Olivia Rodrigo recently spoke to the Guardian and addressed the copyright issues she faced for her 2021 song ‘Good 4 U,’ which was seen as similar to a track by Paramore.
After people found similarities between ‘Good 4 U’ and Paramore’s 2007 track ‘Misery Business,’ Rodrigo had to give the band a writing credit. The singer said the following about the topic in her interview:
“[It was] disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work. I was so green as to how the music industry worked, the litigious side… I feel like now I know so much more about the industry, and I just feel better equipped in that regard. It wasn’t something I thought about too much.”
Rodrigo then also responded to the fan theories, claiming that her song ‘Vampire’ is about Taylor Swift, especially considering the lyrics ‘bloodsucker, fame f*cker, bleedin’ me dry like a goddamn vampire!’ She explained:
“I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better not to pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing [laughs nervously]. I was very surprised when people thought that.”
These speculations came after another credit dispute that Olivia had with Swift for the resemblance between her song ‘Deja Vu’ and Taylor’s ‘Cruel Summer.’ The pair’s friendship seemed to fade after this incident when Rodrigo gave Swift 50% of the credits and royalties.
In a 2021 interview with Time, Olivia again addressed this copyright issues. She expressed her pride in being a songwriter and emphasized that music always draws inspiration from other music. She noted that originality in music is rare because artists are influenced by those who came before them.
