2021 has been Olivia Rodrigo’s big breakout moment. The High School Musical series star opened up the year with her viral hit “drivers license,” which even made its way into an SNL skit, before releasing her angsty breakup tune “Good 4 U” over the summer along with her debut album, Sour. Olivia Rodrigo is now receiving a second wave of attention now, though. It was recently revealed that she added new songwriting credits and reportedly is now giving up millions of dollars in royalties to Paramore and Taylor Swift due to close similarities to her work on Sour. And believe it or not, this all began through TikTok. So let’s break this down.
It all starts with Taylor Swift. Olivia Rodrigo talks all the time about being the “biggest” Swiftie in the whole world, thus the Grammy-winning singer is clear influence on her. Earlier this summer, Olivia Rodrigo retroactively gave Taylor Swift and co-writer Jack Antonoff writing credits on her hit single “deja vu” due to similarities to their song “Cruel Summer.” Prior to Sour’s release, Rodrigo also received approval to use the chords from Swift’s song “New Year’s Day” in “1 step forward, 3 steps back” to pay tribute to her favorite singer. Now, her highly popular hit, “Good 4 U” is also on the list, with Paramore as her muse. Here’s everything that we know:
The ‘Good 4 U’ TikTok Trend
Interestingly enough, the latest situation with “Good 4 U” has roots on the social media app TikTok. When Olivia Rodrigo’s song blew up, fans started to notice how much it reminded them of the 2007 Paramore song “Misery Business,” and it kicked off a huge trend that saw fans of Rodrigo reliving their emo phase.
Along with both “Good 4 U” and “Misery Business” sharing teen angst energy, the instrumentation is very similar throughout, as made obvious in this mashup of the two songs that went viral as well. Take a listen:
The comparisons don’t stop there. The two songs complement each other on a visual level as well.
Comparing ‘Good 4 U’ And ‘Misery Business’
Olivia Rodrigo’s song is about an ex who looks a-ok after a breakup, even though she’s still going through it. The singer took on the persona of a cheerleader, who sets her room on fire in a music video that also became a massive hit:
Meanwhile, “Misery Business" now has a direct influence on Olivia Rodrigo's song. This is thanks to the official songwriting credit given to its lead singer/songwriter Hayley Williams and former Paramore songwriter/band member Josh Farro. The music videos for the songs also share similarities through cheerleaders and the angles present when Hayley holds onto the camera. And this is all on top of the two songs sounding very similar:
Back in 2018, Williams (28 at the time) shared that she no longer relates to the song “Misery Business” and that the band plans to retire the hit from their live shows due to some of the content in the song being deemed “anti-feminist.”
How Much Money Olivia Rodrigo Reportedly Gave Up To Paramore
With all that in mind, Olivia Rodrigo is now said to have already given up $2.4 million dollars in global publishing royalties for “Good 4 U,” thanks to connections to “Misery Business.” The cash will be shared between Hayley Williams and Josh Farro. According to Billboard, the Paramore songwriters will be making just as much as Rodrigo and her co-writer Dan Nigro.
The number is an estimation based on streaming, sales, airplay, licensing and so forth and the song will continue to make money for both Rodrigo and Paramore as the song remains a chart-topper. It's interesting to see how all of this has gone down, but it's clear that Rodrigo definitely has some iconic influences under her belt that will now share her success.
