After being accused of being derivative at best and plagiaristic at worse, Olivia Rodrigo is telling her side of the story.
While up until now Olivia has remained predominantly silent on the matter. During a recent candid interview with Teen Vogue, Rodrigo addressed the recent criticism she’s received about the originality of her debut album Sour after she retroactively added songwriting credits to a handful of her hit songs.
"What's so beautiful about music is that it can be so inspired by music that's come out in the past," Rodrigo told the mag. "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," she continued. "There's four chords in every song. That's the fun part - trying to make that your own.”
One thing Rodrigo has been vocal about is her songwriting influences, particularly Taylor Swift, who was originally listed as a cowriter on "1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” along with as well as the songs co-writer Jack Antonoff, due to an interpolation of Swift’s 2017 Reputation track "New Year's Day.”
As explained in the Teen Vogue piece, interpolation is "when you record part of a song created by someone else and use it in a new way," as opposed to the copy-and-paste act known as sampling. Interpolation typically requires permission from whoever wrote the composition, who are also entitled to a share of royalties.
However, in August, months after Sour's release, Rodrigo was forced to retroactively add Paramore's Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro to the songwriting credits for "good 4 u" because of its similarities to the band's 2008 top 40 hit "Misery Business.” And additionally also credited T. Swift and Antonoff once more, as well as Annie Clark (St. Vincent), on her second single "deja vu" for its resemblance to "Cruel Summer," a track from Swift's 2019 album Lover.
After her initial sit down with the publication, Rodrigo had a follow-up phone call after feeling as though she didn't address the controversy "as truthfully as [she] could have" in the original interview.
It was during this phone call that Rodrigo said, “I think it's disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman's work.” She continued, “but at the end of the day I'm just really proud and happy to say that my job is being a songwriter.”
"All music is inspired by each other," she added. "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.” Adding that she finds it "frustrating" to see young women in the industry held to a higher standard, particularly when it comes to keeping a squeaky-clean reputation.
"It's really toxic for young girls to open their Snapchat app and see the articles about young women who are just sharing their art and existing in the world, and watching them being torn apart for doing absolutely nothing," she added.
That being said, despite the hate and criticism, Sour has been a massive success for Olivia who seemingly became a household name over night. That doesn’t just happen unless it’s deserved, so maybe let’s focus on that, shall we?
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