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Friday Realizations: Olivia Rodrigo Ain't As Bad As I Thought


Center image courtesy of Hits Daily Double


We complain that there's not enough middle-ground for the impressionable tweens and teens of our era. But are we sure about that?


I'm not gonna lie- I didn't always like Olivia Rodrigo. When her SOUR album released back in 2021, it didn't hit me like it did this afternoon. There are a couple of reasons for that: I was exploring my liking of much different genres of music at the time, I felt like she was for the younger crowd, and her type of sound wasn't my usual cup of tea.


I was also knee-deep in a toxic relationship with someone who harshly judged my music taste and made it hard for me to impress him. We had a lot of music genres in common- the main being underground and emerging artists we both found and admired on SoundCloud. But liking anything outside this was fair game for him to shut down and make me feel bad about. And I was completely under his manipulation. Maybe that speaks to why I clowned Rodrigo's music- it was raw, it was pop, it was authentic to her. And I couldn't relate because I had lost myself.


Three years later, I'm sitting here typing this in my room as a sexy, single woman (we made it, y'all!), finding Rodrigo's lyrics on this album a little too relatable. "All the things I did,

Just so I could call you mine"


WHEW CHILE! A little too close to home lol.


What I love about this album, now that I'm randomly listening to it for the first time in October 2024 on a Friday, is her authenticity. It makes me uncomfortable. But in a way that is teaching me not to be ashamed of how I truly feel. She is so vulnerable and true to herself, putting all her feelings out there for us to hear. This is the representation that young girls and women of all ages need.


All throughout history, we have been villainized for our emotions while boys and men got to express theirs however they wanted. We quite literally were diagnosed with hysteria, given lobotomies, and told that we were silly for being who we were. There is still a box on how feminine-presenting people feel and express who they are. This gets multiplied the more intersectionally-oppressed you are. So if you're a woman and you're Black, your feelings are more shut down than your white woman friend's. Add LGBTQ+ to your identity, and that makes you even more shunned.


Olivia, our Filipina-American girlie, resists that in this album- and her whole existence.


I do agree that we could do better with representation. I wish there were Black and Brown Olivia Rodrigo's at her caliber of fame who we could see ourselves in even more. But when I think about how Hannah Montana, Aly & Aj, Hillary Duff, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, etc etc etc raised me, and I don't regret one bit of it, I feel we can still enjoy her. No matter how you slice it, we can learn from the rawness this 21-year-old has shown is okay to share with others- even on an international level.


This Friday Realization has taught me that different genres of music feel and sound differently depending on who you are and where you're at in life at the time you listen to them. It reminds me of when I saw someone online say something along the lines of "you don't read books; they find you when you need them." As a lifelong bookworm, I can attest to that truth. As a lifelong music junkie, I think we can all be a little more open-minded.


I think the kids are alright.


Signed,

a 26-year-old girl still learning the ropes, too

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