Angsty Pop Stans Are Ready for Olivia Rodrigo to Tell Them How to Feel

Babe, Wake Up. Olivia Rodrigo is back to rescue us from the never-ending growing pains of young adulthood — again. Wrapped up in an album called Guts that will arrive on Sept. 8, the singer’s next chapter in what seems to be becoming a series of intensely emotional blueprints will begin with “Vampire,” out Friday. For the people who didn’t know what they felt until they heard Rodrigo put their hurt into words on Sour in 2021, the now 20-year-old musician has more emotional validation on the way.

“For me, this album is about growing pains and trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life,” Rodrigo shared in a statement. “I feel like I grew 10 years between the ages of 18 and 20—it was such an intense period of awkwardness and change. I think that’s all just a natural part of growth, and hopefully the album reflects that.”

And as she brings one chapter to a close and prepares to open another, fans on social media are preparing to make the move with her. “SOUR was my soundtrack of being a 17/18 teenage girl and GUTS is gonna be my soundtrack of what it feels like to be 19 and grow into your 20s,” a Rodrigo fan wrote on Twitter. “Tysm olivia !!!!!!! Ur in my brain.”

In some ways, the torch has been passed from one pop girl to another. Back in 2017, Lorde released her highly-anticipated sophomore album Melodrama, which featured a poignant declaration on “Perfect Places”: “I’m 19 and I’m on fire.” And the album felt like 19 — chaotic, unhinged, paramount.

Lorde’s rise was another instance in which a gifted singer-songwriter locked into a creative partnership with a singular producer (Lorde with Joel Little, Rodrigo with Dan Nigro) and created a body of work that positioned them as the voice of their generation. Billie Eilish, with her producer and brother Finneas, received similar labeling following her own record-shattering debut. But the appeal of these artists is rooted in their reluctance, or even refusal, to take on the weight of that responsibility. They’re figuring it all out just like everyone else is.

It’s an interesting history to see repeat itself, though. Some fans have even pointed out that the album artwork for Guts — which features Rodrigo laying down with her hair fanned out around her and the nostalgic purple color of the Sour era seeping into darker depths — is reminiscent of the Melodrama cover, which saw Lorde physically positioned in a similar way. “She should collab with Lorde sometime in the future. I feel like they’re more aligned than meets the eye,” another fan wrote on Twitter. “Creating albums that signify what it means to be alive at specific moments in your existence and defining them by age…. hmm thats a Lorde thing let me set up the coffee chat.”

For the actual teenagers being guided by Rodrigo’s light, this might mark the first time they indulge in the musical melodrama of that formative transition into the chaos of their late teens and early 20s. But for those who identify as 20-something-year-old teenage girls, this is a homecoming — and a perfect excuse to indulge in all of those melodramatic emotions lingering around from when they were 19 that they still haven’t gotten over. Some may have experienced that for the first time with Melodrama, others mark their own turning point with Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, another album penned at 19 that respectfully refuses to move on.

In just over a week, Swift will release Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), revisiting those emotions in a more literal sense. “I was hoping to ask you that as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities,” Swift told the audience at a recent Eras tour show. “I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote.”

All in all, though they vary in style and sound, these albums function as time capsules and time machines for both the people making the records and the overlapping audience of people being changed by them. And those changes, however productive or regressive, build on the foundation of the past. From the moment “Drivers License” began its complete domination, Rodrigo was praised for her ability to communicate heartbreak and even jealousy with such a bold sense of universal understanding. What was odd was the particular hinging on her doing so as a 17-year-old teenage girl. When every new emotion is operating at the highest intensity, and every experience is the best and worst you’ve ever encountered, of course, the result is going to be visceral. You don’t know anything else yet.

“I made the bulk of this album during my 19th year on this early. A year that, for me, was filled with lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst,” Rodrigo wrote in a letter to her fans. “I’m so very proud of it. I cannot express how excited I am to embark on this new chapter of my life with you guys.”

From Rolling Stone US.