This past Friday, pop-rock star Olivia Rodrigo dropped the first single from her upcoming album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.” The song, called “drop dead,” follows the story of a young woman falling in love, taking listeners through all the emotions and imagery that come with. The song’s lyrics, beat and music video have fans all over the world anticipating what’s to come.
The song begins with some quick beats, mirroring that anticipation that comes with falling for someone new. A faded synth in the background evokes nostalgia, reminiscent of the eighties, and Rodrigo’s layered vocals give the impression that we’re remembering the past along with her.
They also help build up the anticipation for more powerfully delivered lyrics, specifically the buildup leading up to the first time the words “drop dead” are mentioned in the song. It mimics the feeling of a sudden switch from being excited to being in quiet shock.
The background track and the vocals are building up to be louder and louder, then it suddenly becomes quieter and softer as if all of a sudden, the beat “drops dead.”
When it comes to Rodrigo’s vocals throughout the track, we are presented with a unique structure to the song. The spoken word verse acts as a conversation between Rodrigo and the boy she’s singing about, which is a unique part of the song. Rodrigo heavily relies on imagery, like when she describes being “pressed up in the bathroom line” or how the boy she’s falling for is “lookin’ like an angel on the walls of Versailles.”
Her vocals switch between a softer and more powerful, hard-hitting voice, creating a nice texture within the song, and along with this imagery, create a whole new world for listeners to be immersed in.
As for the music video, it starts with Rodrigo singing right into the camera. We slowly get closer and closer to her face. Followed by a quick match cut with a dramatic lighting change, we see her listening to music. The flashing lights in her face go with the line, “Oh, one night I was bored in bed / and stalked you on the internet,” representing the constant stimulation and hits of dopamine someone gets when they’re falling for someone.
Throughout the video we get more imagery like this, where we as the viewer can chronologically track exactly what emotions Rodrigo is trying to convey at which moments in the video.
The cinematography of the music video was very clever, too. The cuts between steadier shots and handheld ones feel more natural, considering the topic of the song: you never know what you’re going to get when you are falling in love.
We see Rodrigo dancing around the palace with headphones on like she’s in her own world. As she is preoccupied only thinking about this boy at that moment, she is adorned in a very fun and traditionally girly costume. Frills cover Rodrigo from head to toe, from the lavender babydoll-esque top she wears to the white shorts and knee-high socks.
Her pink headphones stand out against that muted purple, creating some contrast between the lightweight costume and that pop-rock energy she has tapped into a bit in her previous projects. She’s emphasizing that feminine feeling, while also staying true to other aspects of her career, through the costuming alone.
Overall, the song and music video together do a successful job at capturing the feeling of being a young woman falling in love. The mix of costuming, setting (especially given the fact that the video was shot at the Palace of Versailles) and cinematography created the perfect imagery to represent the track’s energy and emotion. This single has fans excited to see what the rest of Rodrigo’s third album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,” has to offer. Its release date is set for June 12 of this year.
Erin Bejasa can be reached at [email protected].
