While I listen to a tonne of music in the pop genre, I rarely give much attention to the big name pop stars. Not so much because I think there’s any virtue in scorning the mainstream, but simply because most of it fails to make much of an impression on me.
I have been enjoying exploring Olivia Rodrigo’s catalogue lately, though. Her music is certainly nothing innovative, but it’s damn fun.
Superior Realities 
Olivia is a very smart, intelligent songwriter with a strong understanding ot just of how pop music works now but of how it’s worked through the culture over the last fifty or more years. In that, she’s part of an ever-growing cadre of very clued-in, literate, cultured writers and performers, working with pop music as more of a palette or a stock-cupboard than an end in itself. There’s always been plenty of that going on but it’s really hit stride recently and I for one love it.