Tag: Olivia Rodrigo Vampire

Olivia Rodrigo Tries to Fill the Hole Where Hole Used to Be

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As supposed Olivia Rodrigo nemesis Taylor Swift once said, “I come back stronger than a 90s trend.” That’s precisely what’s happened of late in the live performances Rodrigo has been doing in promotion of her Guts album. It started roughly two months ago, when Rodrigo appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to sing “ballad of a home schooled girl” (a timely choice considering the then upcoming release of Mean Girls 2024). Although not exactly outfitted in “Courtney Love circa 1994” attire during this instance, the entire vibe of the performance smacked of Rodrigo’s desire to bring back the raucous stylings of 90s-era frontwomen (e.g., Kathleen Hanna, Justine Frischmann, Shirley Manson), with an especial emphasis on the riot grrrl sound and look (granted, Love was no fan of that mid-90s movement).

Out of all those “alt-rock” (a cringe-y term that Daria Morgendorffer undoubtedly hated) bands, Courtney Love’s personal style as the frontwoman of Hole was the most visible, aided along by the fact that she was dating (and then married) the “king” of grunge, Kurt Cobain (a name Gen Zers often have no knowledge of despite freely and vexingly sporting Nirvana t-shirts on the regular). While Rodrigo might have adopted solely the “tone” of Love’s performances (albeit more of a Love Lite vibe than an all-out visceral experience) on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she saved an homage to all-out Hole aesthetics until she appeared on the December 9, 2023 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Choosing to introduce a new song to the less-versed in her Guts album, Rodrigo followed her stripped-down performance of “vampire” with a more production value-y “all-american bitch.” Outfitted in a pink babydoll dress (this style of frock being Love’s well-known signature around the time of Live Through This), complete with a white, doily-esque collar, Rodrigo sits at a table decorated with cakes and other assorted sweets as she initially sings in her most precious voice while placing sugar cubes into a coffee cup (this, one imagines, will be repurposed again for her Guts Tour, along with babydoll dresses galore). Once the chorus hits, though, she shatters a champagne flute in her hand and proceeds to semi-writhe on the table in a botched attempt at “doing the Madonna at the 1984 VMAs.”

Rodrigo then briefly goes back to being a “good little girl” before again ramping up the repressed anger she holds back in these moments, finally going all in on decimating the desserts on the table, not just hurtling them aside, but also throwing some of it at the camera and violently stabbing one of the cakes with a knife like she’s stabbing at the patriarchy itself. This blending of Madonna and Courtney Love (notoriously contentious toward one another for a while there) performance sensibilities is perhaps a testament to the pastiche overload of our current time. Something that Rodrigo, like anyone of her generation, can’t help but be a (for lack of a better word) victim of.

After loosely returning to her faux sugary sweetness shtick for another verse, Rodrigo once more goes apeshit during the chorus, the entirety of which is: “Forgive and I forget/I know my age and I act like it/Got what you can’t resist/I’m a perfect all-American bitch/With perfect all-American lips/And perfect all-American hips/I know my place, I know my place, and this is it.” The dripping-with-sarcasm aura also smacks of Love’s brand. Most notably on 1994’s “Miss World,” wherein she drones, “I’m Miss World/Somebody kill me/Kill me pills/No one cares, my friends.” In another part of that song, Love belts the chorus, “I’ve made my bed, I’ll lie in it/I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it/I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it/I’ve made my bed, I’ll cry in it.” “Coincidentally” enough, this expression is something that crops up in a Rodrigo song on Guts called “making the bed.” The track explores similar self-deprecating themes surrounding fame as Rodrigo laments, “And I’m playin’ the victim so well in my head/But it’s me who’s been makin’ the bed/Me who’s been makin’ the bed/Pull the sheets over my head, yeah/Makin’ the bed.”

This is also a song she sang live recently for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, rounding out the set of four songs (which additionally included “love is embarrassing,” “vampire” and “lacy”) with this one while wearing what is quickly becoming her own signature babydoll dress. After all, she’s openly stated her favorite fashion era is the 90s, with a budget for “vintage” clothing to support her zeal. Thus (and probably needless to say), Courtney Love would surely be present on the proverbial Pinterest board of that decade’s fashion trends. Accordingly, Rodrigo’s influences on Guts have clearly shifted far more toward the 90s rage of alt-rock than the “happy anger” of 00s pop-punk, which was more palpable on Sour (though that wasn’t without its major “girl rage” 90s influence either: Alanis Morissette—and Alanis gets more play on this album cycle, too…at least visually speaking). This likely due to her declaration that Rage Against the Machine was a key influence on her while recording the album, particularly “all-american bitch.” But as far as promotional performances have gone since Guts was released in September of ‘23, the most overt influence has been purely Love (whether Rodrigo wants to admit to being fully aware of it or not).

Some can appreciate this commitment to homage, while others might not necessarily find it quite so “cute” or “endearing.” Although Rodrigo has pointed out that nothing in music is ever new, there is an increasing sense of “watered down-ness” the more the decades go by and people keep “gleaning” from the past. However, as Rodrigo insisted, “Every single artist is inspired by artists who have come before them. It’s sort of a fun, beautiful sharing process. Nothing in music is ever new. There’s four chords in every song. That’s the fun part—trying to make that your own.”

Rodrigo does her best to make Hole her own too. Though it’s a prime example of the Narrator (Edward Norton, who, fittingly, once dated Courtney Love) in Fight Club remarking, “Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.” So if you’re going to copy yourself off of someone, Love isn’t the worst choice—musically or visually. But it still doesn’t quite fill the hole where Hole used to be.

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Genna Rivieccio

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January 17, 2024
Sour Part Deux: Guts Builds On Olivia Rodrigo’s Favorite Subjects (Fuckboys, Lost Causes and Aesthetic Insecurities)

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When the album artwork for Guts was first released, many were quick to call out the similarities to the color palette and overall “vibe” it shared with Sour. Perhaps this was a more deliberate choice than people realized, what with Olivia Rodrigo herself calling the music of Guts a “natural progression” from the work we heard on Sour. To be sure, it does often feel more like a continuation of Sour than a completely separate entity. Sort of like what happened when Lana Del Rey released the Paradise EP the same year as Born to Die and then created a Paradise Edition of the latter album with all the same tracks from the former tacked on at the end. But twelve songs is too much to do that so here we are with Guts as the “full-on” sophomore record.

Talking of Lana Del Rey, it’s evident that Rodrigo spending a bit of time with her earlier this year has had an effect. Even if she wrote a song like “all-american bitch”—a title that smacks of something out of the LDR songbook—before that little Billboard Women in Music moment they shared together. With tinges of the same intonation that was present on “enough for you,” the kickoff to Guts starts out “sweetly” enough… and then, of course, bursts into an upbeat expression of rage that drips with sarcasm as she evokes images of Americana that include, “Coca-Cola bottles that I only use to curl my hair [how Lady Gaga in the “Telephone” video]/I got class and integrity just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear/With love to spare.” While Del Rey might be notoriously Team Pepsi (thanks to asserting, “My pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola), it’s no secret that she’s had her own Kennedy fetish when it comes to describing America and its state of constant underlying decay (see: the “National Anthem” video). Although the song (or at least its title) was inspired, technically, by Joan Didion’s short story, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” the overtones of Del Rey are everywhere.

For the coup de grâce of Del Rey emulation, Rodrigo finishes the song by sardonically mentioning, “I’m pretty when I cry.” This being just one in a series of ways that Rodrigo mocks the enduring expectation that women should live up to impossible dichotomies in their “persona.” Hence, an analogy like, “And I am built like a mother and a total machine.” And then, of course, “I am light as a feather and stiff as a board.” An inconceivable combination that only levitating—ergo, witchcraft—can conjure. And we all know how men feel about witches (hint: they like to burn them). This appearing to be the obvious reason for why Rodrigo would make a reference to The Craft (hopefully the original, and not the one of “her generation”).

In another part of the song, Rodrigo insists, “Oh, all the time, I’m grateful all the time (all the fucking time).” Although it is theoretically dripping with venom, Rodrigo does mention frequently that she’s so grateful for being able to do what she does. In fact, on the release day of Guts, she posted a handwritten letter stating, “…I feel so grateful. I feel grateful for everyone on my team who believes in me & supports me so unwaveringly.” Even before that, Rodrigo’s mention of gratitude came up in time for the album’s promotion cycle during “73 Questions with Vogue.” When asked by the interviewer, “What values do you hope you’ll still hold on to when you’re thirty-five years old?” she replied, “I hope I still have my gratitude.” Even if that gratitude is occasionally filled with the resentment apparent on “all-american bitch.”

Proving that there’s a certain schizophrenia to the way women both despise and yet also cling to men, Rodrigo presents the contrasting sentiments of “bad idea right?” as the song after “all-american bitch.” A self-loathing anthem for any girl who has ever gone over to an ex’s (whether of the “serious” or mere “situationship” variety) in the middle of the night thanks to alcohol’s diabolical influence, its pop-punk sound feels plucked directly from an 00s teen movie. This is punctuated by the Petra Collins-directed video that mostly takes place at a house party before Rodrigo foolishly decides to leave on her quest for toxic dick despite claims of, “Yes, I know that he’s my ex/But can’t two people reconnect?/I only see him as a friend” and then quickly admitting, “The biggest lie I ever said.” Though some would argue that the biggest lie she ever said is that “vampire” is not about Taylor Swift. Except, she didn’t say it flat-out, instead dancing around a total “no” with, “I was very surprised when people thought that. I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.” Swift might have once been the same, but eventually, she revealed who “Bad Blood” was about, didn’t she?

In any case, if “all-american bitch” is a sonic parallel to “enough for you,” then “vampire” is Guts’ parallel to Sour’s “drivers license.” A lush, effusive ballad that also reaches a crescendo of emotionalism toward the middle, whoever the track is “really” about, it’s certain they might be rethinking their vampiric tendencies after hearing it (though probably not, knowing how socios operate). So might any “fame fuckers” in general. A term that Rodrigo was told she shouldn’t use if she wanted to be as “relatable” as she was on Sour (before the “fame monster” took hold). Nonetheless, in her interview with Phoebe Bridgers for, what else, Interview, Rodrigo shrugged, “…fame is more accessible than it has ever been. Everyone is yearning for some sort of internet virality, and there’s so much social climbing and lust for fame in the world that doesn’t have anything to do with living in L.A. or New York. It’s just prevalent in our generation.” One wonders what Joan Didion would have to say about that if she had been Rodrigo’s age in this time.

The trend in songs “about people” continues with even more specificity on “lacy.” Except that the girl named Lacy in this song is a general embodiment of any proverbial “hot girl” that can inflict feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing in other women. Something the unnamed narrator in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation knows all about. To that end, there’s never much consideration for the effortlessly hot girl’s own difficulties in being automatically hated for being hot (think: Kelly LeBrock in the Pantene commercial saying, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful). But that’s not who we’re here to sympathize with on this track. Because Rodrigo knows there are far more “ugly” girls out there who will relate as she sings, “Lacy, oh, Lacy, it’s like you’re out to get me/You poison every little thing that I do/Lacy, oh, Lacy, I just loathe you lately/And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you/Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you.”

To continue drawing the parallels from the songs on Sour to the ones on Guts, “lacy” is the obvious companion to “jealousy jealousy” (as is “pretty isn’t pretty”). And a name like Lacy does suggest a certain frilliness and daintiness. This further corroborated by Rodrigo describing Lacy as having “skin like puff pastry” (though that sounds like it would be kind of gross and cellulite-textured). And yes, the Del Rey influence continues to flicker in and out with keywords like “ribbons” and “daisies” that also show up in this track.

The pace picks up again on “ballad of a homeschooled girl,” during which Rodrigo returns to her more “rock-infused” tone while giving voice to an underserved sect of humanity when it comes to pop culture offerings that are relatable. Describing the many unique woes of the homeschooled girl, being socially awkward is chief among them. Indeed, Rodrigo has stated that she lived a rather quiet life prior to all this fame and attention hitting her like a ton of bricks. Surely her contemporary and fellow homeschooled girl, Billie Eilish, feels the same. And yet, what both women have actually ended up doing is advocating for home school as a path to musical fame. After all, you have enough time to yourself to “create” and not get caught up in the bullshit of deliberately manufactured social dramas. Some of which a “homeschooled jungle freak”—as Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is called in Mean Girls—can end up causing as a result of her social ineptitude whenever she dares to “go outside.” Thus, the chorus, “I broke a glass, I tripped and fell/I told secrets I shouldn’t tell/I stumbled over all my words/I made it weird, I made it worse/Each time I step outside/It’s social suicide/It’s social suicide/Wanna curl up and die/It’s social suicide.” The use of “social suicide,” of course, being a nod to Damian (Daniel Franzese) in the aforementioned Mean Girls (since Rodrigo clearly fancies herself a millennial at heart) telling Cady that joining the Mathletes is social suicide. Something she didn’t pick up on herself as a result of being homeschooled.

And yet, it was obviously homeschooling that fortified her path to fame (especially while having a set tutor during High School Musical: The Musical). A phenomenon she’s already starting to grapple with, as we hear on “making the bed.” An overt nod to the old adage, “You made your bed, now lie in it,” Rodrigo knows that although she did everything in her power to become famous, she’s now struggling with the unforeseen “disadvantages” of it. Even though just about every pop star before her has sung a song about this very conundrum (from Madonna with “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” to Britney Spears with “Lucky” and “Piece of Me,” and now, to Billie Eilish with “NDA”). Though fewer have spoken of the ways in which “money changes everything” for the worse rather than the better when it comes to making art. Eilish, on her own sophomore record, immediately acknowledges this idea that the pressure of money becoming so involved in how one creates their art can automatically taint the enjoyment of it. So it is that she sings, “Things I once enjoyed/Just keep me employed now.”

Rodrigo builds on that sentiment similarly via the lyrics, “Another thing I ruined I used to do for fun” and “Every good thing has turned into something I dread.” Alluding to the song that launched her into the spotlight in the first place, Rodrigo also makes heavy-handed driving references in the lines, “And every night, I wake up from this one recurrin’ dream/Where I’m drivin’ through the city, and the brakes go out on me/I can’t stop at the red light, I can’t swerve off the road/I read somewhere it’s ’cause my life feels so out of control.”

Delivering the chorus with such heart-wrenching sincerity that her plebeian listeners feel like they might almost understand how horrendous fame can be, Rodrigo explains, “Well, sometimes I feel like I don’t wanna be where I am/Gettin’ drunk at a club with my fair-weather friends/Push away all the people who know me the best/But it’s me who’s been makin’ the bed.” Indeed, “making the bed” is another peak Pisces moment for Rodrigo in that she knows how to feel sorry for herself while also being aware that the pain is mostly self-inflicted. She speaks to this reality by adding, “And I’m playin’ the victim so well in my head/But it’s me who’s been makin’ the bed/Me who’s been makin’ the bed/Pull the sheets over my head, yeah.” But at least they’re probably very high thread-count sheets. And yeah, like Ariana once declared, “Whoever said money can’t solve your problems/Must not have had enough money to solve ‘em.” Rodrigo, incidentally, does give a dash of an homage to “7 rings” at the beginning of “making the bed” by saying, “Want it, so I got it.”

The same can’t be said for whatever boy du jour has abandoned her. For while she may have “gotten” him for the moment, he always ends up slipping through her fingers and generally disappointing her anyway. While also obliterating her already fragile self-esteem for good measure. To that end, the ballad vibe continues with “logical,” a piano-heavy number that thematically channels “1 step forward, 3 steps back,” “enough for you” and “favorite crime.” It also serves as the first in a quartet of songs (followed by “get him back!,” “love is embarrassing” and “the grudge”) with an overt running motif. Always related to some asshole who done her wrong. For, as Rodrigo’s roundabout mentor, Del Rey, noted during a pre-interview at the Billboard Women in Music Awards, much of the “world building” on women’s albums comes from boyfriends. So at least they’re good for something, right?

Her flourish for simple mathematics (again, “1 step forward, 3 steps back”) is a big part of the song’s chorus as well, prompting her to belt out, “And now you got me thinkin’/Two plus two equals five/And I’m the love of your life/‘Cause if rain don’t pour and sun don’t shine/Then changing you is possible/No, love is never logical.” Said like someone who has only ever known toxic relationships. Which are especially easy to come by at Rodrigo’s age, as all the late twenties men come to her yard (something Eilish has experienced, too). Besides, it’s as Rodrigo says on “vampire”: “Girls your age know better.” In many regards, “logical” does feel like the “addendum” to “vampire,” emphasized by the same words and visuals being used. Namely, “You built a giant castle/With walls so high I couldn’t see/The way it all unraveled/And all the things you did to me/You lied, you lied, you lied, oh.”

Enter the need to “get him back!” as retribution for all those lies. Alas, in true Rodrigo fashion, the phrase has a double meaning—on the one hand referring to revenge and, on the other, actually getting him back in her life. The panoply of conflicted feelings about whether she loves him or hates him reaches a zenith in the lengthy bridge (delivered, like the chorus, in that child choir-y voice that’s present on songs like “Youth of the Nation”), during which she says, among other negating things, “Wanna kiss his face…with an uppercut” and “I wanna meet his mom…just to tell her her son sucks.” This latter sentiment giving Del Rey on “A&W” when she taunts, “Your mom called/I told her you’re fucking up big time.” Because, clearly, the way a mother raises her son is the largest reflection of why he is the way he is (that is to day, a cad). Cardi B also seems to agree on “Thru Your Phone” when she raps, “I just want to break up all your shit, call your mama phone/Let her know that she raised a bitch/Then dial tone, click.” This, needless to say, can be a quite effective method for “getting him back.”

As the song that’s slated to be her third single from the record, the video potential for it is ripe for male mockery (and, of course, car keying). What the world always needs more of, considering how self-serious and reckless with others’ emotions men continue to be. This being part of why, well, “love is embarrassing” (even though it’s more like Sky Ferreira said: “everything is embarrassing”). Or, more to the point, “straight love is embarrassing.” Because how could any self-respecting woman allow herself to be duped both so frequently and so spectacularly for the sake of some subpar (supposedly) hetero male?

The uptempo, Bruce Springsteen-y song paints a picture that’s typical of Rodrigo’s doomed love life as she opens with, “I told my friends you were the one/After I’d known you like a monthAnd then you kissed some girl from high school/And I stayed in bed for like a week/When you said space was what you need.” That last line echoing Rodrigo’s so-called nemesis, Taylor Swift, when she says on one of her own many breakup songs, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “We hadn’t seen each other in a month/When you said you needed space/What?” Unlike Swift, however, Rodrigo is more adept at delivering a chirpy-sounding chorus that belies the rage she’s expressing in the lyrics. For example, “‘Causе now it don’t mean a thing/God, love’s fuckin’ embarrassin’/Just watch as I crucify myself/For some weird second-string/Loser who’s not worth mentioning/My God, love’s embarrassing as hell.” Apart from the religious metaphor, Rodrigo also references her “bad idea right?” video with the “loser who’s not worth mentioning” line, for that’s what the ex is listed as in her contacts when he calls her.

To boot, Rodrigo, for someone who still has so few albums, keeps finding ways to be self-referential. This includes her accusing, “You found a new version of me,” a patent repurposing of the sentiments of “deja vu.” She finishes the song by channeling “late era” Kesha vibes with her outro as she further self-berates, “I’m plannin’ out my wedding with some guy I’m never marryin’/I’m givin’ up, I’m givin’ up, but I keep comin’ back for more.” Such is the way of the masochistic Pisces. And perhaps most women (regardless of their zodiac sign) in general.

Slowing it down again on “the grudge,” Rodrigo takes us back into “traitor” territory (including use of the word “betray”) as she goes off on yet another (or perhaps always the same) asshole who mistreated her. Unraveling all the resentment she’s tried to let go of, but can only keep holding on to (like Saul’s [Bob Odenkirk] brother, Chuck [Michael McKean], on Better Call Saul), Rodrigo bemoans, “And I try to be tough, but I wanna scream/How could anybody do the things you did so easily?” That latter demand appearing constantly in some form or another throughout her canon, whether it’s Sour or Guts. She then admits, “And I say I don’t care, I say that I’m fine/But you know I can’t let it go/I’ve tried, I’ve tried, I’ve tried for so long/It takes strength to forgive, but I don’t feel strong.” Cue Sheryl Crow asking, “Are you strong enough to be my man” (as opposed to weak enough to make others feel just as weak)? The answer being that the amount of weaklings has only intensified since Crow made that query back in 1993.

Rodrigo then veers back into her other favorite song topic: aesthetic insecurity. With its The Cure-esque interpretation of “upbeat rhythm,” “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” is the Guts edition of “jealousy jealousy” and Rodrigo’s version of TLC’s “Unpretty” and Beyoncé’s “Pretty Hurts.” Addressing the same dilemmas of “jealousy jealousy,” Rodrigo offers a more mature track detailing the psychological ramifications of comparing oneself to other women, usually because of social media. Among the most relatable lyrics to a girl of any age are, “I could change up my body, and change up my face/I could try every lipstick in every shade/But I’d always feel the same/‘Cause pretty isn’t pretty enough anyway.” It’s in this song, too, that she wields the same line about trying to ignore something, which then only causes it to bubble up and explode to the surface all the more. Hence, “You can win the battle/But you’ll never win the war/You fix thе things you hated/And you’d still feel so insecure/And I try to ignorе it, but it’s everythin’ I see.”

Despite some saying that Rodrigo’s feelings of insecurity are emblematic of an age she’ll grow out of, “teenage dream” is a direct assault on that notion. As the closer for the standard edition of the record (the deluxe one forthcoming), the melancholic “teenage dream” (watch out, Katy Perry) rounds out Guts with tinges of what Rodrigo already explored on “brutal” (complete with use of the phrase “teenage dream”), during which she spews, “And I’m so sick of seventeen/Where’s my fucking teenage dream?/If someone tells me one more time, ‘Enjoy your youth’/I’m gonna cry.” Here, too, she despises the drawbacks of being young, which mainly consists of “not being taken seriously” and having one’s feelings perpetually invalidated. Little does she know, it’s like that for a woman at any age.

Rodrigo then returns to her paralyzing fear that becoming famous was a huge mistake, inquiring, “Will I spend all the rest of my years wishing I could go back?” Del Rey delves into that same existential question and then some on “White Dress” when she sings, “I was a waitress wearing a tight dress/Like, look how I do this, look how I got this/It made me feel, made me feel like a god/It kinda makes me feel, like maybe I was better off.” Del Rey also mentions being nineteen in the song, the same age Rodrigo was while recording Guts. It seems to be one of the more underrated “growing pains” ages for women as they transition into something like “adulthood,” but still not quite (#imnotagirlnotyetawoman). Ergo, Rodrigo chanting (as she speaks to the crushing pressures of instant success), “They all say that it gets better/It gets better the more you grow/Yeah, they all say that it gets better/It gets better, but what if I don’t?”

Of course, it’s difficult to believe things won’t keep getting better for Rodrigo, at least for a little while as she remains “a pretty young thing” (both “to guys” and society at large). It’s only when she breezes past the ingenue phase that she might genuinely have to “apologize” to the masses, “And I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be your teenage dream.” Such is the cruelty of romanticizing and exalting teen girlhood. It sets all teen girls up for becoming nothing more than chaff in the harshly judging eyes of “humanity.”

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Genna Rivieccio

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September 8, 2023
“bad idea right?”: Olivia Rodrigo Asks The Same Question As Forebears Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry (Not To Mention Drunk Women Everywhere)

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Giving listeners a taste of something that diverges from the (initially) ballad-y sound of Guts’ lead single, “vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo opts for a more “brutal”-esque tone on her second offering from the record, “bad idea right?” A release pattern that matches what she did with Sour by presenting “deja vu” after the slow, bemoaning jam that is “drivers license.” “good 4 u” and “brutal” would then further establish her knack for “angst you can dance to.”

The same goes for “bad idea right?,” which is similar to “brutal” in that both songs are “upbeat” while being filled with self-doubt and self-contempt. In this way, Rodrigo confirms more than ever that she’s a Pisces with her back-and-forth waffling about hooking up with an ex during a drunken night of folly. And yes, as a Pisces, of course she’s going to opt for the more self-destructive route. As for the title, if it sounds rather familiar, perhaps you’ll recognize (most of) it from another water sign’s oeuvre. Specifically, Ariana Grande’s thank u, next record, which places “bad idea” at track six. Bearing sentiments that are akin to Rodrigo’s on “bad idea right?,” Grande has her own “fuck it” attitude when she sings, “I got a bad idea/Yeah, I’ma call you over here to numb the pain” and “Yeah, I know we shouldn’t, baby, but we will (you know we will)/Need somebody, gimme something I can feel/But, boy, don’t trip/You know this isn’t real/You should know I’m temporary.”

Rodrigo also wants to get that intention across with the many caveats she spreads throughout her own sonically delivered bad idea. So it is that she lies to herself, “Yes, I know that he’s my ex/But can’t two people reconnect?/I only see him as a friend/The biggest lie I ever said.” Elsewhere adding an “Oops!…I Did It Again” sort of flourish with, “I just tripped and fell into his bed.” The notion of lying/being a liar in this particular song for once applies to Rodrigo instead of the erstwhile object of her affection. Case in point, her accusation in “traitor,” which opens with, “Brown guilty eyes and little white lies.” Or the one in “vampire” that goes, “How do you lie without flinching?/(How do you lie, how do you lie, how do you lie?).” The point being that Rodrigo is fine with lies in “bad idea right?” so long as they only involve the ones she tells herself in order to engage in some “guilty pleasure” sex with an ex.

As for the video (once again directed by Petra Collins) to get that message across, it commences with the roll of thunder outside a house where a party is already in full swing (because despite moving to New York, Rodrigo can’t shake the California tradition of house parties). And as Rodrigo primps in the bathroom mirror with her friends (the ones [played by Madison Hu, Tate McRae and Iris Apatow] she’ll later tell she “was asleep/But I never said where or in whose sheets”), she gets a call from someone in her phone labeled as, “LOSER NOT WORTH MENTIONING.” Which is far more “bespoke” than “DO NOT ANSWER.” While the party rages on outside the bathroom, Rodrigo, outfitted in a baby blue angora sweater, a silver sequined mini skirt and a heart choker, does her best imitation of Liv Tyler as Corey Mason in Empire Records (perhaps naturally assuming that members of her birth cohort won’t be able to make that connection, therefore claiming it as her own).

But that’s not the only pop culture icon Rodrigo is “giving” as she continues down the path of emulation for “bad idea right?” There’s also many shades of Katy Perry’s 2019 single, “Never Really Over,” during which she also finds plenty of ways to justify getting back together with an ex (albeit in a far more relationship-y way than what Rodrigo wants to do on “bad idea right?”). This includes Perry chirpily singing, “Oh, we were such a mess, but wasn’t it the best?/Thought it was done, but I guess it’s never really over.” Before this part of the chorus, she already mirrors Rodrigo’s self-flagellating attitude in the first and second verses: “I’m losing my self control/Yeah, you’re starting to trickle back in/But I don’t wanna fall down the rabbit hole/Cross my heart, I won’t do it again/I tell myself, tell myself, tell myself, ‘Draw the line’/And I do, I do/But once in a while I trip up, and I cross the line/And I think of you.”

Rodrigo does more than just “think” in “bad idea right?”—she takes action. Ergo, letting herself be pulled, like a Pisces on a reel, right back up to her ex’s apartment. However, this doesn’t occur until after much more internal deliberation and much more alcohol consumption (“I’m out right now and I’m all fucked up”). Then, after a bit of crowd surfing, she gathers the courage to stow away in the back of a truck while it’s still pouring down rain. As if that weren’t already enough of a testament to her commitment to getting some hard (or at least semi-soft) dick, when the driver ends up with car trouble, she then gets on a bus that’s seemingly filled with several other people who also think it’s a bad idea (right?) to go see their own exes. Or maybe they just think it’s a bad idea for Rodrigo to go see hers.

Either way, the fact that “bad idea right?” has been released right after the accusatory/never-speaking-to-you-again “vampire” just goes to show how indecisive a girl can be when a fuckboy is involved (or girl, since many fans have speculated that “vampire” is actually about Taylor Swift—which would be a very “Bad Blood” maneuver). This, too, being evident in Taylor Swift’s 2012 hit, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Another track that was inspired by the main “muse” of Red: Jake Gyllenhaal. And although Swift is adamant that she is “never ever ever getting back together” with said ex, it took her a long time to get to that point. Likely succumbing to the same temptations that Rodrigo speaks to in “bad idea right?” Something Swift alludes to in the first verse with the lines, “I remember when we broke up the first time/Saying, ‘This is it, I’ve had enough,’ ‘cause like/We hadn’t seen each other in a month/When you said you needed space (What?)/Then you come around again and say, ‘Baby, I miss you and I swear I’m gonna change, trust me’/Remember how that lasted for a day?/I say, ‘I hate you,’ we break up, you call me, ‘I love you.’” In Rodrigo’s case, it’s less “I love you” and more “I wanna fuck you.” Call it the increasing jadedness of each succeeding generation (but on the plus side, at least someone from Gen Z is expressing a desire to fuck at all).

Finally arriving at his apartment (on the second floor, a detail she notes very strategically) for her dick appointment, Rodrigo peels off her baby blue sweater (miraculously free of any signs of the slushy that got spilled all over her while she was on the bus) to show off a white tank top that will get optimally wet in the rain just in time for when he answers the door. Except that he’s too busy being a literal firework (another nod to Katy Perry?) in the bedroom (as “good 4 u” told us, Rodrigo has a thing for fiery bedrooms). Despite his ostensible inability to answer the door, Rodrigo makes it inside regardless and lies down next to “him.” Or rather, “it.” Because “he’s” actually nothing more than some arcane form of light energy radiating those damn fireworks (again, this is a very Pisces way to portray things).

As he goes up in smoke next to her, Rodrigo notices an errant spider crawling near her on the pillow. And yes, the symbolism of a spider—a creature that lures its prey into the web—is not lost on the viewer. Sketched out and appalled, this seems to serve as the sobering wake-up call she needs to reassess her bad idea in favor of a good one. Or so we’d like to believe. Just as we’d like to believe the same of ourselves. That we’re not some weak, frivolous little bia giving in to temptation as readily as Eve. Who didn’t even have the excuse of being drunk for her whimsical decision.

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Genna Rivieccio

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August 11, 2023
Olivia Rodrigo Gets Emotionally Sucked Dry (Again) On “Vampire”

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It’s no secret that Olivia Rodrigo is a Twilight fan. Shit, she even has an unreleased song called “Twilight,” with lyrics that go, “Don’t know if you’re busy/Don’t know if you like me/Don’t know if it’s weird/But I kinda do like you/This small town thing’s not as bad as I thought/So do you wanna hang out or not?” Clearly speaking from the perspective of Bella (Kristen Stewart) on this track, Rodrigo takes what she did in that strumming, upbeat number and turns the concept into something decidedly more Lana Del Rey-esque (with initial speculation positing that the single would sample “Cinnamon Girl”—it doesn’t). After all, Rodrigo was overtly changed after spending a bit of time with her at Billboard‘s Women In Music Awards, where Del Rey was presented with the Visionary Award by none other than Rodrigo. It was during her presentation that Rodrigo gushed, “Lana has raised an entire generation of music lovers and songwriters like me, and taught them that there’s beauty in their vulnerability and power in their melancholy… I still consider [“Video Games”] to be probably the best love song of all time. She captures anger, sadness and sensuality in a way that only the greatest of songwriters ever could.” Rodrigo is obviously dead-set on taking that path as well, with yet another ambitious, tempo-switching single in the form of “vampire” (alas, spelled with the annoying “stylized in lowercase” trend that won’t quit).

As the lead single for her appropriately-titled sophomore album, Guts, Rodrigo calls this work and sound a “natural progression” from where we left off on Sour. And, indeed, there seems to be little differentiation between the album artwork of Sour and Guts, with purple obviously being Rodrigo’s preferred color palette. Even if one might have envisioned crimson or blood red being a more ideal tone to express the mood and theme of the record. Or maybe that was too “on the nose (neck?)” for Rodrigo. Almost as on the nose as “vampire” not only being an homage to Twilight, but also the video itself being an homage to Taylor Swift’s 2021 Grammy performance. For Rodrigo, being a major Swiftie (regardless of the latter tapping Sabrina Carpenter to be one of her openers on the Eras Tour), surely must have based her awards show performance in the video on what Swift did with her Grammys medley of “cardigan,” “august” and “willow.” It has the same tweeness, the same whimsy, the same preciousness…the same lighting style.

And, speaking of lights, it’s a huge one that breaks the illusion of Rodrigo singing in an ambient nature setting just for us as it crashes into her head from above. Granted, there were telltale sparks falling during two brief instances before that point, but perhaps we were too distracted by the carefully-curated “fog” (a.k.a. fog machine) punctuating her romantic performance singing into a vintage hand-held mic (of a variety one could imagine Billie Holiday using…if she didn’t favor her mic stands so much). At the one-minute, twenty-seven mark, the spotlight breaks the “fourth wall,” as it were, by crashing into Rodrigo’s head and revealing that she is, in fact, not “within a narrative” (or at least not the one we thought), but rather, performing for an audience at an awards show. Commodifying her pain…once again. As she was instructed/learned to do by the likes of musical forebears such as Swift and Del Rey.

It’s also around this point that Rodrigo pulls the “drivers license” maneuver in terms of switching tempos and offering that crescendo moment that’s become something of a signature in her songs. As she puts it, “I’ve just always been obsessed with songs that are really dynamic. Like my favorite songs are high and low and reel you in and spit you back out.” “vampire” certainly achieves that in spades, particularly as Rodrigo, now bloodied and further emotionally broken by the spotlight literally hitting her, continues with her performance. For, as it is said, the show must go on. Even when she’s been burned (or is “sucked” the better, if not more lascivious, word?)—as a matter of fact, the entire stage is on fire—once again by some unworthy asshole. Ostensibly, one who wasn’t even actually famous (à la Will Thacker in Notting Hill)—as indicated by the lyrics, “Blood sucker, fame fucker.” Because yes, more than being just a song inspired by vampires and Twilight, it’s a song that explores the detrimental effects of letting someone “emotionally suck” from you over and over again.

Often, this is what is called an “energy vampire” (see also: What We Do In The Shadows). MARINA, another Del Rey contemporary, also explores this topic on her 2019 track from Love + Fear, “No More Suckers.” Similar to Rodrigo accusing, “The way you sold me for parts/As you sunk your teeth into me, oh/Bloodsucker, famefucker/Bleedin’ me dry like a goddamn vampire,” MARINA declares in response to such behavior, “No more suckers in my life/All the drama gets them high/I’m just trying to draw the line/No more suckers in my life/They just keep bleeding me dry/‘Til there’s nothing left inside.”

But what Rodrigo has left inside after enduring her own “sucker” is the wisdom and the renewed strength that she will carry within her going forward. Starting to understand that, as is being said more regularly of late, the real reason older men so “love” younger women is because of how much more easily they can be manipulated. As Rodrigo sings, “Went for me and not her/‘Cause girls your age know better.” Then again, not always. Just look at Taylor falling prey to Matty Healy. At least for now, however, Rodrigo has the “benefit” of youth on her side. A.k.a. the perfect excuse for still remaining naïve despite assuming that one is infinitely more sophisticated with the passing of just a couple years. Perhaps, before the passage of that two years, it was her “greenness” that caused her to be lured in by the “parties and the diamonds” (a phrase, appropriately enough, that could be mistaken for something out of the Del Rey or MARINA canon), with such evocations only happening/appearing at night. The same time that vampires are free to come out and play. Thus, not only does Rodrigo brood, “I see the parties and the diamonds sometimes when I close my eyes/Six months of torture you sold as some forbidden paradise,” but also, “I should’ve known it was strange/You only come out at night.” Because yes, when something seems odd or too good to be true, chances are, it is.

As Rodrigo keeps trying to carry on with her performance at the generically-titled “19th Annual Awards” (though that number has special meaning considering Rodrigo wrote most of this record when she was nineteen), audience members at first try to applaud her on before becoming scandalized via the influence of the sudden presence of “the law.” A number of police officers materializing to escort her offstage to the point where she finally gives up on the performance and runs out of the auditorium in a terrorized frenzy—all as their flashlights chase her through the darkness. These lights (and the people attached to them) continue to pursue her through the streets of L.A. (perhaps this was filmed by Petra Collins [of “good 4 u” and “brutal” repute] before Rodrigo betrayed her coast and absconded for the East…or maybe she just felt obliged to pop on over to L.A. to do the shoot).

In the midst of reminding the “vampire” she’s addressing, “I’ve made some real big mistakes/But you make the worst one [would that be Joshua Bassett?] look fine,” Rodrigo learns that she suddenly has the vampiric power of flight, allowing her to ascend high above an L.A. freeway adjacent to Downtown (which has been getting mad play lately in videos like “Attention” and “Shy Boy”). As the cars pass behind and beneath her, it gives new meaning to the lyric, “The way you sold me for parts.” Meanwhile, the cops with their flashlights still wait down below with the same naïveté that Rodrigo once had before indulging this vampire. Earnestly belting out her pain as she looks directly into the camera, some might ask what, exactly, is supposed to differentiate any of this from Sour. Well, to remind, Rodrigo’s “mentors,” Del Rey and Swift never had (or have) to differentiate too much from one album to the next to maintain their devoted legion of listeners.

And if Lana Del Rey’s “shtick” is being a sad girl, then so is Rodrigo’s—blending that “persona” with the heartbreak-oriented lyrics that have also made Taylor Swift such a success. Because, to be sure, heartbreak remains as timeless as sex (/sexy vampires) when it comes to “what sells.”

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Genna Rivieccio

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June 30, 2023