Passing any test, especially one that gives you the ultimate exploratory power, is a greatly joyous occasion. I guess that is why Olivia Rodrigo’s somber reaction to getting her drivers license baffled me. Maybe she secretly threw a crazy suburban rager and baked a traffic cone cake to celebrate her achievement. The next morning, she wakes up feeling too fulfilled and decides that it is time for a little sad girl era, so she sits at the dining room table in her pajamas, quietly sobbing as she consumes another slice of her bright orange dessert. In between pained sobs escapes a horrendous melody that turns into her 2021 hit single: “Drivers License.”
According to the DMV official website, 55% of Californians failed their drivers tests in 2021. Olivia was one of the lucky few who passed and I am happy for her. I am sure she studied harder than me and deserved it more so I am not at all resentful of her success, but others feel differently. Carolyn Levin ’26 laments, “I didn’t pass that test when that song came out and I felt demeaned.” Another hopeful driver says, “I was still regularly hitting curbs at that point and nearing the end of my teenage years. So when Olivia, at the ripe age of seventeen, whines about passing one of the hardest tests in history and the world basks in her misery, I was mystified.”
Dropping Driver’s License in the midst of a road failures epidemic was not the last of Rodrigo’s controversial actions. She has come under fire recently for allegedly copying melodies and album cover designs from other musicians. Elvis Costello does not mind that his chord sequence in “Pump it Up” is featured in
Brutal
, but other artists are less forgiving. Courtney Love accused Rodrigo of copying her band’s album cover for the
Sour
Prom
artwork and Paramore received fifty percent ownership of “Good 4 U” after pointing out the song’s similarities with “Misery Business.”
Most recently, Taylor Swift sued Rodrigo for inserting the bridge from “Cruel Summer” into “Deja Vu,” a very harsh move. Sometimes it is difficult not to accidentally plagiarize your idol, especially when you listen to her songs on repeat and experiment with angrier lyrics. In all seriousness, I believe that recycling music is good for the environment and artists should learn to prioritize the planet over their finances.
Sarah Schneidman ’24 asks, “If Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff look at themselves in the mirror, can they really say that they deserve a writing credit for ‘Deja Vu?’” Schneidman is skeptical of the pairs’ accusations, especially since “there’s only so many intervals, rhythms and chord progressions in music,” she says.
I must admit that Rodrigo is undeserving of the recent backlash she has faced. Listeners should channel that energy into scrutinizing her vengeful melodies and confounding lyrics. How does she keep running into blood-sucking “fame fuckers?” Every song is another meltdown that ends with a heap of orange frosting smeared across her dining room table, and I am afraid that she is plotting to bake more.
