Ever since Olivia Rodrigo burst onto the scene in 2021 with her chart-topping ballad “Driver’s License,” she’s been the next big thing in pop. But even as she was showered with Grammys and co-signed by everyone from Alanis Morissette to Jack White, there were some of her Millennial and Gene innermost feelings of a now-20-year-old.
This feeling – so hilariously captured in a viral SNL sketch where a few older guys sing and scream along to “Driver’s License” – doesn’t seem to have slowed down with the release of Rodrigo’s second album, Guts. So why can’t the boys of the world just stop worrying and learn to wear their Olivia love on their sleeve?
Maria Sherman, a music writer for the Associated Press, noted a recent evolution in the demographics of Rodrigo’s fan base. “We’re seeing the conversation evolve into accepting that people of all ages, especially older women, can relate to and have feelings for Olivia Rodrigo, and now there’s a connection with men as well,” she tells The Daily Beast. “I don’t want to say they weren’t listening, but I definitely saw that conversation come up quite a bit.”
For some older male fans, the appeal to Rodrigo’s music may actually stem from the generation gap itself. Jeff, a 35-year-old from Brooklyn, says he’s a fan of Rodrigo because “it’s all Generation Z.” I think I’m just kind of fascinated by this generation. Over the last few years, I’ve realized that as a millennial in the middle, I’m no longer part of the young, fun, progressive generation, at least not comparatively speaking. I really like the openness, maturity and vulnerability in their music, which I think is typical of a lot of Generation Z.”
It’s this vulnerability that many of the male Rodrigo fans I spoke to pointed to when trying to explain why songs like “Driver’s License” resonated with them. After all, at 20, Rodrigo belongs to a generation that is apparently better able to process its emotions rather than suppress them. The thing everyone who enjoys singing along to songs like “Deja Vu” mentions is exactly what makes Rodrigo’s music so popular: that universal teenage feeling.
Jesse, 34, was introduced to Rodrigo’s music because he teaches at a high school in Oakland, California. He jokes that a Rodrigo concert might not be the right place for him as a married man in his 30s, but he gets to the heart of what made them so successful.
“It captures a lot of the experience of being an insecure teenager without sacrificing an adult voice,” he says. “Even if you don’t like their music, I don’t know that there are many artists who are able to thread that needle in the same way.”
Sherman adds that Rodrigo’s sound offers male fans the opportunity to experience the confessional nature of her music in a way that may make her more accessible than other female pop stars.
“I guess there’s a certain male friendliness to this music that doesn’t directly reflect the audience, but has always been somehow culturally understood,” she explains. “I think that allows men who love this music to also love Olivia Rodrigo’s interpretations and explorations in it, perhaps without feeling like they’re liking a young woman’s music. I hope that’s more of a cultural shift, but it certainly has something to do with the fact that this music has historically been coded or presented to men, and we’re hoping to evolve in a certain way so that that People now accept anyone who performs them. what they should be.”
But Rodrigo’s appeal goes beyond the emotion and vulnerability of her music. For 32-year-old fan Ariel, Rodrigo, a Filipino American, also represents an important diversity shift in pop music.
“In YouTube’s early days, the platform was launched by young cover artists and songwriters like AJ Rafael and Passion, but that success never reached the mainstream,” he says. “Filipinos love R&B, rock music and ballads, and artists like Bruno Mars and HER represent the Filipino-American standard of talent and love for hip-hop and R&B. Olivia Rodrigo represents the other great musical love of our culture. She’s a success story that represents what everyone knows about Filipinos: Damn, we can sing.”
Ariel’s mention of genre occurs frequently in the discourse surrounding Rodrigo’s music. Jeff ultimately chose Sour because it sounds like the kind of music he’s always liked; He remembers being an immediate fan of the punky, guitar-driven “Good 4 U” because it was so reminiscent of the pop-punk he grew up with. Likewise, Rodrigo’s ability to seamlessly fuse genres such as pop, punk and rock is something that is sure to attract a wider range of listeners, including men, to her music.
“I think she chooses certain things that are suitable for a male, rock-listening audience. I hear Pavement and The Cure on their records as much as Hole and Avril Lavigne,” says Sherman. “I’ve spoken to a few men about it recently, sort of colloquially, and the assessment seems to be that they really enjoy her being a rock star. She’s not a pop star, and that’s something they connect with. It feels a little gendered, but there’s something in the idea that male fans who are more rock-oriented are wearing their Olivia Rodrigo fandom on their sleeve rather than hiding from it just because of who she is.”
In fact, most people I spoke to were initially drawn to Rodrigo’s sound because it was reminiscent of what they had heard as a child – bands like My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Dashboard Confessional. But Chandler, 30, mentions a piece of the puzzle that could potentially get more male fans to listen to Rodrigo’s music.
“I also think that mainstream music, both in songs by female artists and male artists, has become a bit more emotional and atmospheric,” he says. “For example, the explosion of sad boy rap, the growth of the emo revival, [with] MGK, Meet Me at the Altar, Yungblood and Halsey tackle pop-punk – it’s all part of the story for me.”
“Yes, I’m a 33-year-old, straight, bald man now, but I can guarantee that me and my fellow buddies felt insecurity, longing, and fear just as strongly as the 19-year-old girl unpacking her freshman dorm did Week.”
So if we’re finally getting more music that allows men to explore their feelings on a more mainstream level, why not get into some pop girlie that ticks all the boxes above? Andy, 33, a Rodrigo fan living in Los Angeles, certainly feels that her music transcends outdated gender boundaries: “To be honest, I kind of take that assessment lightly,” he says. “Nora Ephron didn’t make films for women, she made films about women for everyone. Show me a man who didn’t get emotional during “You’ve Got Mail,” and I’ll show you someone who lied to himself.”
Guts will probably make even more men fans – and make those who are already there even more passionate. A lot of the guys I spoke to mentioned that they were big fans of the lead single “Vampire” and seemed excited to see it lean more heavily into punk territory on album two. As Jeff excitedly puts it, “If Sour had cried into a pint of Haagen-Dazs, Guts would probably take a baseball bat to the windshield.”
Guts certainly rides out the sophomore lull by proving that Rodrigo’s universal appeal is still intact as she continues to evolve as a person and a pop star – and that her fans, whether 18 or 81, male or female or non-binary, are are also on the journey.
“She definitely writes from a young woman’s perspective,” Andy says of her appeal, “but I would say a lot of what her songwriting is about is pretty universal to the experience of being a teenager or happiness to have, to be young.” in love or the misfortune of being young and in love. She follows the same path as the indie rock and power pop darlings of my generation that we secretly shared our feelings with in the mid-80s. Yes, I’m a 33-year-old bald straight man now, but I can guarantee that me and my fellow buddies felt just as intense insecurities, longings, and fears as the 19-year-old girl unpacking her freshman dorm this week. Whether my colleagues want to deal with it or not is their own problem.”