Are you a teenager or young adult? Do you live in a house with a teenager or young adult? Then you have probably listened to this song at least 100 times. I know I have. And I have thoughts onto why I think it is so popular and since those thoughts are taking up too much space in my head right now, I’m offering them here.
- First and foremost…Olivia Rodrigo is a young woman who plays a very relatable character on a popular Disney show: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. From the first time fans of hers heard this song, if felt like they were listening to a friend tell them about their breakup.
- The song starts out with the sounds of a girl getting in a car and lamenting how she was excited about getting her driver’s license and if there is anything more relatable I don’t know what is. Then she’s driving alone past his street feeling her heartbreak. Y’all, I got my driver’s license just a few days before my first love dumped me. I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MANY TIMES I DROVE BY HIS NEIGHBORHOOD AFTER THAT.
- I am not a music person but the way it goes from just Rodrigo’s voice over single piano keys to yelling “Cause I still fucking love you!” with a full accompaniment…is perfect. The cathartic feeling when you finally get to that f-word is amazing at any age (I’m 45 and screaming it too), but especially if you’re an angsty teenager.
- She references that blonde girl that is “everything I’m insecure about” and OMG…do/did we all not have someone like that in our lives?
- There’s juicy gossip behind it! The rumors are that the boy who broke her heart is one of her co-stars of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series…the fans are also pretty sure they know who the blonde girl in question is. (Yes. This drama is now living rent-free in my 45-year old brain. Motherhood, man.)
- Another extremely cathartic set of lyrics?
“Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me
‘Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street”
because you get to scream/sing the first part…and then sob/sing the second part and there is no age at which that is not exactly the feeling of heartbreak. The swell of rage and the drop of sadness, in a moment’s notice. - Did I mention Rodrigo scream-sings the F-word? She does. And fans of all ages (*ahem*) all over the world are doing the same thing in their cars and bedrooms.
I’m telling you. This song is genius. It has all of the elements that make it a good breakup song: the rise and fall, the f-word, the sadness…but it’s sung but a girl everyone knows and is fueled by celebrity gossip. I am 45 years old and I’m completely hooked too.
I don’t know the song yet… and anyway BBC radio 1 & 2 will probably bleep the f word, cos y’know we might all faint or something. Sounds good and carthartic. I’ll listen out for it. 🙂