With the debut of yet another hit album, GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo seems to be making a permanent mark on the entertainment industry, but it’s certainly not resting well with everyone.
The three time Grammy award winner released her lead single “Vampire” on June 30th, 2023, making her the first artist to have 3 singles at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 within her first two albums. This success is no surprise after her first record-breaking album SOUR captured the attention of teens around the world. Although many people are in full support of this up-and-coming young artist, the release of her new album has some wondering if Rodrigo actually deserves this amount of fame.
Rodrigo first made her Hollywood debut working on Disney as the co-lead of Bizaardvark and High School Musical the Musical the Series (HSMTMTS). Her career path closely follows the signature of actresses like Zendaya and Miley Cyrus, who are two of the very few child actresses that successfully made a career in entertainment after their Disney days.
Rodrigo’s hit single “Drivers License’ owed a lot of its success to the speculated drama between Rodrigo and her co-star in HSMTMTS, Joshua Bassett. The two were rumored to be lovers that hit a hard dead end in their relationship, just like in the show. Following their breakup, Bassett quickly moved on to dating another pop singer, Sabrina Carpenter, making her an intricate part of this public love triangle. Lines in the song like “you’re probably with that blonde girl” were continuously clipped and used on social media apps like Instagram and TikTok, boosting the number of listeners.
(Photo Credit: Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Rodrigo’s message of grief and heartbreak through sad love songs exemplifies a striking similarity to other artists like Taylor Swift, one of her idols. Since her Disney days, Rodrigo has posted many videos of herself singing to Swift in her car, covering her songs, and has constantly brought her up in interviews. However, after the debut of her first album, comparisons between their music were too noticeable to be denied by the public.
The public allegations eventually evolved into a court case after Swift sued Rodrigo for copyright on two songs, ‘Deja Vu’ and ‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,’ for their similarities to Swift’s songs ‘Cruel Summer’ and ‘New Year’s Day.’ Consequently, Rodrigo ended up granting songwriting credits and giving up a percentage of the royalties of the two songs.
Rodrigo found herself in the same scenario when her song ‘Good 4 U’ was compared to Paramore’s song ‘Misery Business.’ In total, the young artist lost over a million dollars in her copyright situation. This resulted in much more criticism in the press, including arguments questioning the singer’s authenticity and originality, and discrediting the work she had put into her album.
“If you can’t make original music, don’t make it at all,” said Stanley Wong ’24.
Furthermore, Rodrigo’s 2022 Grammy awards appearance fueled this argument because of her surprising success as a first timer. She managed to snag three Grammys, beating out big names like Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and BTS, who had been in the music industry for much longer.
Many are comparing Rodrigo to Billie Eilish, another “overnight” superstar who took home five Grammys her first time. During that time, Eilish received a lot of backlash after being rewarded over Ariana Grande’s pop album Thank U Next in all categories.
“She only won those awards because she had the whole Taylor Swift fan base backing her up. Her songs are identical to Taylor’s,” said Losel Lateng ’24.
However, fans of Rodrigo see no problem with that.
“A lot of people copy others. Why is she the only one being called out?” said Yangzom Lama ’24.
The music industry has existed for decades, making it close to impossible to create fully original songs these days. Lana Del Rey was sued by Radiohead for her song ‘Get Free,’ Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were sued by Marvin Gaye for their song ‘Blurred Lines,’ and Ed Sheeran was sued by Marvin Gaye for his song ‘Thinking out Loud.’ Countless artists have been sued for copyright infringements, yet Rodrigo seemed to be experiencing an abnormal amount of heat for it.
It’s also important to acknowledge Rodrigo as the new, inexperienced 18 year old artist that she is. She transformed her image from a Disney, PG-rated star to a teenage pop singer relatively fast. One can only imagine the magnitude of the obstacles she’s encountered trying to navigate through this new side of Hollywood.
Another newer breakout artist known for his similar signature to past musicians is Stephan Sanchez. But unlike Rodrigo, fans are applauding his musical decisions rather than criticizing it. “When Stephan Sanchez came out with his 1960s inspired album, no one called him out for taking inspiration from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra,” said Rainie Zheng ’24.
In an interview with Time Magazine, producer Daniel Nigro spoke out about the copyright incidents, defending Rodrigo against the hate she had been receiving for her album. “However, despite the drama surrounding the songs, Olivia apparently went on to say that it was ‘a lesson in business.’”
“She’s 18. She’s in high school. It’s her first album so she doesn’t have experience dealing with these problems. It’s more important to acknowledge how she professionally dealt with this,” Zheng said. Rodrigo herself admitted that “all music is inspired by each other” and this is a “sort of fun, beautiful sharing process.”
Rodrigo’s newer album, GUTS, seems to be a total 360 from her first one. Rodrigo filled her new album with fast paced, rock adjacent songs, extremely different from the musicality of both SOUR and most of Swift’s songs. She seems to be attempting to put a stop to the comparisons through her new change in music.
(Photo Credit: PascalHD, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
In addition, Rodrigo’s live performances have been taken up to a whole new level. During her SOUR tour, she was known for breathy, subpar performances, receiving a lot of criticism by both fans and haters. She’s taken the break between her albums to train her voice for stage appearances, creating a drastic improvement in her recent shows.
After a booming performance at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards of her songs ‘Vampire’ and ‘Get Him Back,’ the singer has officially launched ticket sales for her highly anticipated GUTS tour. She’s expected to tour over 14 countries and play 80 concerts, many of which are already sold out. She’s transforming her music to a much more unique sound, as seen in GUTS, and taking her live performances to a whole new level.
With many victories under her belt, including being the youngest solo artist to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100, being the first artist to land two number 1’s on the Hot 100 from their debut album, breaking the Spotify List for most plays in a single week twice, and having three Grammy wins from her first album, Olivia Rodigro has accomplished much more than the majority of the present music industry.
On top of that, the singer recently scooped 6 Grammy nominations for 2024! Her nominations include “Record of the Year,” “Song of the Year” and “Best Pop Solo Performance” for her lead single ‘Vampire,’ “Album of the Year” and “Best Pop Vocal Album” for her album GUTS, and “Best Rock Song” for her song ‘Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl.’ Though she’s up against heavy-hitters like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Jon Batiste, Rodrigo stands a relatively good chance of leaving with a few awards in hand.
Despite the controversy circling around her originality, one cannot deny the fact that Rodrigo has accumulated a huge amount of fame over the past three years.
Maybe it’s time to release the sour feelings and accept her fame for what it’s worth.
She transformed her image from a Disney, PG-rated star to a teenage pop singer relatively fast. One can only imagine the magnitude of the obstacles she’s encountered trying to navigate through this new side of Hollywood.