We're in for another deep dive folks, and this one is way out of my comfort zone. Not only is it an artist I've never really listened to, but it's also from a genre I don't really enjoy. But, like I said in my last post, I'm trying my best to push out the proverbial boat and try something new. I know a few of her most well known tracks, but let's be honest who doesn't at this point - it's all you hear on the radio, and I love the radio, so they must be getting something right. So here we are, on the precipice of a new adventure for me, but I'm excited - so here's my deep dive into the music of Olivia Rodrigo.
(Image courtesy of Kevin Mazur//People)
Origins
Rodrigo was born in February 2003, and began singing and acting at a young age. Inspired by Taylor Swift she began playing guitar at age 12 after being taught piano from age 9, and began song writing around the same time. She earned her debut role in An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success in 2015, and went on to land a role in a Disney show Bizzaredvark off the back of it in 2016, moving her to Los Angeles and starred in three seasons. After three seasons of another Disney series, High School Musical - The Series in 2019, she left claiming she was walking away to focus on her music career.
In 2020 she signed with Geffen, securing herself a deal that ensured she retained ownership over her own music, clearly learning a lesson from the issue her idol Swift ran into in the 2000's. In 2021, she released Drivers License to semi-immediate critical acclaim. She broke insane streaming records on Spotify, and garnered over 15.7 million global streams in one day, only to break it's own record again with 17 million the next day. It shot straight to No.1 on the Billboard chart, and skyrocketed her career extremely early on. She followed that release up with the release of Deja Vu, which also debuted in the top ten, as well as Good 4 U, which debuted at No.1. Her rise to fame was meteoric, and a month later she released her first highly anticipated sophomore record Sour on May 21st - critics claimed her to be 'the voice of a generation'. It garnered her seven Grammy nominations, she won three - Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocals and Best Pop Solo Performance.
In August 2023 she won a BRIT Billion Award for achieving over a billion streams on her music in the UK, becoming the youngest ever recipient in the history of the awards. She also released Vampire in June as a lead single for her newest album, which unsurprisingly debuted at No.1 once again, making that three tracks now under her belt that debuted at the top of the charts. She went on to drop Guts, which once again was loved by critics as a more mature distillation of her earlier sound. She's currently still touring off the back of this release, having recently done four sold out nights at London's O2.
Style
Rodrigo's style boils down to pop, but has a lot of influences from within those spheres. With her main influences being cited as Taylor Swift, Lorde and Jack White. There are definite pop-rock elements in some of her tracks, with distorted guitar featuring in a lot of her tracks, as well as Indie influences and some teen pop vibes sprinkled in. She claims her song-writing deals with 'heartache, mental health, and sadness, without being melodramatic'.
Current Line Up/Kit
Olivia Rodrigo - Vocals/Guitar/Piano (Electric - Ernie Ball St. Vincent, Acoustic - Yamaha F355)
Discography - First Listen
Sour feels like a formative pop exploration, with feet in all sorts of doors in terms of style. The opener Brutal has more the shaping's of a punk/grunge track, with distorted vocals and guitar that I actually really enjoyed. Other tracks lean into the anthemic, with Drivers License emphasising on chorus elements and piano to build to a crashing climax similar to Traitor. Vocally Rodrigo is stunning. Her range is good to listen to, and really flourishes in the mid high range. From the slow burners to the piano ballads, you can really feel the emotions in both her cadence and tone, and her song-writing deals some really good emotional punches, even if in it's formative phases it sometimes is a touch cringey, but I suppose when talking about love and heartbreak, it's sometimes hard to miss some cliche. Instrumentation also changes up pretty dramatically throughout the record, going from live performed to electric looped drums and synths like Deja Vu. The record is a comprehensive sweep of Rodrigo's range and versatility in her own genre. Plus, from a personal standpoint, I like in it's last half it allows itself to get really introspective and slow. It takes the whole record in a really nice emotional curve.
The critics were right about this record. Not only is it a refining of everything that's good about this artist, but it also adds a bit of edge to its sound that really works in her favour. The mix becomes more interesting, with more tangible bass, and gets even more introspective with it's lyrics. You get that pop-rock vibe on the opener like you did last time, and you can tell that she's elevated her own sound to whole new levels. Although again at times it hits some mildly cringey moments, once again when it's a record discussing things so close to the emotional bone, a little here and there makes sense. The subjects of the songs have also matured, talking about women's roles in American society, body image and love (of course). I like the sound of the more live instrumentation. The bass is chunky, the drums crisp and her vocals change more across the tracks. Some are in her usual clear cadence, others are more breathy, and some like Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl revels in all of them at once. The record takes with it the emotional peaks too, going from some foot tapping rhythms to more introspective and reflective tracks like Making the Bed. Piano is used a lot in these ones, and the vibes are mellow, but the record takes back off with Get Him Back - which everyone knows and everyone really knows it's pretty damn good. There's also a definite retro-rock influence on this record that's hard to not hear. The guitar tone and drums are all reminiscent of the glam rock era, glittery and edgy at the same time when paired with her glassy vocals. The record flourishes in it's latter half, with the closing track Teenage Dream creating those same memorable crescendos from the first album, but they just hit that bit harder.
Although Guts (Spilled) is just the extended edition I was told this held some of the best tracks on the record, and holy shit, it does. It makes me wonder why tracks like Obsessed showing once again why Rodrigo is one of the most well loved pop acts at the moment were left out of the original recording. All parts thrashy and punk-esque, accoustic and reflective, the extra five songs are really strong additions to her repertoire. So American was also a highlight, with such a strong guitar and synth, when it's paired with such a catchy chorus...it's good.
Discography Ranking
Guts/Guts (Spilled) (2022) - 8/10
Sour (2021) - 6.5/10
My Opinion
It seems like Rodrigo's sound gets better and better with time. From pretty regular beginnings in the pop realm, making love/hate songs, she seems to have created her own mark on the music industry with her mildly genre bending style and mass appeal. Sour as a record was just a first evolution in terms of her sound and stylisation, which is impressive on her debut, and pretty close to knockout on her follow-up Guts. Her voice is brilliant, able to nail multiple styles, her production is always clean, and the instrumentation got better and better with every song, even sounding full bodied in acoustic sections. It seems her musical talents know no bounds in the pop-rock sphere, with her being able to keep you captivated even when it's just her and a piano or guitar, and have you hanging on when it's amongst other stronger instruments. Although sometimes her song-writing doesn't connect with me (who is biologically male, sorry) I imagine this badass approach to female power is insanely empowering for her female listeners, and who's to argue with that?
Playlist Additions: Brutal, Jealousy Jealousy, Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl, So American
Overall Rating: 7/10
Sources Used
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Rodrigo
Equipboard - https://equipboard.com/pros/olivia-rodrigo
Guitar dot com for more on her live guitar - https://guitar.com/news/gear-news/olivia-rodrigo-playing-ernie-ball-music-man-st-vincent-on-tour/
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