Ever since the successful release of 'Driver's License' and later her album 'SOUR', Olivia Rodrigo has made a massive impact on the industry, young artists, the pop punk genre, and more. We're diving into her journey throughout her career and the influence she's had on music.
Instagram | Olivia Rodrigo
From starring on kid TV shows to landing a spot in the drama series 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series', her career has quickly taken off. Within her most recent acting job, Olivia revealed her natural talent of singing, which had fans and labels' head's turning. The release of 'All I Want', featured in the HSM television series was debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and available for download had listeners hungry for more music. She promptly signed with Interscope before dropping her 2021 album, which featured one, if not the most popular song of the year. Each track on the 11-song studio release was a crowd favorite and chart-topper with its pop-punk and pop-rock influence. Its commercial success worldwide and accolades from multiple award shows including the Grammys, AMA's, MTV, and more completely shifted her life into a newfound singing career.
Her album has not only amassed over 6.5 billion streams currently, marking it as one of the fastest releases to achieve such a number, but they found immense success on social media platforms. Fans across the globe were adoring the sentimental and gut-wrenching music as they expressed themselves creatively with her lyrics on TikTok, Instagram, and their own music careers.
Let's dive into this hit album.
'SOUR' touches on the pop-punk and alternative pop genre with musical citations from Paramore, Jack White, and Avril Lavigne. The angst and emotion that is derived from this popularized music category are easily seen throughout the entire album, in some tracks more than others. With the perfect mixture of anger, emotion, heavy guitar, and relatable storyline, the return of this popular genre has brought along thousands of new pop-punk and pop-rock fans.
With the comeback of the punk genre after a dip in its popularity in 2010, the release of her album sparked a newfound adoration for it within the new generation. With other artists focusing on genres such as pop, rock, electro, country, etc, Olivia sparked a new light and conversation into a 90s and 2000s classic.
To hear more about how pop punk was reintroduced into the world of music, click here
Instagram | Olivia Rodrigo
Following the album's release, controversy arose from the song 'good 4 u' regarding its apparent similarities between the single and Paramore's 'Misery Business'. Rodrigo confirmed the sampling of the band's hit track as the guitar riff and other key elements were alike. Despite fans comparing both artists, Olivia and Hayley showed nothing but respect & admiration for each other's careers.
Shortly after the release of 'SOUR', tour dates were announced in US cities and International venues, which ran for four months. The tickets quickly sold out upon availability and featured talented opening acts including Gracie Abrams, Holly Humberstone, and Baby Queen. She brought on a few surprise guests onstage, including Avril Lavigne, Natalie Imbruglia, Conan Gray.
Prior to the beginning of her first tour, she teamed up between Disney+ to release 'Driving Home 2 U', a documentary, which included behind the scenes footage and live performances of each song on her album. Not only is she taking the audience on a road trip from Utah to Los Angeles, but she's giving us an intimate acoustic performance and giving us details on the creative process. Not many musicians have taken this route to promote their music and set her apart from other young artists.
Following live performances, promo, and the world tour, Olivia took a break from music and fans were excited to see what was in the works for her next album. On June 13, 2023, the first teaser for her upcoming work was announced, which sparked worldwide conversation & headlines. The song 'vampire' was set to release at the end of the month, as per her Instagram post [the song] ..."helped me sort through lots of feelings of regret, anger, and heartache...". With the success of her previous album, fans or 'Livie's' were ready for more. Shortly after its release, over 27 million listeners were at the ready to download the latest track and add more pop punk onto their playlists.
Instagram | Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia took to Apple Music's 'New Music Daily' to detail her pop-rock release as "...dynamic and reflects the pent up anger you have for a certain situation...". Its theme aligns her pain and experience with gaslighting from older men into the angsty and crescendo-like tune that we're loving. She even went further to include vulgar language that provided a sense of maturity in her music and give us the extra vigor.
Her ability to make young women feel heard made for a rising chart topper and yet another successful song from Olivia's discography as we get a taste for what's to come in her next album.
Following its drop, Olivia announced her upcoming album 'GUTS', which is set to release on September 8 as well as hinting to her next tour. The studio album will encapsulate a more relatable & mature personal story as we explore this new era of Rodrigo's music and we're ready to hear more.
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