On Sept. 8, Olivia Rodrigo released her newest album, “Guts”, which has long been anticipated since her debut album “Sour” was released in May 2021. According to Variety Magazine, Rodrigo’s songs have been a hit with her fans, selling 302,000 albums in the U.S. with 100 million streams, and having the fourth largest opening week for any album in 2023.
I first heard about Rodrigo’s new album when I listened to her single “Vampire,” released on June 30th as a teaser for her new album. After listening to the single only two times, I wasn’t exactly hyped for the album, since the song bored me with its slowness and was only really fun as a TikTok trend.
Olivia Rodrigo is a popstar sensation, singing and writing songs that relate very much to the teenage population with her relatable Gen Z energy. For example, in one of her new songs, she screams out of frustration, and then carries on with the rest of her song acting like she is fine. A very Gen Z thing to do. That chaoticness is what got me back into the hype of her Guts Album.
Many of her fans, including myself, got into her music after hearing the songs “Brutal” and “Good for You” from her first album. They had an energy to it that related very much to the experience of highschooler, with a lot of teen angst and drama you didn’t expect to happen. She had this talent similar to Taylor Swift of using past heartbreaks as inspiration for most of her songs. It’s an overused trope in most pop music; however, in Rodrigo’s music, it just hits a part of your soul just right that you wanna dance and act dramatic when you hear her music.
As a Taylor Swift fan, I can vouch that Rodrigo truly has a similar power to Taylor Swift in bringing other celebrities into a debate all online fans can fight over. With thoughts like “Maybe she was talking about this guy in her song?” or “Is it this ex she was talking about?” and so forth without making fans or the people she’s mentioned in her songs hate her. In fact, the potential tea is what makes her more popular and gets her fans to sit patiently waiting for what else she’ll release till we get the whole picture to her entertaining and relatable tragic romance stories.
In Rodrigo’s song “get him back!” one line says “And when I told him how he hurt me, he’d tell me I was tripping But I am my father’s daughter, so maybe I could fix him”. It’s relatable in the way she tried to fix whoever her ex was, which is a thing I’ve seen in many unsatisfied relationships. This is even more interesting when you find out her father is a therapist in real life, making that lyric make so much more sense, like that feeling you get when you add another piece to the puzzle and the picture gets more clearer.
I completely love all the loud songs on her album. Rodrigo’s way of writing in her life and experiences in her songs are what make me enjoy listening to her music. If there was anything I would wish she would change is less slow and acoustic guitar songs like “lacy” in her album. The song was too soft and the harmonizing parts were mediocre. While some songs were not the best, I find it impossible that all her songs could be immediate hits like “bad idea right?”. That song is more fun to listen to and has more iconic lyrics.
Rodrigo is breaking records and creating TikTok trends once again with her new album, and as one of her millions of fans I honestly could not be happier for her success. It is well deserved and I hope to hear more music from her in the future.
