A Connection to The Handmaid’s Tale
Music has always been one of the most accessible forms of art that shape the culture we live in by influencing social trends, movements, and globally bringing people together in an unparalleled way. Music is one of the most powerful and overlooked forms of freedom of speech and expression we are granted. Although not all music is inherently political, the artist’s ability to express their voice through music is.
Protest Music: Art is Always Political
Olivia Rodrigo, on June 12, 2026, dropped her most recent album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, that contained thirteen tracks. However, on August 24, 2026, she dropped her latest single Serena Joy, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The title of the song derives from the character Serena Joy, the wife of a commander who, prior to the totalitarian regime of Gilead, advocated and acted as an architect for the return of women to domestic roles, only to end up oppressed by the very system she helped create.
Music and Politics: Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Serena Joy’
The song opens with the lines, “Yeah, it’s all for the cause/For the good of us all/ And if you close your eyes/ Then it can’t be your fault.” Warning against the illusion of safety, that suggests ignorance creates an oppressive system under the guide that is for the greater moral good of the collective. At the end of the first verse and chorus, we hear the lines “While they’re out on the streets/ Man, we’re having a ball” and “If they do it to them/ They’re gonna do it to you.” That highlights the contrasting reality between marginalized groups fighting and suffering under an oppressive regime that we can see reflected through today’s politics and in the novel, through women’s rights.
Similarly to the character Serena Joy, we see the illusion of class and privilege in the belief that if it doesn’t impact me, then it’s of no concern. Where Serena Joy created an oppressive patriarchy believing she’d be the exception to the system, she only ended up losing her rights to the Gilead system she helped endorse. The notion that just because an issue doesn’t impact you at an exact moment, doesn’t mean it never will. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Freedom is lost gradually from an uninterested, uniformed, and uninvolved people…” Choosing to turn a blind eye to social issues and injustices only furthers the gradual erosion of rights and allowing a system that actively oppresses others.
In the second verse, the lyrics “Have a Coke and a smile/ In the hot summer bliss/ Now go bother your neighbors/ While we do what we wish” that references the 1979 Coca-Cola marketing slogan. Olivia uses this slogan figuratively to highlight how consumption often acts as a distraction that allows authority figures to quietly act in the background. Instead of acknowledging the oppression within a system, there is often a manufactured deflection to frame groups against one another. Within The Handmaid’s Tale, we see the Gilead regime pitting women against one another in different social classes and reporting their neighbors if they don’t conform, creating a solidarity and internalized oppression within the Gilead regime.
The verse continues with the line “If you can’t throw a punch/ You can learn how to spit”, capturing the notion portrayed in the novel that, even if one can’t wield any physical power, they can still reinforce oppression by disapproving of those around them, and how part of a population participates in their oppression. Additionally, these lyrics can also be interpreted to mean if you can’t physically fight against an oppressor, then you can, through civil disobedience, and utilize passive resistance to have a voice.
The chorus and outro of the song state “Sing along, sing along/What they tell you to do” and “Everything is just fine.” That further highlights the themes, the song acts as a warning against forced conformity, willful ignorance, and blind obedience. Even if Olivia does not mention Serena Joy by name, she captures the lesson that can be learned by this character: that the loss of rights and autonomy is not often noticed until it’s too late.