They each sing about boys and heartbreak, their albums zoom to the highest of the charts inside hours of launch they usually each have armies of followers who discover solace of their self-deprecating lyrics.
You couldn’t be blamed for pondering 20-year-old US pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo is Taylor Swift 2.0.
Some individuals are already pitting America’s two chart sweethearts towards one another, concocting a “feud” on social media.
Throughout her profession, 33-year-old Swift was roped into celeb feuds with Kanye West and Katy Perry, regardless of firmly stating she needed “no part” in them.
Rodrigo received’t be doing feuds.
“I don’t have beef with anyone,” she advised Rolling Stone when requested about her so-called “feud” with Swift.
“I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say.”
In fact, Rodrigo is giving Gen Z a relatable flawed poster-girl they haven’t seen earlier than — not even in Swift.
Rodrigo rejects the “good girl that keeps quiet” expectation.
From singing to screaming, she explores self-loathing, aggressive obsessions, coming of age, heartbreak, thrills of delusion, social nervousness, and rejection in a piercingly brutal Gen Z twist wrapped up in a pop-rock sound.
All-American Bitch, the opening monitor on her second album Guts, which was launched final week, portrays the frustration of being a younger lady in the present day and the not possible expectations imposed upon them.
She softly sings lyrics reminiscent of “I am light as a feather, I’m as fresh as the air” and “I don’t get angry when I’m p…ed I’m the eternal optimist” earlier than emitting a howling screech.
The considered assembly an ex’s mom “just to tell her her son sucks”, publicly calling an ex a “fame-f…er” and admitting “every guy I like is gay” are examples of the confessional nature of Rodrigo’s lyrics, and her listeners relate to all too nicely.
She rejects the “good girl” pop star persona, an archetype that Swift fell sufferer to.
Swift, now 33, admitted in her Miss Americana Netflix documentary it had been exhausting all the time being the “shiny” one.
“It’s a lot to process because we do exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard at 35,” she stated.
“Everyone is a shiny new toy for like two years. The female artists have reinvented themselves 20 times more than the male artists. They have to or else you’re out of a job. Constantly having to reinvent, constantly finding new facets of yourself that people find to be shiny.”
Rodrigo received’t be doing any of that.
“Women are so discouraged from showing emotions, like anger or dissatisfaction for fear of being (seen as) ungrateful or hard to be around, and I’ve always struggled with that,” she advised the BBC.
“And because I’ve always felt that pressure to be this perfect all-American girl, I kind of repressed a lot of feelings in my life. And I think that came up and hurt me in different ways.”
Her warts’n’all method is just not misplaced on pop critics.
“She may not be the ideal role model, but the best main characters never are,” wrote Cat Zhang in her evaluate of Guts on Pitchfork.
Rodrigo first trod her personal sweary path in the course of the pandemic because the pop business witnessed a shift to slower, quieter, extra melancholic tunes from Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever and Swift’s Folklore.
Not so for Rodrigo. The good 4 u singer raged on in debut album Sour with sudden piercing quantity modifications unleashed to maintain followers on their toes.
It’s extra of the identical on her uproarious second album which is about to keep away from the “sophomore slump” and show that she is not only right here to remain, however to dominate.
Showbiz gossips could also be salivating for a conflict between two pop titans, however Swift and Rodrigo don’t have any urge for food for it.
In the viewers, Swift enthusiastically applauded Rodrigo’s present on the VMAs in New York this week. And Rodrigo is a confirmed “Swiftie”.
“I’ve always looked up to Taylor since I was literally five years old,” she beforehand advised the NME.
“Obviously I think she’s the best songwriter of all time, but she’s so business-savvy and she really cares about her career in that regard too — that’s been really inspiring for me to watch somebody take control of their career and their life like that.”
Staying true to her sincere method, Rodrigo stated navigating Swift ranges of fame is not any stroll within the park.
“Looking back, I’m like, ‘God, what a crazy trajectory’,” she stated.
“And it wasn’t until very recently that I began to process how irrevocably my life was changed in a span of a few months.”
And while Swift famously sings in regards to the haters, Rodrigo is discovering love from sudden audiences.
“I don’t know if this is weird to say, but I was surprised how many older men really liked the music,” she stated.
New York Times pop music critic Lindsay Zoladz admitted: “I’m older than Olivia Rodrigo and her target audience, but it’s filling a need I didn’t get when I was her age.”
As Rodrigo continues to win over sudden followers one factor is obvious — there’s greater than sufficient room for 2 queens of pop.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
