COVER WEEK IN REVIEW

Week in High Culture

DRIVING (AND SCROLLING) THROUGH HEARTBREAK

TEXT ALISA CAIRA DESIGN ELLA ROSENBLATT ILLUSTRATION BAYLOR FULLER

When the song “drivers license” became an internet sensation, I, as a good and serious College Hill Independent reporter, had to redownload TikTok. Looking back, I’m not quite sure how I started watching 30-minute Youtube compilations of TikToks explaining Disney actors’ love lives. Nor do I know why I cared whether Olivia Rodrigo, the singer behind the song, was wearing her ex’s jacket in the music video. But once I started to care, I couldn’t stop. Suddenly, all that mattered was a love triangle I had no involvement in and a song about heartbreak I never thought I would like.

Previously known for her role on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, 17-year-old Olivia Rodrigo released the song “drivers license” on January 8. The lyrics depict Rodrigo sadly driving around her ex’s neighborhood after having obtained her license. Only three days later, the song broke Spotify’s daily record with 15.7 million streams (!) and then again the next day with 17 million (!!).

So, what about this song made it so internet-breaking? Well, buckle-up Indy readers, because the story keeps driving forward. Fueled by emotionally distraught TikTokers parodying the song and reflecting on their own romantic tribulations, “drivers license” gained traction as a TikTok sound. Some users created alternate lyrics from the perspective of “that blonde girl who always made me doubt”, the ex, Rodrigo’s best friend and more. Others, meanwhile, used the lyrics as messages to their exes or as a backing track to videos of them crying. Far from discussing the ludicrousness of addressing ex-related grievances through the public-facing medium of pop music, TikTok users collectively hopped aboard Rodrigo’s creation—the trope-filled universe where love is oddly uncomplicated. After all, that does seem like a quicker Valentine’s Day fix than unpacking the heartbreak of every TikTok user. That’ll be an Indy article for another week.

Off TikTok, the song gained recognition through thinly veiled shade targeted at Joshua Bassett, Rodrigo’s 20-year-old co-star in the show-withtoo-many-colons. Fans believe the two to be dating due to their very romantic nicknames for each other (‘Joshy’ and ‘Liv’) and chemistry as a couple on the spin-off-that-never-needed-to-exist. Currently, there’s no proof that they aren’t just, well…actors. Even if they did find love off-screen, it seems we’re also going to ignore—as every news outlet has—the concerning reality that Bassett is 20 while Rodrigo just got her license.

Driving onward, fans took the song to, obviously, be about Bassett and wondered who exactly ‘that blonde girl’ might be. At this point, Sabrina Carpenter, 21 and blonde, enters from stage left as Bassett’s new girlfriend.

His frail teen heart throb ego at stake, Basset wasn’t able to handle being on the wrong side of the biggest song of the year. To retaliate, he released the song “Lie Lie Lie” which, you guessed it, accuses Rodrigo of lying.

Carpenter, too, couldn’t take being called “everything I’m insecure about” sitting down. She released the most straightforward of the diss tracks—“Skin”—where despite singing, “you can’t get under my skin,” she seems to let Rodrigo crawl under hers. Hopefully, now that the trio has each released their own songs, we can workshop duets. Personally, I’m hoping Valentine’s Day brings another teen icon into the drama to form a modern day barbershop quartet.

Ultimately, “drivers license” might not astound the pretentious listener (I’m looking at you, Indy readership). Still, the song’s ability to capture the pain of heartbreak illustrates the power of first loves and the isolation of relationships in a digitally connected world. With love always a click away, modern technology removes mentoring figures (i.e. parents) from our love lives which means fewer awkward dinner table conversation, but also forces us back into our phones—or funny TikToks—when we do face heartbreak and loss. Today, TikTok ballads, Instagram gossip, and Twitter trends are how people hear their own heartbreaks echoed and overcome. While it might not be ideal in the long term to reduce such trials of the heart into ‘Olivia Rodrigo,’ ‘ex,’ and ‘blonde girl,’ it is a start.

Now, for my Valentine’s Day gift to myself, I’ll be deleting TikTok, buying discounted chocolates, and, maybe, just maybe, listening to “drivers license” once or twice.

-AC

WHERE ARE YOU, NORMAL FRIENDS

On January 12, acclaimed author Sally Rooney announced a new sure-to-be bestseller. According to the New York Times, Rooney’s eagerly awaited book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, “follows four young characters in Ireland as they navigate the pressures of work and relationships against the backdrop of political turmoil and fears about their economic futures.” The Irish, it seems, live in a society.

Readers will pick up on the resonances in this description with Rooney’s previous works, Normal People and Conversations With Friends, perhaps imagining that the characters will take a break from their busy and complicated lives in an Irish city—Dublin possibly—to visit an idyllic southern European bourgeois oasis, complete with a villa or a spacious apartment owned by the one of the more affluent characters. Here they might have a moment of bliss under the sun of warmer climes before realizing that their problems from Ireland have followed them to this enchanting new setting. Maybe Padriag wants to know if Niamh is alright. Maybe she’s been good, just work. They share a cigarette for the first time since Trinity. Padraig pushes his hair back. Seen anyone from home in Donegal, he asks. Not since term ended. An arousing shame surrounds him like a shroud. Niamh feels tired. Quotation marks, where are you.

TEXT LUCIEN TUCZAN-LIPETS DESIGN ELLA ROSENBLATT ILLUSTRATION BAYLOR FULLER

Fitting for such a well-anticipated book, fans took to the internet to express their excitement. One Facebook user tagged their friend in the New York Times post announcing the book and commented “can I just recommend this for you 9 months in advance without having read it yet.” But not all readers are so reverent of the author: one Times commenter cut to the heart of the issue with a terse [eggplant emoji], an allusion to the trepidation and passion at the core of her novels’ emotional and sexual relationships. One Rooney enthusiast expressed their reaction to the announcement, telling the Indy, “kind of reminds me of how i made rice yesterday and tonight i’m just adding parmesan and calling it risotto.” Certainly something to chew on for the obsessed Rooney reader.

Such bold assessments could be expected given the hype surrounding Rooney’s earlier novels; Normal People was met with such high regard that Hulu had it adapted into a show with 41 minutes of sex scenes. We, at the Indy, watched it only for the cinematic critique value. Moreover, the Hulu series was widely praised—as much for its fidelity to the novel as for its details. Connell’s chain necklace and Marianne’s bangs decidedly mark them as cosmopolitan, but approachable, extremely attractive yet somehow sensitive, unbelievably well-read, good at sex, and too Irishly humble for their own good. A rare balance reserved for only the hot and smart.

Despite the ado surrounding this upcoming release, fans are still mulling over key questions: Which Househunters International Best European Homes landscape will we like more—the windswept Irish countryside, the Tuscan villa escape, or perhaps a more illustrious destination where class tensions can brew between bated breaths? Which passages will Hulu editors turn into porn? Beautiful world, where are you?

-LTL