No one is doing it quite like Olivia Rodrigo. Her newest EP comes after her hit album “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” and the announcement of her all-female headlining festival. Rodrigo has stayed in headlines since her early days on the Disney channel show Bizaardvark, and I do not think we should expect her to leave those headlines anytime soon.
This new EP titled “Serena Joy” seems to have ties to the character with the same name from “The Handmaids Tale.” I think to better understand the song you must understand its ties to this character. Serena Joy is a high-ranking wife of a conservative Christian politician in the fictional country of Gilead. In this world, birth rates have fallen and the Sons of Jacob have overthrown the American government. The main goal of this theocratic leadership is to raise the birth rates, no matter what it takes. Serena Joy was a well-known author and political leader. Now under a regime she helped build, women have been stripped of all rights. Including her to the point she cannot read her own book.
While Rodrigo never explicitly mentions Serena Joy or Gilead in her song, the lyrics capture the characters’ essence (straight from the songs opening lyrics it is clear this is a protest song). She opens by pointing out people who ignore the abuse of power happening around them, something Serena Joy did in “The Handmaids Tale.” The song mainly seems to be from the perspective of those in power. Rodrigo has made it clear she is against the current administration; she sang Lily Allen’s 2009 hit at Glastonbury after the revocation of Roe V. Wade. Most recently she had made a public statement asking the Trump Administration to not use her songs in their social media posts. Even while calling out bystanders and certain decor changes in the people’s house, Rodrigo reminds us to never submit. To remember “If you can’t throw a punch, you can learn how to spit”.
Music has always been an outlet for artists and using songs as a form of protest is nothing new. Artists such as John Lennon, The Cranberries, and Rage Against the Machine have written songs about abuse of power and anti-war anthems. Olivia Rodrigo defiantly wrote the first notable protest song in at least ten years. If I am honest, I love to see this from younger artists. We shouldn’t be afraid to voice our opinions, because if we stop, we might end up like Serena Joy.