Friday and its fictional band Pink Slip. Plus, the music video for “good 4 u” features inspiration from cult-classic Y2K film Jennifer’s Body, in which Olivia plays with the concept of female rage as a version of Megan Fox’s iconic character. Meanwhile anthemic ballads like “traitor,” “enough for you,” and “favorite crime” carry the aura of Lorde’s impact, as well as the instant-classic bridges of “driver’s license” and “déjà vu.” True to her role as one of Swift’s “kids” (see: Olivia and Conan Gray’s promotional posts for Swift’s Fearless re-release), she’s also become the new master of easter eggs. Her promotional photos and collaboration with Sour Patch Kids have fans examining everything and piecing clues together, much like her idol. One viral TikTok proclaimed “Taylor Swift has created a monster.” If being a monster means breaking records left and right à la Ariana Grande, then yes, Olivia is. She’s managed to break the records of her idols, and create some of her own, like being the first artist in history to chart three songs concurrently in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 from a debut LP.
Because of her affiliation with Disney as the star of HSMTMTS, Olivia has also drawn comparisons to Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato. The three stars defined a generation with their time on Disney Channel, and each went on to have successful solo careers in music. However, the microscope on them all was much more laser focused. Miley Cyrus was torn apart in the media for normal teenage behavior. She was called awful names by grown adults and picked apart by the media for anything and everything. She was bombarded with controversy, yet, at the time, she hadn’t even sung a single curse word in her songs. Later, when Selena Gomez said the word “damn” in a 2011 song, it carried the air of scandal that learning curse words in middle school does. Granted, Olivia Rodrigo is no longer on Disney Channel (having starred in Bizaardvark, which ended in 2019), and she isn’t signed to their record label like Miley, Demi, and Selena were, which gives her more freedom. But still, the open reception of a Disney starlet with a parental advisory sticker on her debut album is something that I can’t imagine happening back then.
And while Olivia isn’t going to be immune to naysayers and negativity as she continues to skyrocket, we’ve come a long way as a society since those days. Even though Gen-Z isn’t perfect and cancel culture can become a little too toxic, the next generation has a much better handle on facing the misogynistic ideals that are conditioned into us. Already, it seems Olivia is experiencing a less controversy-ridden rise to fame than Miley or Taylor did. But of course, as things tend to go on the internet, she’s faced accusations of being an “industry plant” by users who don’t fully understand what that phrase means. She’s been boiled down to just the fizzling drama between her and her ex-boyfriend. She and Sabrina have been pitted against each other. But for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be as viciously palpable as it once may have been, had she debuted in 2007.
It’s safe to say Olivia Rodrigo is a force to be reckoned with. And not because of any drama accompanying her songs. Not because of a fleeting moment of popularity. She’s the kind of artist whose roots are deeply sown with her first song – the kind you know is going to be around for a long, long time after. She’s successfully managed to absorb all the magic of the artists who came before her and weave it all into her own personal mosaic. Her lyrics are vivid, and her vocals are visceral, her songwriting already so advanced that she only shares credits with two other people on her very first album (and Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for the interpolation of “New Year’s Day” that became “1 step forward, 3 steps back”). There’s nowhere for Olivia to go but up, up, up.
