olivia rodrigo's "deja vu" is a perfect song
Every few years in pop music, a young new female artist obtains, at least at first glance, a meteoric, out-of-nowhere rise to the forefront of the music industry. Such female artists are often dubbed “overnight successes” or “industry plants,” yet in reality these are misnomers. In recent memory, two artists which fit this mold are Lorde and Billie Eilish, the former obtaining gradual critical acclaim and eventual chart success due to her minimalist and subversive approach to pop music production, and the latter capitalizing on image and an ever-changing streaming landscape to become the face of a new era in music consumption. For the sake of this piece, I will refer to this pop music archetype as “cultural resetters,” to use pop music discourse lingo.
The latest iteration of a pop music cultural resetter appears to be Olivia Rodrigo, a newly 18-year-old star on the recent “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” television show on Disney+. Rodrigo released her debut single “Drivers License” in January to instant success, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remaining in that position for 8 weeks to break numerous records. I had not heard of Rodrigo before the song was released, and initially had the classic “who is this and where did she come from” thoughts that are a staple of the cultural resetters before her. The discourse on “Drivers License” has been exhaustive, a key takeaway being the song’s success is owed in large part to TikTok, the music industry’s newest tool to influence sales.
The cultural resetters before Rodrigo each had similar yet uniquely different circumstances to propel them to the forefront. Lorde’s ascent occurred in 2013, which does not seem long ago yet was a completely different era when it came to primary modes of music consumption. “Royals” and her debut album “Pure Heroine” were released before the saturation of music streaming services in the market, relying first on SoundCloud and then radio play to spur single, EP, and album sales. Lorde rode the tail-end of this “purchasing” phase in music, with Spotify and Apple Music dominating soon after, as Apple Music finally presented itself as a strong competitor to Spotify in 2015. Lorde’s success appears to be uniquely attributed to her music flipping pop music on its head with its sparse, dark production, particularly in response to the maximalist EDM and bubblegum pop that dominated immediately before it in the early 2010s (see Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” David Guetta’s countless collaborations, LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem”). To quote queen Lorde herself, “I’m kinda over gettin’ told to throw my hands up in the air. So there.” So there indeed.
Billie Eilish catapulted to fame in a similar manner to Lorde, releasing her debut single “ocean eyes” on Soundcloud when she was 15 years old. Interscope signed Eilish soon after. She quickly gained buzz through her debut EP released in 2017 and hefty promotion leading up to her debut album in 2019, all blooming right as streaming services became the primary form of modern music consumption. This alchemy led to Eilish becoming a global superstar and sweeping the Grammys in the four main categories, making her the youngest person and second in history to do so. Eilish has been compared to Lorde extensively, attributing her dark, minimalist production to the likes of Lorde’s debut. The similar trajectories of the beginnings of their careers highlights one ingredient in the odd potion that is “quick” success: both Lorde and Eilish (and now Rodrigo) capitalized on an emerging transition or trend within the music industry to spark their careers, reaching outside of their respective niches within pop music consumers.
These artists and their relative successes have helped me understand why I am so in awe of Olivia Rodrigo, and in particular “Deja Vu,” the second single from her forthcoming debut album in May. The song is incredible, to put it lightly. It is exquisitely structured, searingly written, lightly comedic yet progressively ominous, desperate, and angry through its building production and vocal, which reaches a shout by the end of the song. Rodrigo wears her influences on her sleeve in both singles, which Rodrigo similarly does in interviews and on social media (she is Instagram’s resident Swiftie, and it shows). Rodrigo is setting herself apart not just for her incredible voice but her ability to synthesize the best of her idols and make it entirely her own. While an easy critique of Rodrigo is that her songs are not particularly “original” and clearly invoke the characteristics of recent contemporaries, Rodrigo reads as exciting rather than reductive because she is explicitly an amalgamation of all of the artists she holds dear in her heart, while still bringing her own personality and experiences into the fray. She is a storyteller in love with music, and those are my favorite artists.
Now, the song itself. To start, the brief, intimate, and specific images she uses are a refreshing counter to the often metaphoric and abstract details contained within similar songs. For example, a recent favorite of mine is “ivy” by Taylor Swift (the best song on “evermore,” I will not be taking questions at this time), which uses metaphors of ivy growing on a home to reflect the feeling of hopelessly falling in love with someone despite being married. In contrast, yet to similarly moving effect, “Deja Vu” contains hyper-specific images which perfectly encapsulate the particular intimacy and devastation that accompanies young love. The first example is in the opening lines, which immediately follow a twinkling, carnival-esque instrumental that opens the track:
Car rides to Malibu
Strawberry ice cream, one spoon for two
And tradin' jackets
Laughin’ 'bout how small it looks on you
This refrain is catchy as hell but also poignant, not only conjuring nostalgia for a time when sharing a spoon with someone was less taboo (thanks, COVID) but also because for me, it brings back that unique, immense feeling of being a teen in love. She covers the senses, seeing the coast fly by while driving a car (that first taste of freedom of obtaining a drivers license, used so effectively in her debut single, is a continued thread here), feeling the wind with the windows rolled down, tasting a treat shared with just one person, hearing that person’s laughter. This laughter is then highlighted by ominous “ha ha ha” background vocals immediately following, a small touch which evokes the best of Lorde’s music.
Rodrigo continues to document the minutiae of her relationship, tossing in a Glee reference and singing in harmony with her ex while watching. She adds a harmony to this line because, well, she gets it. However, just as the listener begins to question whether this is a love song, Rodrigo abruptly shifts the perspective: “I bet she's braggin' to all her friends, sayin' you're so unique,” with a chuckle to end the verse. The listener immediately thinks “who is this she?!” Rodrigo never mentions herself as a party to these intimacies, and just as we are putting these pieces together, she begins the first, quiet pre-chorus:
So when you gonna tell her that we did that, too?
She thinks it's special, but it's all reused
That was our place, I found it first
I made the jokes you tell to her when she's with you
Rodrigo implements a menacing falsetto in these lines, evoking the feeling that Rodrigo is squinting and smirking at her ex, turning the tables on him and the listener, making him (and by proxy, us) realize that these intimacies are not new. The slightly sinister falsetto is used to question her ex on when he will reveal his unoriginality and fakeness to his new lover. Again, this pre-chorus appears to be wholly indebted to Lorde, particularly “Green Light” and “Writer in the Dark,” scornful songs addressed to Lorde’s ex. “Green Light” contains the iconic lyric “She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a damn liar,” exposing her ex the phony he is, and “Writer in the Dark” deploys the similarly menacing falsetto and similarly indicting her ex through the lines “Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark, now she's gonna play and sing and lock you in her heart.” Finally, Rodrigo submits a quiet chorus which reveals the deceit underlying the start of the track: “Do you get deja vu when she’s with you?” The chorus ends with the track’s repetitious “hmm?”, followed by a chuckle.
All of this is good fun to start the track. Its quiet reflectiveness is already immensely effective at telling Rodrigo’s story. However, the beat builds, deploying reverb, guitar, and drums to clarify that no, Rodrigo is not a one trick pony and this will not be another heartbreak ballad. The song begins to reveal itself as an immense, mid-tempo pop song. “Deja Vu” is thus referential to “Drivers License” in its gradual growth in sound and emotion through to the track’s closing, and contains a bombastic hook (learned from queen of bridges herself, Taylor Swift [justice for Cruel Summer]).
The second verse is even more incisive, supported by the lush and gritty soundscape that has been introduced:
Do you call her, almost say my name?
’Cause let's be honest, we kinda do sound the same
Another actress
I hate to think that I was just your type
Anyone who is following the real-life drama behind Rodrigo’s tracks now knows exactly who she is talking about. This particular line is so cutting in that Rodrigo is unafraid to place specific, revealing details about her subjects in her songs with no remorse. Even Taylor Swift often plays somewhat coy with her exposés, but Rodrigo does not hold back or mask her song in metaphor. In short, she has her foot on her ex’s neck.
One of my favorite moments in the song is the end of the second verse, in which she applies her knack for specificity in revealing a song she shared with her ex, Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl.”
I bet that she knows Billy Joel
’Cause you played her "Uptown Girl"
You're singin' it together
Now I bet you even tell her how you love her
In between the chorus and the verse
The final lines of this verse are at once brutal and devastating, revealing a move her ex used to make her feel special and loved. The listener can picture this scene perfectly: Rodrigo sings these lines with a similar staccato used in “Uptown Girl” and adds a yell for background vocals to reflect a chant, and a close listen will reveal a tiny, brilliant detail in between the “chorus and the verse”: a subtle “ooohhh, I love you” can be heard before the explosive second chorus. At this point, I am plainly shook. The attention to detail, the unraveling of the mystery behind the song’s structure, it’s almost rude. But Rodrigo isn’t done yet.
The second chorus becomes a belt, repeating the lines that were previously delivered in falsetto but adding more raw emotion. She used a similar pattern in “Drivers License,” and it works just as well here. She breaks into an explosive bridge, doubling down on all the previous details in a persistent volley against her ex. She adds subtle shouts in the background, playing into the “hmm”s and chuckles that have now become full-chested exhalations of emotion:
Strawberry ice cream in Malibu
Don't act like we didn't do that shit, too
You're tradin' jackets like we used to do
(Yeah, everything is all reused)
Play her piano, but she doesn't know (Oh, oh)
That I was the one who taught you Billy Joel (Oh)
A different girl now, but there's nothing new
The last line of the bridge is the final nail in the coffin: her ex has a new girlfriend but he is the same fraud. Rodrigo never disparages the new girl in this song. It is almost a warning to this new girl, and ironic to the extent that Rodrigo knows her ex will never reveal himself and in turn does it for him. The song ends in a flurry of noise and repetition before the beat completely falls away and she declares, rather than asks, “I know you get deja vu.” A mic drop if I have ever heard one.
All of this is to say that this is my favorite song of the year so far and I cannot stop listening to it. It is a masterclass in song structure and delivery. The second single for a new artist after a smash debut is often dreaded, but Rodrigo completely went for it and succeeded. It is referential to “Drivers License” and many songs before it, but is a patchwork that is distinctly Rodrigo. It’s a song that has spurred me to create a playlist titled “Songs I Would Have Cried to in High School at 2am When My Straight Crush Betrayed My Fantasies and Got a Girlfriend.” Kidding, but seriously…
Like the cultural resetters before her, I anticipate Rodrigo will sweep the 2022 Grammys. While she only has two songs out, if her upcoming album contains even a fraction of the skill exhibited in her first two singles, we are in for a treat. Assuming she is the next cultural resetter she is shaping up to be, particularly through use of TikTok to reach outside of her target Gen Z audience, I also eagerly await the next artist she and her predecessors influence.