The Brilliance of Olivia Rodrigo
‘Drivers License’ is an instant classic — but chances are that’s only the beginning for a songwriter in full command of pop’s history and future
“Drivers License” is an instant classic — but chances are that’s just the beginning for Rodrigo.
Olivia RodRigo could have been designed in a laboratory as the perfect teen pop star — except the best part is how gloriously, messily, authentically human she is. She’s a whole new pop-queen paradigm, ripping up the old playbook and starting again. She seemingly blew in out of nowhere to hit Number One with her instant-classic debut single, “Drivers License.” It’s one of the all-time great debuts — yet somehow the sequel, “Deja Vu,” is even better? And it’s about taunting her ex about how they used to bond over listening to Billy Joel? Who had his last hit 10 years before Olivia Rodrigo was born?
She’s a new kind of star because she reps the next wave of hitmakers, who grew up idolizing Taylor Swift. So her whole idea of how to write a song starts with Taylor and her intricate, complexly self-referential, cleverly coded narratives. It’s a taste of the future — a sign that Taylor’s influence on pop music is really just beginning. Olivia is a devout daughter of Lorde, too, and she’s learned both their tricks by heart. But she’s part of a long tradition of young, ambitious, world-beating rebel girls. The week Olivia was born, Avril Lavigne was in the Top 10 with “I’m With You,” which makes so much cosmic sense.
For Disney viewers, Olivia was already beloved as the star of Bizaardvark. She’s even more famous for starring in High School Musical: The Series: The Musical, where she plays a high school girl starring in a production of a musical based on the 2006 Disney Channel movie. It’s tough to overstate the weirdosity of High School Musical: The Series: The Musical. (Sorry — can’t get enough of that title.) Olivia has been caught up in a much-rumored love triangle with co-star Joshua Bassett; they’re singing fictional songs about their real-life romantic tribulations, while writing IRL songs about each other. He’s also been linked to actress Sabrina Carpenter, seemingly the “blond girl” in “Drivers License.” When Olivia made “Drivers License,” Joshua released the retort “Lie Lie Lie,” while Sabrina released “Skin,” with the classic comeback, “Maybe blond was the only rhyme.” What a Borgesian fictional labyrinth!
Like her idol Tay, Olivia is a classicist who’s schooled in pop history. Like Tay, she sounds like she’s studied “You’re So Vain” the way Talmudic scholars study the Book of Deuteronomy. I love how “Deja Vu” focuses on listening to Billy Joel with her ex — their song was “Uptown Girl” — and now she’s jealous of the new girl who listens to Billy Joel with him. How long do we have to wait until Billy returns the compliment by covering “Deja Vu”?
As we listen to Olivia’s long-awaited album Sour, it’s just the beginning of what sure sounds like a career. But Olivia is also a quintessential example of why this is such an exciting moment to be a passionate pop fan. She’s not hung up on stylistic or historic boundaries — in her songs, the ancient and the new-school play off each other. Everything old is new again, and anything in the past can be the start of something new, as long as an artist like Olivia can find a way to use it. In other words: It’s déjà vu all over again.
The following is one piece in a four-part series highlighting all that Missouri has to offer in the worlds of food, art, music and adventure. Missouri – or “Mo,” as we refer to her – has no shortage of places to explore, so whatever you’re after, there’s a Mo for every M-O.
It’s not every museum director that will tell you to turn around and leave the premises, but the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (or CAM St. Louis, as it’s commonly known) isn’t exactly like every other museum – so, when Executive Director Lisa Melandri says walking back out of the museum is the best place to start a tour, you have to listen.
When the sun sets, CAM St. Louis comes to life as the exterior is transformed from a museum wall into a piece of art itself. “The entirety of the upper level of our facade, which is more than 60 feet long and 20 feet high, becomes a projection,” explains Melandri. “And as soon as the sun goes down, you see moving images that quite literally kind of turn the building inside out, but also really activates the neighborhood.” Not only is there a giant projection on one side of the building, but a giant curved wall that mirrors the curve of the street it sits on is used as a canvas for a rotating roster of installations by local artists. It’s sort of a perfect metaphor for a museum that has made it its mission to present work that reflects the community and break down barriers to the appreciation of contemporary art.
Founded in 1980 to bring art to the city’s downtown, CAM St. Louis has been bringing cutting-edge work by living artists to St. Louis ever since. It succeeded in its mission to the extent that it had to move to a larger space. CAM St. Louis’ 27,000-square-foot Brad Cloepfil-designed building sports an interior and exterior that was crafted to showcase the art, like Ebony G. Patterson’s monumental 52-foot ebullient floral collage that recently took over the exterior project wall. Since 2003, CAM St. Louis has welcomed visitors to its spacious, eye-catching building in the Grand Center Arts District.
While the cement exterior of the building, with its mesh screen and curved wall, has become a fixture in the neighborhood, its interior is constantly changing. You never know what you’re going to see when you walk in CAM St. Louis. That’s because unlike New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre in Paris or even the Saint Louis Art Museum down the road, CAM St. Louis has no permanent collection. Instead, it fi lls its space with an ever-revolving body of work.
“You may see what you might think of as traditional painting,” says Melandri. “But you might also see conceptual work, time-based work, moving-image work, sculpture, installation, immersive projects – you name it.” The CAM has around 12 to 13 exhibitions a year, fully changing the art within its walls three times a year or so. And the art really changes across medium, perspective and geography, all part of the curators’ vision of what contemporary art is and can be.
They’ve hosted major exhibitions by audio artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Danish art collective SUPERFLEX, installation artist Christine Corday, and Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald. It’s a diverse group with a diverse body of work that all address contemporary issues in the world and the arts through intricately contemplative pieces. “We really are seeking to o§er audiences a lot of di§erent kinds of experiences with contemporary art,” says Melandri. One of the goals of the museum is to engage people of all ages and interests in the appreciation and interpretation of contemporary art and ideas, not just appealing to die-hard art lovers. By o§ering a wide-ranging, shifting body of work on display – and hosting lectures, film viewings, livemusic nights and monthly cocktail parties – they have a greater likelihood of reaching people where they are. For a visitor, that means new experiences, new wonders and new, challenging work to appreciate every time they step foot in CAM St. Louis.
To further connect the museum to its community, in conjunction with the Gateway Foundation, CAM St. Louis hosts the Great Rivers Biennial, which recognizes locally grown talent. “We happen to have a really, really dynamic artists community here,” explains Melandri. Every two years, three artists in the Greater St. Louis area are selected by a distinguished jury (think curators and established artists) to receive $20,000 grants. The public can see their work the following summer at the Great Rivers Biennial exhibition at CAM St. Louis. Recent winners include mixed material artist Kahlil Robert Irving; Tim Portlock who made largescale prints of construction sites; and Rachel Youn who created a kinetic sculpture that gyrates between spaces.
The museum is also known for its deep community outreach. In addition to working with and providing a platform for local artists, CAM St. Louis sponsors community initiatives such as citywide open-studio events and a visiting critic and curator series. They also work with local schools, such as their three-year-old partnership with Vashon High School, where students work alongside artists and are then able to display their own pieces at the museum. Embedding themselves in the community breaks down some of the barriers that seem to surround an art world often seen as snooty and snobbish, making art that is accessible, important and interesting. Perhaps the most vital community outreach that the museum did though is right at the entry – there’s no fee.
The city has other art institutions, of course, and numerous galleries and smaller artist-run spaces. Despite the competition, CAM St. Louis has carved out its own niche in both the local and larger art scenes. The people of St. Louis have enjoyed its work and its captivating exterior – the next time you’re in town you’d be mistaken to not do the same.