Rodrigo remixes heartbreak into iconic teen anthems
Nearly five months after the release of her hit single “Driver’s License,” Olivia Rodrigo released SOUR, her first album. It instantly received raving reviews among its Gen Z listeners. In its entirety, this soundtrack details the many stages and ever-changing emotions throughout Rodrigo’s breakup that occurred during her already strenuous teenage years. This translates into the anthem for girls around the world undergoing adolescent heartbreak like the artist herself. Clocking in at a whopping 35 minutes, it manages to articulate a relatable masterpiece suited for its target audience. Throughout the course of this album, listeners are offered a vicarious opportunity to expel the angst of teen heartache and jealousy as Rodrigo triggers a soul-purging catharsis.
Starting off, SOUR depicts the glamorization of the constant pressures and overall toxicity of being a teenager in modern-day society in the punk rock song “Brutal,” and then again in “Jealousy, Jealousy.” Each song catalyzes feelings of insecurity and the desperate desire to become someone else.
Additionally, songs like “Traitor'', or “Happier” predominantly portray the experiences of betrayal and tragedy, both of which are all too familiar in the teenage dating realm. Considering the prevalence of such pains in the young adult demographic, the amount of lyrical honesty within this album is refreshing. The plain, yet explicit language encourages listeners to treat their similarly confusing emotions in the same cathartic manner.
While drifting in the success of SOUR, fans began to realize the hefty number of similarities between specific melodies in Rodrigo’s music compared to earlier groups and artists such as Taylor Swift and Paramore. Rodrigo chose to take to interpolation, which is essentially the recording of parts from a given record and morphing them to create something entirely different. Commonly confused with copying or stealing, interpolation allows for the artist to grab their favorite bits from other pieces that they enjoy, and use their own unique style to transform those bits into something new for music of their own.
This technique was specifically seen in Rodrigo’s song “Good 4 U,” as its tune strongly reminds its audience of Paramore’s “Misery Business.” Due to the song’s considerable resemblance, Rodrigo has given credit to the band’s lead singer, Hayley Williams, and ex-guitarist Josh Farro as being co-writers on that particular track. Furthermore, Swift has also been recognized as another inspiration for the soundtrack of SOUR, as the beginning tune of Rodrigo’s “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” carries an uncanny resemblance to Swift’s “New Year’s Day.” As a consequence to these choices, Rodrigo has given up millions in royalties to both Paramore’s stars and Swift for the use of her interpolation throughout the album.
If SOUR could radiate any sort of message to listeners, it would most definitely display to the world that one’s life is simply a remix of the people they encounter and the moments they appreciate most. Rodrigo has taken pieces of her breakup and transformed them into an anthem for those everywhere in similar situations. By incorporating the general theme of heartbreak into her songs, Rodrigo is allowing listeners to feel her pain, doing so in a beautiful way that allowed her to make a lively twist on her past. Rodrigo perfectly demonstrates the idea of taking each of life’s experiences, positive or negative, and shifting them to better oneself. Interpolation was not only used literally in terms of transforming music, but also to transform bitter experiences from the artist’s life into music for an entire generation.
By Morgan Reitz
Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 1
October 6th, 2021