olivia rodrigo is a coward when it comes to songwriting too

so listen, it's a bit long but i'm so tired of olivia constantly writing with one eye on public perception. it feels like she cares more about being politically correct than actually committing to the emotion she's trying to write about. "my way" is the perfect example. if you're writing from the perspective of a girl who's watching another girl shamelessly pursue her boyfriend and she's angry about it, then fucking go there. be petty. be irrational. be mean. that's literally the point of writing from a feeling. instead it's like she's constantly reminding herself, "but wait, women should support women," so she waters everything down until the worst thing she says is "let me be direct, you're being fucking weird" and "that's it, i win." ...that's seriously the sharpest thing you could come up with?

songwriting isn't supposed to be politically correct. it's not your job to make sure every line aligns with the internet's moral standards. it's your job to tell the truth of an emotion, even if it's ugly. not every narrator has to be the bigger person. not every song needs a disclaimer that the feelings are acceptable. get a little messy. write with a sharp pen. let people be mad. let people argue. let there be friction. that's how memorable songs are made.

instead it feels like every potentially interesting lyric gets run through the olivia rodrigo image filter because her team is obsessed with making sure she's seen as the perfectly self-aware, feminist pop girl who never says the "wrong" thing. the end result is songs that feel sanitized, focus-grouped and weirdly toothless. i'd rather hear a lyric that gets people yelling at her than another song that's so terrified of offending anyone that it ends up saying almost nothing at all.