Why is Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘SOUR’ so Successful?
While there’s a lot of heartbreak all over the record, there is also a ton of self-reflection through the lens of a very wordy 17-year-old.
It was a scaringly colder January. At the beginning of 2021, the world had been living in the COVID-19 pandemic for almost a year, and trips to the supermarket were still the most anticipated social event of the month. On the rides to Costco, it became impossible to turn on the radio and not hear a particular song at least twice during the drive. “drivers license,” by a then unknown, distressed yet sweet voice, kept blasting anywhere you went. Trips to Target were embellished by a bridge that got stuck in so many people’s heads that SNL made a whole skit about it. The voice of a troubled young woman kept echoing the lyrics “‘cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street,” making even happily married people feel guilty and heartbroken at the same time. Even Taylor Swift, who has been in a healthy, happy relationship, shared an Instagram story confessing that she was addicted to Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.” But how did all this happen?
There can be a lot of explanations for the success of Rodrigo's first single, but the most plausible one is plain simple: it’s a good song. Catchy, well-written, well produced, well sung. It checks all the boxes. It’s impressive enough that a 17-year-old can sing with such truth, the fact she wrote succinct yet sharp lyrics about heartbreaking experiences it’s what made a lot of 30-year-olds bow to her. Then, Dan Nigro added a majestic production that kept listeners on their tiptoes. As the song progresses and reaches the first chorus, it quickly takes us back to the initial melody for a second verse, pre-chorus, and chorus again. The song builds up so well that keeps you wondering “ok, I know where this is going, here it comes.” But when the bridge starts, it’s not what you were expecting. It’s bigger, sadder, rawer. “drivers license” innovatively tells a quite common story: a young woman finally gets her driver’s license after she had been previously talking about it with her former lover, and when she drives around the city, everything she sees reminds her of that person.
Some people might argue that there are a lot of good songs out there, yet very few have achieved this level of success. ‘drivers license’ spent 8 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot100 chart, which means that it was the most consumed song in the United States for two entire months. It’s quite a feat for veterans, let alone for a new artist. Rodrigo, like many new pop star sensations, has the internet to thank. It’s not news that teenagers have been the ones ruling the music industry for decades: since The Beatles, young people have been the biggest and most passionate consumers of music. Rodrigo’s song was overwhelmingly used on TikTok videos, and when the buzz had already been going on, another factor played a role in making “drivers license” such a hit: youtube reactions. Type in ‘drivers license reaction’ on the Youtube search, and you will find tons of videos of fans, non-fans, and even producers showing their first impressions of the song and its music video, some of the videos with over 1 million views. I don’t remember ever seeing so many reaction videos to a song before.
Olivia Rodrigo in the ‘drivers license’ music video. 2021.
Two months after the release of “drivers license,” the world was asking for new music from the singer. Initially, there were no talks of an album, but when she put out “deja vu,” people started to see some substance in her craft. The song was a completely different single from its predecessor: it had a more upbeat sound, drawing influences from pop-rock, indie-pop, and psychedelic pop genres. Betting on references from TV shows and songs from the 80s—there is a direct mention of “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel—one thing remained the same: the songwriting was still about the same ex-boyfriend being in love with “another actress.” Rodrigo had been a leading actress in a Disney show for a while, but her fanbase was limited to adolescent Disney viewers. Though the song was praised by critics, it didn’t do as well commercially as the first single had done. But only Rodrigo and producer Nigro knew what was yet to come.
It turned out Olivia Rodrigo and her team had been recording an entire album even before releasing “drivers license.” On May 12, she announced that her debut album, “SOUR,” would be released 10 days later, and dropped a trailer of the album. The video showed the making of preview music videos and also a snippet of the new single, “good 4 u,” with a teaser of its video. In the teaser, Rodrigo walked on a set wearing black, leather gloves and a plaid skirt, while a punk-rock/pop beat played along with the chorus. It was yet another surprise coming from the artist. '“good 4 u” came out a week before the album, followed by an appearance at Saturday Night Live. “good 4 u” broke some records on Spotify and debuted straight at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, praised for its teenage angsty lyrics that, somehow, resonated even with an older audience.
‘SOUR’ was the first debut album in history to have all first three singles debut inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, two of them straight at #1 (‘drivers license’ and ‘good 4 u’).
Released on May 21, 2021, SOUR quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2021. The Guardian called it “one of the most gratifying undignified breakup albums ever made,” and The New York Times highlighted Taylor Swift’s influence on Rodrigo’s “flourishing songwriting.” This may have come as a surprise: until recent years, critics weren’t much fond of pop music in general, and mainstream artists like Swift and Ariana Grande usually received generally positive reviews but always failed to awe reviewers—Grande changed that with her fourth album Sweetener, and Swift with the universally acclaimed album folklore, her eighth album. The truth is, critics always glorified alternative artists and disregarded pop singers. With rap dominating the radio in the second half of the 2010s, there was a period when pop music seemed to have died. Swift graciously transitioned from country to pop, and artists like Billie Eilish emerged. Pop music changed from highly choreographed performances to intricately written songs. Rodrigo seemed to have taken notes of this while perfecting her craft.
Alongside the critical acclaim came a gigantic wave of promotion. After performing her songs on many TV live shows, Rodrigo gifted her fans with her own full virtual concert: SOUR Prom, which became a discussion after Hole’s lead woman Courtney Love accused Rodrigo of plagiarizing the cover of Live Through This (1994) in the promotional photos for the virtual show. But Rodrigo, who never tried to hide her major influences, took it as a compliment and used the opportunity to fangirl over Love. Sour is a punk-rock-influenced pop album, and as such, Rodrigo credits 90s music that her mother used to listen to as one of the roots of her musical career. She has also been very vocal about how artists like Avril Lavigne and Jack White have shaped her music interests.
With so many grunge and punk references, it is no surprise that SOUR is filled with guitar riffs and loud drums. “Brutal,” the opening track, is described as an alternative rock, grunge, and pop-punk song in which Rodrigo unleashes her rage and dissatisfaction with her life as a teenager, making a blunt reference to Katy Perry's famous hit song (“Where’s my fucking teenage dream?”). In “jealousy, jealousy,” she sings about her insecurities as a young woman in a world where Instagram influencers seem to live the perfect, unreachable life. While there’s a lot of heartbreak all over the record, there is also a ton of self-reflection through the lens of a very wordy 17-year-old.
Commercially, SOUR has had an incredibly sweet run. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 with over 295,000 copies, marking the biggest opening week for any album in 2021 at that point. It went on to spend 5 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart, the only album by a female artist to do so in 2021. A year after its release, the project has amassed over 6 billion streams on Spotify, currently sitting at #15 in the list of most streamed albums in the history of the platform. It earned Rodrigo seven Grammy nominations, including one for Album of the Year. She won three out of her seven nominations: Best Pop Solo (“drivers license”), Best New Artist, and Best Pop Vocal Album. Since then, Rodrigo has gone on tour across the United States and drawn crowds of passionate fans. She will soon be heading to Europe.
You can listen to Sour here.
