Taylor Swift’s new song “I Hate It Here” is trending, but under Olivia Rodrigo’s voice?
Earlier today, it was announced that Taylor Swift has earned the top 14 consecutive spots on the Billboard Hot 100 with her 31-track eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. This historic win breaks the record that she set with her infamous era Midnights after claiming the top 10 consecutive spots.
The album’s lead single, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, expands her collection of debuted number-one singles, tying with Ariana Grande at 7 and only behind Drake at 9. The song is predicted, by Twitter/X user @TalkOfTheCharts, to hold its place at number 1 next week, blocking Sabrina Carpenter’s hit new single “Espresso.”
Aftermath of TTPD
The discourse surrounding The Tortured Poets Department has been interesting, to say the least. Overwhelmed by the surprise deluxe album, doubling the number of tracks, Swifties and critics took the last week to actively process each song. While initial reactions to the album instantly criticized it for its derivative production, further inspection allowed visibility to some of the more complex lyricism present throughout the album.
However, despite giving people time to listen to the album, most still stand by their opinions after a week. Opinions are, though, unable to reach a common consensus on how to view this album. On the one hand, there’s valid criticism concerning subordinate production and lyricism, especially compared to the rest of her albums. On the other, the context matter may lead people to conclude The Tortured Poets Department as one of Swift’s best works yet.
While segregated Swiftie (and “neutral”) communities on Reddit dump their theories, critiques, and opinions on all topics surrounding the album, fanbases on Twitter and TikTok continue to fight against refugees tired from all the Taylor Swift Instagram/Facebook posts, stories, and ads bombarding their feeds.
It’s gotten worse after Swift’s recent deal with UMG to restore her discography to TikTok, limiting the song selection for new videos on the app. But the Swifties are satisfied, with many agreeing that their current anthem is “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” though the result of releasing so many tracks made it so that every fan has individual favorites.
Olivia Rodrigo Sings “I Hate It Here”
Regarding a larger matter of artificial intelligence concerning the art industry as a whole, AI tracks continue to infringe upon the rights of artists who prohibit replications of their voices. Circulation of counterfeit Olivia Rodrigo vocals on “I Hate It Here,” the 23rd track off Swift’s deluxe album (subtitled The Anthology), recently went viral on TikTok this past week. The sound currently has over 1.5K videos on TikTok, with videos already garnering over 200K+ likes.
While the responses to the AI-generated sound seem positive, and I can attest to the AI version of the song sounding soother (in a way that Swift’s voice isn’t biologically capable of), some of the comments come with the motive of comparing Rodrigo to Swift, once again, despite Rodrigo’s recent PR attempts to cement herself as an individual artist capable of pulling her weight.
Taylor Swift & Olivia Rodrigo’s “Beef”
This AI “cover” comes at a time of scrutinizing political tension between Swift and Rodrigo. Increasing viewership from the videos under the sound may spark unnecessary discussions further comparing them. Following an ongoing dispute of Rodrigo involuntarily paying 50% of the profits from her song “deja vu” after Swift and her team filed for copyright, many people were quick to notice that Swift’s name dropped out of Rodrigo’s vocabulary.
News sources were eager to run with the story that Rodrigo’s song from her 2023 sophomore album GUTS, “the grudge,” was written in regards to Swift, though fans of the artist disagree. In fact, Rodrigo was confronted about the drama before the song’s release in a cover interview with Rolling Stone.
“I don’t have beef with anyone. I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say. There’s so many Twitter conspiracy theories. I only look at alien-conspiracy theories.”
Rodrigo’s “beef” towards Swift was seemingly squashed to the public eye at this year’s Grammy’s, where Swift was seen singing along to Rodrigo’s live performance of “vampire,” her 3rd debut number-one hit single. While many fans inadvertently took Swift’s enthusiasm as an olive branch, it’s yet to be official whether Rodrigo recognized it as one.
On another side of the internet, “work from home” investigators fundamentally disagree that any reconciliation happened. After witnessing her sobs the same night, as she lost to Midnights for the Album of the Year award, online assumptions went so far as to declare that Rodrigo wasn’t even crying because she lost the category.
imgonna-get him back
The conflict delves even further with Swift’s new song “imgonnagetyouback,” the 18th track from The Anthology. The song draws comparisons to Rodrigo’s single from GUTS, “get him back,” as it follows the same concept and even shares similarly structured lyrics. Contextually out of place and stylistically titled differently from the rest of the album, many people are concluding the possibility that Swift intentionally plagiarized “imgonnagetyouback” from Rodrigo as an apologetic method to ‘get her back’ after taking royalties from “deja vu.”
At the moment, Rodrigo is busy and working hard as she continues to perform at the GUTS World Tour’s sold-out arenas, earning thousands of new fans. The tour continues to make headlines, especially in regards to nurturing upcoming talent in Chappell Roan; pupil of SOUR and GUTS producer Dan Nigro. Remi Wolf will be opening for Rodrigo’s shows in Dublin this week.
On a much-deserved break before touring for four months all summer, Swift will bring Paramore on as the opener for the European leg of The Eras Tour. With the success of Sabrina Carpenter gaining an international fanbase by opening Eras shows from November to March, it’s likely that Paramore, too, will regain a resurgent fanbase by the end of the year.
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