and other musings...
Photo by Don Braun, Variety
Do you remember where you were when cultural hit-single “Driver’s License” dropped? How about when Sour was announced? The first time you heard “Brutal”? What did you think the first time you heard of Olivia Rodrigo? I remember.
Shamefully, I recall hearing “Driver’s License” through TikTok dances and not thinking much of it. In fact- whether because of my grim mood about lockdown, my systemically produced internalized misogyny or some vague combination of the two - I kind of wrote Rodrigo off as *just* another corporate-backed pop singer. I knew “Driver’s License” to be a breakup song, and wasn’t initially interested in re-living my teenage years of heartbreak and insecurity.
Somewhere, sometime down the line however, in between the Sour album’s announcement and the bright early days of the world reopening, I decided to give her music a proper shot. I remember the intense visceral reaction I had to “Brutal”’s opening - dreggy, distorted guitar with a sprechstimme declaration that Rodrigo “want(s) it to be like, messy”. “Messy” the album was, though not at all in a technical or professional sense. Witty, humorful, and cutting lyricism were matched with polished production. The “mess” being showcased was simply the honest depiction of the anguish of teenage girlhood. From the powerful pop-punk expressions of “Brutal”, to the heatfelt melodic pleas for requited love in “Driver’s License”, “Deja Vu” and “Happier”, Rodrigo paints a vivid picture of the paradoxical emotional extremes of love and loss. Unapologetically honest and untethered to genre conventions, Sour fell like an instant masterpiece upon my initially doubtful ears.
(Not so) shockingly, I wasn’t the only one who loved the album. After breaking chart records, collecting three Grammy’s, performing with the likes of Billy Joel and Natalie Imbruglia and being catapulted into international superstardom, Discourse™ naturally followed. As to be expected, boring and recycled misogynistic criticisms of girls who “only write about boys” surfaced, as well as the usual Mr. Intellectuals who can’t stand anything popular or mainstream (forget not that I briefly fell into this trap! It happens). However, a more interesting conversation also began to emerge at this time, begging the question of whether or not Rodrigo could be considered a “Riot Grrrl”. If you’re not familiar with Riot Grrrl, may I invite you to prepare for your life to be permanently altered by the late 90s feminist-punk movement forged in the flames of Olympia, Washington’s DIY scene. Defined by a poltical desire to create safe spaces for women in the live music sphere, and sounding like an angry, witty departure from the confines of patriarchal musical convention, it comes as no surprise that people would begin to liken Rodrigo’s musical ethos to the movement. Especially given Rodrigo’s late 90s, early Y2K sonic influences, the parallels become hard to ignore. But what truly makes a Riot Grrrl?
While many have likened Olivia Rodrigo to punkish icons like Hayley Williams and Kathleen Hanna, I’m going to try to avoid the trap of <this woman artist is just like this woman artist because they’re both girls! with guitars!>. I don’t think these comparisons are entirely inaccurate, but oftentimes I think it can be cheap and kind of lazy to claim that x woman is just like y woman and therefore all of their unique artistic expressions should be considered in the exact same contexts. Instead, I’m more interested in the way that Rodrigo’s musical drive and temperament fall into the goals of the Riot Grrrl movement. Further, while some may argue that bands like Bikini Kill, L7, Le Tigre and Sleater-Kinney shaped a particular “sound” of the movement, I’d beg to disagree. Certainly there were musical threads binding these groups together - unpolished, untrained instrumentals, matched with angry, earthy scream-singing - yet, the point of these bands and this scene was as its core to defy norms and conventions. In fact, the Riot Grrrl Manifesto itself boldly claims the purpose of the movement as follows:
BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other’s work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.
BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.
BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.
Based off of these fiery, yet heartfelt proclamations, how could Rodrigo not fit into the definition of a Riot Grrrl? Rodrigo’s music and aesthetic do exactly as described; unfettered rage, vulnerable tenderness, inner turmoil and critiques of the standards placed on girlhood are vastly present throughout Rodrigo’s body of work. In fact, the starlet’s recent release of her sophomore album Guts only further reaffirms these notions.
Opening track “all american bitch” satirizes the crushing and often paradoxical expectations placed on young girls with lines like “And I am built like a mother and a total machine/I feel for your every little issue, I know just what you mean/And I make light of the darkness/I've got sun in my motherfuckin' pocket, best believe”. Oscillating between tender melodics and driving guitar riffs, the track lyrically and sonically paints a picture of the dichotomies of girlhood - illuminating both the tension between societal expectations and the material realities of girlhood, but also Rodrigo’s inner turmoil over her own conflicting desires.
These contradictory notions of tenderness vs. toughness, impulse vs. expectations, and beauty vs. pain are the threads that beautifully bind the album together. The cool kiss of jealousy displayed in “lacy”, the ingenious wordsmithing of “get him back” and direct critique of impossible beauty standards in “pretty isn’t pretty” display Rodrigo’s ability to capture the spectrum of human emotional experience- and particularly the suffering of women and girls. Speaking transparaently about the experiences of girlhood with humor, charm and sensitivity is the mark of a true Riot Grrrl in my book - and a quite talented one at that.
There could certainly be an argument for the fact that Rodrigo’s commercial success waters down the punk ethos of the Riot Grrrl Movement. After all, she had already amassed a considerable following from her days of Disney Channel stardom before ever releasing any music. She works with major producers, labels and distributors, and collaborates with major corporations on merch drops and vinyl exclusives. To this I’d say-fair! And also, despite the early idealistic attempts made at anti-capitalism by Riot Grrrl, most of those bands have pretty much ended up in the same boat. They may not have their own Target merch lines, but everyone has to pay the bills somehow and artists will often make choices that put them in the best position to do so. That isn’t to say we can’t critique such choices, but should strive to understand them in context while not disregarding the significance of the artist’s body of work.
At the end of the day, trying to articulate cut-and-dry definitions for cultural movements like “punk”, “Riot Grrrl” becomes rather impressionistic. It’s easier to see and judge from a distance, but things get muddy the closer you look. While I might personally believe Olivia Rodrigo to be a modern incarnation of a Riot Grrrl, I also don’t think that she has to be in order to be deserving of the praise from fans and critics alike. In the same way that the Barbie movie didn’t invent modern feminism, Rodrigo is not necessarily ending the patriarchy or reinventing the wheel with her music. However, her discography is refreshingly honest, sharply funny and masterfully produced. Expecting any artist, and especially a freshly twenty-year-old artist to fit into a neatly defined box is unrealistic and frankly unproductive.
Whether you love or hate her music, believe her to be a feminist icon or simply the next mainstream popstar, there is no denying the talent required to amass millions of fans, three Grammy’s and collaboration with countless professional musicians. Olivia Rodrigo has paved her own musical landscape- one that tells the honest tale of the sorrows, the joy and the unyielding confusion of being a teenage girl. Riot Grrrl or not, Rodrigo’s music speaks to the wounded young girl inside of me and countless others. That in itself is a feat to be celebrated.
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