No Slamming on the Brakes for Olivia Rodrigo's "Driver's License"
by Jackie Hernandez, Reporter
Arts and Entertainment
“Drivers License” is the next big song on social media, continuing to break one record after another. It has been over a month since “Drivers License” was released, yet it remains on The Billboard Hot 100, as No. 1. You are probably wondering, how? Why? Who? And with the drama behind the song… buckle up because this will be a crazy ride.
Olivia Rodrigo is a young American actress and singer, breaking records fast. You may recognize her from the Disney TV show Bizaardvark, where she played Paige Olvera. She also performed in the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, where she performed as Nini Salarzar-Roberts. She also starred in an American Girl movie, called An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success.
If you have not heard the hit, it talks about a breakup—something many teenagers can relate to. Rodrigo begins the song with the lyric, “I got my driver’s license last week just like we always talked about.” However, if you are like myself and other teens, many of us haven’t been in a relationship. But, “Driver’s License” gives insight. The song creates nostalgic feelings, especially when taking a late-night drive.
Image courtesy of Olivia Rodrigo’s Twitter
Many of Rodrigo’s fans believe this song is about her co-star from High School Musical: The Musicals: The Series, Joshua Bassett. Rodrigo and Bassett dated in 2020. After they broke up, it was rumored that Bassett was seen with Sabrina Carpenter, another Disney star. The rumored couple also appeared in each other’s TikTok videos, which gave the impression that they were together.
In the lyrics of Rodrigo’s song, she states, “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / She’s so much older than me.”
Carpenter is blonde and 21, which is much older than Rodrigo. Bassett released a song called “Lie Lie Lie” on January 15. Many fans couldn’t find anything that related to Rodgiro’s song, although on his Instagram, he shared the song back in 2019.
Later, Carpenter released her own song called “Skin” on January 22. The lyrics contain the line, “You can try to get under my, under my, under my skin / While he’s on mine, yeah all on my, all on my, all on my skin,” referring to herself and Bassett.
Is this a real-life love triangle that we are watching in these crazy COVID times? Or, could it simply be stars taking advantage of the rumors to create news and views?
Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” has been on the Billboard Top 100 Chart for six weeks now. She recently turned 18 on February 20. Rodrigo is one of the youngest artists of all time to reach the Hot 100. Her song also made it to the #1 iTunes chart, making her the first artist ever to reach the top in US Apple Music singles of the year. According to Spotify, on January 11, “Driver’s License” had the most streams in a day for a non-holiday song and again surpassed streams the next day. On YouTube, her music video has over 131 million views.
At the end of the day, “Driver’s License” is a song that made a mark on the music industry, regardless of who Rodrigo meant it for. It will be interesting to see how her music career progresses, especially with all of this success occurring at the beginning of it.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.
Sources
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why-do-you-think-drivers-license-became-such-a-smash-hit.html. Accessed 15
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Russo, Gianluca. "Olivia Rodrigo's 'Drivers License' Has Surpassed 100 Million
Streams on Spotify." TeenVogue, 17 Jan. 2021, www.teenvogue.com/story/
Olivia-Rodrigo-drivers-license-Spotify-record. Accessed 8 Feb. 2021.
Sanchez, Gabrielle. "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Drama."
Vulture, 1 Feb. 2021, www.vulture.com/2021/02/
olivia-rodrigo-joshua-bassett-song-drama-explained.html. Accessed 15 Mar.
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Trust, Gary. "Olivia Rodrigo's Rodrigo 'Drivers License' Debuts at No.1 on
Billboard Hot 100." Billboard, 19 Jan. 2021, www.billboard.com/articles/
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@spotifycharts(SpotifyCharts).”@Olivia_Rodrigo's “drivers license” broke the record for most streams for a song in a week on Spotify (Jan. 15- 21, 2021) #SpotifyCharts” Twitter,15 Jan 202. https://twitter.com/spotifycharts/status/1353706742111154183