Hazel Kwang '25 breaks down Olivia Rodrigo's rise to fame!
Olivia Rodrigo, thanks to her hit song “driver’s license”, became an overnight internet sensation, who snatched every headline and billboard chart.
Growing up in Temecula, California, Olivia Rodrigo is an only child to a father of Filipino descent and a mother of German and Irish ancestry. Rodrigo showed signs of interest in music at a very young age and started pursuing music by taking singing lessons at the age of five and piano lessons at nine. She would go on to participate in numerous singing competitions and auditions, eventually landing her the role of Paige Olvera in Bizaardvark, which aired on Disney Channel from 2016 to 2019. The show featured two girls who record funny vlogs and skits, oftentimes featuring silly music, allowing Rodrigo to showcase her musical talents early on in her career. Olivia Rodrigo would then go on to star in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series where she played the lead as Nini, which would serve as the stepping stone for her success in music, as the producers of the show granted her with the creative freedom of writing her own songs that are featured in the soundtrack. Her most notable songs were “All I Want” and “Wondering” (in collaboration with Julia Lester). Both ballads share a sentiment of heartbreak and being as your own person, similar themes follow through with her later in her debut album “Sour”.
The sudden success of Olivia Rodrigo can be attributed to four factors: exposure, timing, talent, and relatability. Disney provided her with the initial exposure she needed by giving her with a platform filled with millions of teens and tweens who look up to the stars on Disney Channel (and Disney plus). This exposure only grew when rumors about Rodrigo and her costar Joshua Bassett dating surfaced after the show was released. The rumors were mostly fueled by fan-shipping as Basset and Rodrigo played love interests on the show. Rumors of Bassett dating another Disney Star, Sabrina Carpenter, only added oil to the fire as fans began theorizing love triangles, trying to find “hidden clues” in interviews, video clips, etc.
Nevertheless, the obsession with celebrity life and gossip gave Rodrigo all the exposure she needed for success. Whether it was by coincidence or smart marketing, Rodrigo released the infamous single, “driver’s license” at the perfect time, during the height of the controversy. The internet exploded with more people partaking in the theories and speculations about the Basset-Rodrigo-Carpenter love triangle, inspecting every detail of the three actors’ lives under a microscope, simultaneously increasing hype for “driver’s license.”
With solid vocal skills and a talent for writing heart wrenching songs (that Rodrigo honed over the years by sharing small clips of songs through Instagram), it was clear that Rodrigo knew exactly how to craft her art. Songs on “Sour” are filled with heartbreak, teenage angst, and a longing for relationships that many are either experiencing or have previously experienced in their lives. This made her songs relatable to a very wide audience, as anyone who has ever felt heartbreak through rejection or breakups; anyone who has ever been through high school knows the anxieties of fitting in and living up to unrealistic expectations. All these experiences are universal through every gender, age, or racial demographic, making Rodrigo’s songs relatable to almost everyone.
However, “Sour" has been heard and overplayed everywhere, from cafes to award shows, everyone has either seen or heard a version of her songs. It doesn’t help that most of the songs share the same style and motif. If Olivia Rodrigo wants to maintain her success and not be known as a “one-hit wonder”, she would have to release a few more tracks or another album of a vastly different genre than “Sour”, or she might receive criticism on her style and songwriting, as she has already been accused of plagiarizing many of her songs.
It has been exactly a year after her first single and eight months since the release of “Sour”. Fans and casual listeners alike are getting restless waiting for her next single to drop. Rumors and theories about a new album have been floating around the internet since the month after the release of “Sour”. With all the sponsorship deals and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series renewing for a third season, would Olivia Rodrigo be able to release a new song that lives up to the expectations? Or will she be condemned to a fate of being a one-hit wonder?
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