On January 8, Olivia Rodrigo released her debut single, “Drivers License,” and this debut single defined her as a popular music artist rather than a Disney Channel child actress. Not only was it a great breakup song and extremely catchy, but there was also some drama behind it, which included ex Disney actress, Sabrina Carpenter, and her coworker from High School: The Musical: The Series, Joshua Bassett.
Rodrigo is best known for her roles on Disney Channel shows like Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Rodrigo started off her music career with her single, “All I Want,” which was released November 27, 2019. She sang the song in an episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and it blew up, reaching about 189 million streams on Spotify. “All I Want” was featured all over TikTok and many teens remember the impact the song had on them at the beginning of quarantine. Freshman Tasnim Hossain said, “[The song] help[ed] me get through the beginning stages of the quarantine period since it gave me something to listen to and entertain myself with.”
“Driver’s License” was written in light of Rodrigo’s new accomplishment of learning how to drive a car and getting her license. Many fans have noticed ties between her two songs. Sophomore Arrieta Xylas described the transition between the two songs and said, “I feel like the two songs are sort of the beginning and the end, but the middle is missing and is something that is left up to the listener to question.” Throughout the lyrics of “All I Want,” Rodrigo discusses wanting someone that is perfect for her. In “Driver’s License,” she discusses that this perfect person is gone now, but she still remembers the memories she had with him, such as memories of promises related to driving.
The lyrics of the song are meaningful to many students, but the song’s emotional melody has many hooked. Freshman Kaylah Rouzier said, “The bridge especially makes me feel very free. It sounds so grand, like the type of song you’d hear at the end of a movie.” She later described the feeling she gets from this song as an escape type of feeling.
Though many fans yearn to learn more about the reason for why Olivia published this song, some Harrisites feel that it is an invasion of privacy for fans to dig into celebrities’ personal lives.
Both Arietta and Kaylah described how fans are reacting to the situation. Arietta said, “Their love lives and whatever is going on is their private information and it does not deserve to be analyzed for entertainment of the public.” Kaylah said, “In the end there’s no need to analyze either of their personal lives because it’s none of our business.”
