Since 2021, across the internet people have heard about a new pop sensation and she is, Olivia Rodrigo. She is undoubtedly a mini Taylor Swift with her range of pop hits and upbeat sad tunes. With the release of her sophomore album “GUTS”, she is dominating the music charts.
Rodrigo first promoted a teaser of “vampire”, her lead single, on June 13th. This gut wrenching single makes fans not only talk about it and the excitement they share, but also possible albums. Fans of artists tend to take any little thing into a speculation of more things coming. Many people thought this was just a single she was dropping, while others believed that this was the secret key to her newest album. The single was released on June 30th 2023. As fans raved over the single, constantly guessing which boy it would be about, others were digging deeper finding hidden clues in her music videos.
After “vampire”, Rodrigo went on to release a second single called “Bad idea right?” on August 11th, 2023. In that music video there was a hidden calendar circling different dates on it which fans instantly picked up on. They had many suspicions about this particular date being circled as an album release. On August 21st, 2023, Olivia Rodrigo finally announced her sophomore album “GUTS” was being released on September 8th, 2023.
Moving forward to her release date all of her fans were so excited to finally get music out of this star, as her last music drop was from her debut album “SOUR” in 2021. As of right now, the top “GUTS” songs on Spotify are “vampire” at 469,285,032 listens, “bad idea right?” at 194,305,847 listens, and “get him back!” at 96,999,175 listens. As a newly 20 year old that is something to be extremely proud of.
On a survey, 6 Centennial students agree that when they all relatively had the same answer. Most people who answered the first question said “when they listened to “GUTS” it revealed how it is to be a young woman in society today”. Some even said they “had mixed feelings about it” but in the end they “grew to love it and how it portrays real and raw emotion”.
The respondents also prefer “GUTS” because it “has more upbeat songs” and shows more “raw emotion” on the tracks such as “logical”, “the grudge”, and “making the bed”.
Most respondents were drawn to listen to “lacy”. Each one said “lacy” because it really defines society and anyone listening, what it’s like to be a teenage girl, and how it is to be “envious of what everyone else has when you don’t have enough.”
Every surveyed student’s favorite song was “making the bed” . They said it was their favorite song because of how heartbreaking it is and how it captures the “feeling of putting your all into something” when the other party won’t put in anything.
“What is your least favorite and why?” no one had a least favorite. They quoted it as a “no skip album” and each song was “loveable and told a story”
Going on to talk about if people will still be listening to GUTS in 10-15 years, people said yes. They said “if Olivia continues to make music, i guarantee people will still be listening”. Some even added on to say “This is an album that is universally written by Olivia that could apply anytime to anyone.”
The survey respondents believe it does not have the same impact as “SOUR” did on people. While GUTS is a “phenomenally written album” “SOUR” will always have a greater impact on people because it was her first released album. They also believe since it’s more “pop-punk” instead of “mainstream pop” it contributes to it being less preferred over SOUR.
As we can see, Olivia Rodrigo has made a great contribution to music today with her hit albums GUTS and SOUR. GUTS has pushed her career forward even more than before and really captures her voice in ways SOUR couldn’t. Olivia Rodrigo is taking the world by storm with this sophomore album and thanks to her, we are now able to sit here and spill our GUTS out with her.