On the 8th of January, drivers license, the debut single from Disney Channel actress Olivia Rodrigo, became a sudden viral success. The intimate and emotionally devastating single immediately made history, surpassing the record previously held by Ariana Grande for most streams of a non-holiday song in a single day. But who is Olivia Rodrigo, and why is the heart wrenching ballad of a 17-year-old Disney star resonating so much with people across the globe?
Rodrigo is an American singer and actress, who made her Disney channel debut on the show Bizaardvark, before landing the leading role in the Disney+ hit, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Beyond Disney channel, she is also something of a Tiktok sensation, after her song All I Want from the High School Musical soundtrack went viral on the app.
The song’s success feels could be attributed to several things, like it’s poignant subject matter that teenagers everywhere know all too well (the freedom that comes from passing your driving test) internet gossip (in the form of a speculated love-triangle between Olivia, her ex-boyfriend and costar Joshua Bassett and his rumoured new-beau, Sabrina Carpenter), or its timing (released in the peak of the pandemic, at a time when TikTok is reinventing the way the music industry operates).
At the core of it all, however, is a disarmingly honest pop song that touches upon a notion we can all universally relate to – nostalgia.
Interestingly titled drivers license, the song only makes reference to this once – in its opening line. Rodrigo’s drivers license, whilst serving as a symbol of her newfound freedom, is also the catalyst for the outpour of emotions we hear in the track. The song resonates with young people because like Rodrigo, small things or objects can catapult you into a nostalgic wave of emotions – the song details her harrowing realisation that the future she had envisioned has crumbled, the things she and her lost love planned to do together are now a memory of what could have been.
Furthermore, the ballad reads like a homage to the greats that came before it, it is the lovechild of Taylor Swift and Lorde. Intimate and confessional, the song follows closely in the footsteps of early era Taylor Swift, blended with the pop-ness of Red, tied together with an impactful bridge emblematic of Lorde’s Melodrama. At just a glance the music video clearly nods its head to the second era of The 1975, cloaked in a pinkish hue emblematic of The 1975’s Somebody Else. But make no mistake, Rodrigo is not a mere imitation of her influences – demonstrated by the snippets of unreleased materials she has recently teased on social media like Pay Grade, Gross and Apocalyptic Crush which distinguish her as a budding artist, writer and storyteller, just getting started.
Rodrigo’s ascent to fame feels reminiscent of the rise of Billie Eilish in 2019, or even an early Taylor Swift – because she, like them, takes a widely relatable experience but makes it personal. drivers license transports listeners directly into Rodrigo’s past experiences whilemaking it feel as though they’ve lived through the same thing themselves, no matter how specific the details.
Watch the music video to this ground breaking hit at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDBbnmKpqQ