#Music Rock | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heyits-mars-x · 2 years

Text

Olivia Rodrigo and the New Era of Punk

Note: The following essay is one that I wrote last year for a writing class. Some information may be slightly outdated since we live in the age of the internet; where things are constantly changing.

On May 21st, 2021, Olivia Rodrigo, an teenaged musician, released her debut album, SOUR, and the world imploded. Well, not actually, but the album did resonate with millions of listeners, especially young women coming to age in a new era of social media and global unrest. Rodrigo’s popularity after the release of SOUR spread across genres, and it wasn’t long before someone said:

“Hey, this chick is kinda punk.”

From that moment on, the people of the alternative music scene were getting into vicious arguments regarding the validity of that statement. Newer generations (or anyone who wasn’t a middle-aged, straight, cisgendered, white man) had Olivia Rodrigo’s back, defending her against the people who claimed she was simply a poser. I am one of those supporters, and I believe Olivia Rodrigo has successfully written punk music because not only does she fit the mold of a young, punk artist, but also because some of her music stylistically fits into the most broad definition of punk music. Genre lines are blurred, and if you look back at most episodes in alternative music history, punk was the grandfather for the modern subgenres of emo, metalcore, and pop punk.

Since she is a new artist, it is important to understand Rodrigo’s background. Olivia Rodrigo was born on February 20th, 2003, and is currently nineteen years old. Before she burst into the spotlight and became a household name, she was an actor in Disney’s High School Musical: The Series and Bizaardvark (“Olivia Rodrigo”). During the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodrigo, like everyone else, occupied herself with hobbies while being cooped up indoors. Thus, “driver’s license” was born (Rodrigo, 2021, “Bio”). Once released, “driver’s license” took the world by storm. Soon after that, SOUR debuted. Rodrigo had done it again - her music could be heard everywhere. It is now September, and her music still plays on repeat on radio stations and social media trends. After that, it was only a matter of time before the masses felt the need to categorize Rodrigo and her music. Her sound was unique, so people turned to the only genre they could think of: punk.

Punk also has its own history, originating in the US and the UK at roughly the same time - the 1970s - and evolved almost accidentally from wannabe rock bands playing in their garages and producing a more raw, unpolished sound (Savage). Punk’s most attractive feature was that it was ugly. Bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the Ramones brought aggressive attitudes, fashion, sounds, and lyrics to the rock and metal scene (“What is Punk Music?”). Musically, punk is fast, loud, messy, and often lacks a more melodic sound. Lyrically, punk music is gritty and controversial (“What is Punk Music?”). The pioneers of punk were angry adolescents, and they made sure the world heard their rage through bold, anti-establishment lyrics. Social commentary is a must in punk music (Savage). Many people argue that punk is now dead and gone, but I believe not only is it still alive and kicking, but also Olivia Rodrigo has successfully made modern punk music.

Starting off with the hit single featured on the SOUR, “driver’s license.” This song is often considered the one that made Rodrigo so popular amongst not only the younger generations who watched her acting career begin, but also older listeners who still related to the raw pain of a teenaged heartbreak. Upon the first listen, “driver’s license” is an emotional, melodic song about the pain experienced after a breakup (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). Compared to most punk music, “driver’s license” lacks a fast-paced, messy sound. Of course, there are always softer or more pop renditions of punk music (such as the widely popular subgenre of pop punk) but the sound of “driver’s license” still does not fit into that category either. It is not an acoustic song either, reminiscent of Neck Deep’s “December” or “A Part of Me,” that is common amongst pop punk artists. Lyrically, “driver’s license” is obviously filled with emotions, but the anger only shows in one line in the chorus, “I guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me,” (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). The emotional aspect of Rodrigo’s lyrics do mirror the aggressive nature synonymous with punk music often, but their delivery in “driver’s license” is much cleaner and more melodic than typical punk music.

Possibly one step closer to punk music is “deja vu.” Musically, “deja vu” is more fast paced, and the drums do add some edge to the overall sound (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). Her lyrics, once again, are very emotional, but their delivery is more pop than punk up until the two minute 45 second mark, when the song begins to ramp up in tempo, and the drums also kick into gear. During the last bridge to the end of the song, it could even be argued that the vocals become messier, even nearing the scream-sing vocals that are a trademark of punk music (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). However, I still do not think “deja vu” encapsulates Rodrigo’s ability to write punk music.

While “driver’s license” and “deja vu” may have not delivered that true punk spirit through sound and music, “good 4 u” turns the tables. Yes, it is undeniable that “good 4 u” is extremely similar to pop punk group Paramore’s iconic song “Misery Business,” and many accused Rodrigo of stealing from Paramore. On the contrary, as of September 2nd, it has been acknowledged that Hayley Williams (Paramore’s vocalist) and Joshua Farro (former Paramore guitarist) were co writers of “good 4 u” and do receive royalties from the song (Trapp). As previously mentioned, “good 4 u” does achieve the iconic pop punk sound especially reminiscent of “Misery Business,” with gritty bass, guitar riffs, and drum rhythms (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). However, if “good 4 u” had been a little less melodic and had a little more anger, it would truly be the punk song I am looking for. Regarding the lyrical composition of “good 4 u,” Rodrigo shows anger and angst, and even the delivery shows that emotion (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). While it may not be the most punk-like song on SOUR, “good 4 u” certainly adds an edge to Rodrigo’s discography, leading us to believe that she absolutely can write a true punk song.

Arguably the runner-up for the “most punk song on SOUR” award would be “jealousy, jealousy.” This song is filled with gritty instrumentals, highlights on the bass and clashing piano notes (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). The seemingly random key-smashing of the piano during the bridge of “jealousy, jealousy” is a very unique and edgy touch as well. Without a doubt, the lyrics of the song are punk. Rodrigo delivers an angry social commentary on the age of social media, the expectations placed on teenage girls, and the effects both have on a modern young woman’s attitude towards herself and others (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). Original punk music was angry at the world, and in the case of “jealousy, jealousy,” Rodrigo explores the hot topic of what it’s like finding your identity, especially as a young woman in an age of parasocial relationships with people from all over the world. Once again bringing it back to the bridge of the song, Rodrigo’s vocals are truly punk; she is angry, shouting, and messy (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). All things considered, “jealousy, jealousy” finally showcases Olivia Rodrigo’s ability to be a true punk artist . . . but there is one song left that is arguably the iconic punk song of the album, which sparked the debate of “is Olivia Rodrigo punk?”

Last, and absolutely not least, “brutal” encapsulates the true nature of punk music. Opening with delicate strings, a static-filled recording of Rodrigo saying “I want it to be like, messy,” launches listeners into an fast-paced angst-filled song (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). The song lacks a clear melody and Olivia’s vocals are loud and pessimistic - definitely mirroring the trademark punk vocals of garage bands (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR, “What is Punk Music?”). The lyrics themselves are a direct social commentary on being a modern teenage girl and how it feels when young women consistently fail to meet the impossibly high expectations placed on them. The main line that makes the song so recognizable, “god, it’s brutal out here,” perfectly encapsulates the attitude of punk music and culture (Rodrigo, 2021, SOUR). The attitude of “brutal” easily fits into the anti-establishment culture of punk music, and boasts Rodrigo’s ability to be a through-and-through punk artist if she so chooses.

At the end of the day, SOUR as a whole cannot be placed under one singular genre. Olivia Rodrigo has shown that she is an eclectic artist capable of putting out music of almost any style. Unfortunately, many of her songs are predominantly pop-themed, like “driver’s license,” and “deja vu,” but that simply shows her talent when such songs are compared to her edgier pieces. Despite her strong pop influence, Olivia has given us songs like “jealousy, jealousy” and “brutal,” that are successfully punk, while in a very modern sense. It is actually very interesting to see the routes alternative music as a whole has taken to get to the modern day era of punk, and I would argue that Olivia Rodrigo’s edgier tunes will lead younger generations to dip their toes into the water of alternative music and allow it to evolve even further. than it already has.

Works Cited

“Olivia Rodrigo.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/name/nm7111120/bio.

Rodrigo, O. SOUR. Performance by Olivia Rodrigo. Geffen Records, 2021.

Rodrigo, Olivia. “Bio.” Olivia Rodrigo, Geffen Records, www.oliviarodrigo.com/.

Savage, Jon. “Punk.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/punk.

Trapp, Philip. “Paramore + Olivia Rodrigo Were in Talks before 'Good 4 u' Emerged.” Loudwire, Loudwire, 2 Sept. 2021, loudwire.com/paramore-olivia-rodrigo-good-4-u-writing-credits-hayley-williams-before-release/.

“What Is Punk Music? Meaning, Artists, Culture & History.” Pro Musician Hub, 22 July 2021, promusicianhub.com/what-is-punk-music/.

10 notes · View notes

bootleg-nessie · 11 months

Text

Rating band names based on their accuracy:

(I keep updating this list so check back later)

The Beatles: 3/10. None of these people are beetles, they’re just a bunch of fruity guys from Liverpool with matching haircuts

(Edit: changed from 0/10 to 3/10 because John Lennon beat his wife)

Pink Floyd: 4/10. There is not a single person named Floyd in the band, but some of the members do arguably look kinda pink

Nirvana: 10/10. Getting high and listening to Nirvana is roughly what I imagine actual nirvana to be like

Foo Fighters: either 0/10 or 10/10. I have never seen foo in real life so either they’re pretending to fight a problem that doesn’t exist or they’re doing an absolutely fantastic job of fighting it

The Eagles: 0/10. Same as the Beatles, there is not a single eagle in this band. The name is misleading and we have all been lied to

Queen: 6/10. Partial points for Freddie Mercury

Led Zeppelin: 0/10. I don’t think any of these guys have ever even seen a zeppelin, let alone one made of lead. A lead balloon would crash faster than my hopes and dreams

The Rolling Stones: 3/10. There is not a single stone in this band. Some points added because I’m pretty sure they rolled quite a few

U2: 0/10. Despite what the name says, I am not a member of this band

Metallica: 9/10. Naming a metal band “Metallica” is like naming your dog “doggy”

Red Hot Chili Peppers: 2/10. These guys are not chili peppers. They’re not even that hot, let alone red hot

Guns N’ Roses: 0/10. How the fuck could a gun or a flower play music

Backstreet Boys: ?/10. Depends entirely on their current given location

Simon and Garfunkel: 10/10. No notes

The Doors: 1/10. Jim Morrison is kinda shaped like a door tho

Chicago: 4/10. The number of people in this band does not come even remotely close to the population of Chicago. Points added because it originated in Chicago

Earth, wind, and fire: 2/10. This is even more innacurate than Chicago. Points added because wind instruments were often used

Def Leppard: 3/10. There is not a single leopard in this band. Some of the members are probably kinda deaf by now tho

The Beach Boys: ?/10. Accuracy depends entirely on location

The Black Eyed Peas: 6/10. Not sure what the hell an ‘eyed pea’ is but the black part is pretty accurate

Imagine Dragons: ?/10. Depends entirely on whether or not they’re thinking about dragons.

Cage the Elephant: 1/10. Why would you do that. Let the elephant go

Green Day: 0/10. They’re not even green

The Police: 0/10. There is not a single cop in this band

KISS: 5/10. I’m sure they probably kissed sometimes

The Monkees: 0/10. Are you fucking kidding me

We Butter the Bread with Butter: 8/10. I can’t verify this but I have no reason to suspect that they’d lie. Butter seems like the most logical thing to butter bread with

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: 0/10. I got really excited about the concept of a lizard wizard only to be let down. My disappointment is immeasurable

They Might Be Giants: 5/10. I googled everyone in this band’s height, the tallest guy’s only 6’1 so I wouldn’t exactly consider him a giant. Then again, I can’t really argue because the claim was only that they MIGHT be giants

The Presidents of the United States of America: 2/10. None of these people are Joe Biden nor are any of them former presidents. This is incredibly misleading. I’m pretty sure “Lump” was written about my first girlfriend tho so I’ll give them a point or two

Gorillaz: 2/10 Not quite but we’re kinda close genetically so I’ll give them partial credit

The Killers: ?/10. I have no way of verifying if they’ve actually killed before but the fact that they’re not in prison tells me probably not

The Offspring: 10/10. These guys are definitely somebody’s offspring

Arctic Monkeys: 1/10. They are neither monkeys nor are they from the arctic

Thirty Seconds to Mars: 1/10. It takes WAY longer to get to mars than that

Beastie Boys: 8/10. They’re pretty beast on the guitar

Jimmy Eat World: 1/10. Slow the fuck down Jimmy, you’re biting off way more than you can chew

Hole: 9/10. One point deducted because I’m pretty sure they had more than one hole

Rage Against the Machine: 10/10. They did exactly that

Alice In Chains: 0/10. This is illegal. Let Alice go

The Band: 10/10. This could not possibly be more accurate

Nine Inch Nails: 1/10. I can’t find any good pictures of their feet but from what I can tell their fingernails definitely aren’t nine inches long

Bush: ?/10. Not quite sure about this one, felt uncomfortable asking

The Who: 2/10. I’m not dealing with this “Who’s On First” bullshit

Radiohead: 0/10. Not a single person in this band has a radio for a head

Queens of the Stone Age: 0/10. This band should be called “five random dudes from the modern era” but FRDFTMA is a bit of a mouthful

Soundgarden: 2/10. Sound does not grow in the garden

Sonic Youth: 5/10. They’re not exactly youth anymore but the sonic part checks out

Talking heads: 8/10. There’s more to the band than just a bunch of disembodied heads but the heads do tend to talk

The Cranberries: 0/10. Decent music but I only added them so that the Beatles and Freddie Mercury weren’t the only fruits on this list

The Wiggles: 8/10. They do tend to wiggle a lot

Blue Man Group: 10/10. Yep!

Weezer: 5/10. They all look like they definitely have asthma

Limp Bizkit: 3/10. While the visual image of baked goods playing the guitar is hilarious, Fred durst is not a biscuit. Points added because he probably has erectile dysfunction

Stone Temple Pilots: 0/10. None of these people are accredited as being licensed to pilot anything, much less an entire stone temple. Stone temples don’t need pilots anyways

Wasted Youth: 8/10. I guess it really kinda depends on how you frame it but yeah, they probably wasted a lot of it

Them Crooked Vultures: 3/10. These are people and not birds but Dave Grohl’s posture is kinda bad and John Paul Jones is so old that his neck kinda looks like a vulture’s so I added some points

Audioslave: 0/10. Slavery is illegal

Traveling Wilburys: 4/10. Sure, they traveled a lot but not a single one of those lying bastards was named Wilbury

D12: 6/12. There were only 6 people in this band

NWA: 10/10. I’m a little too white to safely comment on this one but I’d say they nailed it

Jet: 1/10. A real jet would be way too loud

Goldfinger: 0/10. Not a single person in this band has a finger made out of gold

No Doubt: ?/10. I can’t really be too sure how Gwen Stefani felt but I think it’s probably a safe assumption that she had some doubts

The White Stripes: 3/10. I bet if you stripped them down naked and made them stand shoulder to shoulder and squinted really hard they’d probably look more like white stripes

Screaming trees: 3/10. They scream occasionally

Garbage: 2/10. I think they’re being a little harsh on themselves, their music isn’t THAT bad

Butthole Surfers: 5/10. Not even gonna touch this one

Megadeth: 3/10. To be fair, some of the former members are dead but only a little amount of death, not mega death

Dead Kennedys: 2/10. Last I checked Kennedy was still dead but neither he nor his clones are members of this band

Cake: 0/10. The cake is a lie

Cracker: 8/10. Most of them are

Tool: 7/10. I don’t know much about their music but they sure look like tools

Counting Crows: ?/10. Is this what emo kids do instead of counting sheep? Accuracy depends on whatever bird they happen to be counting at the moment

Dave Matthews Band: 10/10. It certainly is

Oasis: 1/10. Their music is the opposite of an oasis

Blur: 2/10. They are not that fast

Barenaked Ladies: 0/10. If I wanted to be this disappointed I’d reestablish a connection with my biological father instead

Meat Puppets: 10/10. Technically, aren’t we all?

Live: 8/10. Apparently they still do live shows but I deducted some points because I’ve only ever heard their music on Spotify

ABBA: 9/10. I’m still not giving any points to Guns N’ Roses but that’s mostly out of spite

5 Finger Death Punch: 8/10 I guess it probably depends on how hard you hit them but this seems to be the usual amount of fingers to punch somebody with

All American Rejects: 9/10. They’re all rejects from America so I don’t really see any issue with this

T. Rex: 0/10. Even if any of these people WAS a T. Rex I don’t think their arms would be long enough to play their instruments

Free: 0/10. Unless you steal their music, in which case it becomes a 10/10

The Strokes: 3/10. To my knowledge, none of them have had a stroke but I still added a few points because the name was probably accurate for other reasons

The Smashing Pumpkins ?/10. Another thing I have no way of verifying but this seems like a waste of perfectly good pumpkins

Therapy?: ?/10. The hell are they asking me for? I don’t know their medical history

Twenty One Pilots. 0/10. There’s only two of them and neither is a licensed pilot

Finger Eleven: 0/10. Leave the poor Stranger Things girl out of this

Fall Out Boy: 9/10. I conferred with an expert on this one who confirmed that they are in fact boys who had a falling out

Cream: 8/10. Considering this was the OG supergroup I’m sure a lot of people did in fact cream when their music came out

Edit: humans aren’t fucking monkeys. Stop saying we are

51K notes · View notes