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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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