Olivia Rodrigo is well-known for writing songs that result in rumors. Loads of her whole first album, “Sour,” was rumored to be about her “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” costar Joshua Bassett, however Rodrigo and Bassett have by no means truly confirmed or denied whether or not that is true. Now, Rodrigo’s sophomore album “Guts” is right here, and followers as soon as once more assume she’s focusing on a star in a few of her lyrics. This time, although, that celeb is none aside from Taylor Swift.
Why Do Followers Suppose Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo Have Points?
The music “The Grudge” is about Rodrigo being unable to forgive somebody who wronged her, and a few followers are speculating that the music is likely to be about Swift. Rumors of beef between the 2 stars first started to swirl in 2021, when followers observed sonic similarities between Rodrigo’s observe “Deja Vu” and Swift’s 2019 music “Cruel Summer.” In an April 2021 episode of Rolling Stone’s “The Breakdown,” Rodrigo confirmed that Swift’s music did certainly encourage her personal work. “I love ‘Cruel Summer.’ That’s one of my favorite songs ever,” she mentioned. “I love the yell-y vocal in it, the harmonized yells she does. I feel like they’re super electric and moving, so I wanted to do something like that.” Rodrigo additionally gave Swift a writing credit score from the get-go on her music “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” which interpolates Swift’s “New Year’s Day.”
In July of that 12 months, Rodrigo quietly added Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent — the three writers credited on “Cruel Summer” — to the metadata on “Deja Vu” on Spotify and Tidal. She additionally retroactively added a writing credit score for Hayley Williams and and Joshua Farro to her music “Good 4 U,” which followers had observed sounded just like Paramore’s hit “Misery Business.” In keeping with Billboard, the change led to Rodrigo giving up tens of millions in royalties to Swift and Williams and their groups.
Previous to the incident, Swift and Rodrigo seemed to be mates. Rodrigo has spoken about being a longtime Swift fan many occasions, and after her debut single “Driver’s License” discovered huge success, Swift despatched Rodrigo a handwritten be aware in celebration. “It’s so nice to be welcomed into the music industry and so great to be supportive of other women,” Rodrigo advised Number of Swift in June of that 12 months. “She wrote me a letter a while ago, and she wrote something about how you make your own luck in the world, and how you treat other people always comes back to you.” That July, Swift’s identify was added to the “Deja Vu” credit.
In October of that 12 months, Rodrigo opened up concerning the “Sour” songwriting credit score modifications in a Teen Vogue interview, per i-D. “I think it’s disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work, but at the end of the day I’m just really proud and happy to say that my job is being a songwriter,” she mentioned. “All music is inspired by each other. Obviously, I write all of my lyrics from my heart and my life first. I came up with the lyrics and the melody for ‘good 4 u’ one morning in the shower. What’s so beautiful about music is that it can be so inspired by music that’s come out in the past,” she continued. “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.”
Since then, followers have speculated that issues have not been rosy between Swift and Rodrigo. Some followers even suspected that Rodrigo’s music “Vampire,” which was the primary single off “Guts,” was about Swift, as it is a takedown of a particularly manipulative, two-faced individual. In an interview with The Guardian, when requested about these rumors, Rodrigo mentioned that she was “very surprised” by them. She additionally mentioned she would not have any plans to debate who her songs are about anytime quickly. “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,” she mentioned. “I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.”
“Is Olivia Rodrigo’s “The Grudge” About Taylor Swift?
In “The Grudge,” there are some particular lines that have cued Rodrigo fans into thinking it’s about Swift. “I’ve nightmares every week ’bout that Friday in Could / One telephone name from you and my whole world was modified,” she sings, making fans think it might be referencing a call she may have received from Swift’s team about the songwriting credit issue.
On the other hand, while it’s possible that Swift and Rodrigo have issues, there’s also a long tradition of pitting women against each other, particularly in the music industry — and that’s harmful to us all. While there’s no real evidence that “The Grudge” is about Swift, Rodrigo most certainly will not be clearing the difficulty up anytime quickly.
