Is Olivia Rodrigo Indie?
Is she an indie artist? We dive into that question and get you some answers.

At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, several artists were recognized for their amazing musical feats throughout the previous year. Among them were Silk Sonic, Jon Batiste, and a certain teenager named Olivia Rodrigo. She finished the night with three Grammys out of seven nominations. While that was an amazing outing for her, it's even scarier that this was only the beginning for her.

Olivia Rodrigo is, without any doubt, a blossoming young artist with buckets of potential. There is, however, at least one question about her that needs answering. Is she an indie artist?

In the beginning...

Let's start with some history. Born in 2003, Olivia started learning music from the very beginning. By the time she was twelve years old, she could play both piano and guitar. Early on, she listened to lots of alternative rock and country music, and eventually fell in love with Taylor Swift. Put a pin in that, we'll come back to it later on. It might surprise you to learn that despite all this music, Olivia didn't start as a musician.

She started as an actress. In 2015, she starred in some movies and shows but finally started her professional music career in 2020 when she signed with Interscope Records. Again, put a pin in that because we'll come back to it later. One year on, she released Driver's License which racked up eighty million streams on Spotify within seven days. If your mouth is open, I totally understand.

"... My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant…" Olivia said about that incredible seven days. She wasn't done, however, and she followed up with a second single before dropping her first studio album, Sour. Such was the impact of this album that she was compared to Taylor Swift and Lorde. Olivia would go on to receive seven nominations and three wins at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

Indie or not?

Now that we have a good idea of her background, we can go back to our question of the day. Is Olivia Rodrigo an indie artist?

Indie vs independent

I know what you're thinking, indie is the same thing as independent. Normally, that would be correct, but not in today's context. In our context for today, indie represents a genre of music, while independent describes the financial model. Got it? Great, let's continue.

Indie

Indie music is simply a style of music that's designed to be more expressive of raw emotion than commercial. Indie music is an alternative style of music regardless of the genre that focuses less on the commercial value of music and more on its emotional authenticity. This has nothing to do with whether an artist is signed to a record label or makes music independently. It's more to do with the tone and message of the music. Indie music has become so popular that some people consider it a genre of its own.

Independent

Independent music, on the other hand, describes music produced and distributed by an artist independently. In this case, it doesn't matter what the artist's style or message is, only that they produce and distribute their music independently.

So we have two categories of indie music, indie and independent. Does Olivia fall into any of them?

Her style and influences

In our short history of Olivia, we learned that she grew up listening to alternative rock music and country music. She has credited Taylor Swift as an influence and has followed in the footsteps of artists like Billie Eilish too. The songs from her first album especially were heavy with raw emotion as she lamented a failed relationship. Driver's License is a good example of that.

Although Olivia Rodrigo has enjoyed massive mainstream success with her debut album, her tone, and style are dominated by indie pop and a slight touch of alternative rock. These two genres have traditionally been kept separate, but this is the era of musical experimentation.

Where things start to get confusing is that Olivia has enjoyed significant mainstream success. So does this render her claim to indie music illegitimate? There are two big examples to show us why this is not the case.

Lana del Rey and Lorde are two artists who've enjoyed both mainstream success and acceptance from the indie community. Lana del Rey has enjoyed indie and mainstream success on the same song, Summertime Sadness. Lorde also blurred the lines with her album, Melodrama. Similarly, Olivia Rodrigo is enjoying mainstream success despite making music that can be classified as indie pop.

The final verdict

So here's my final verdict. Olivia Rodrigo is not an independent artist, being signed to Interscope Records. Despite negotiating a deal that allows her to own her music, she's still signed to a record label and this has contributed a lot to her mainstream success. That's not the whole story, though.

Although she is not independent, Olivia Rodrigo is an indie pop artist. Her music exhibits all the traits of indie music. It's raw, honest, and more oriented toward emotional authenticity than anything else. So, yes, Olivia Rodrigo is an indie artist.

What does the future hold?

All this talk about Olivia Rodrigo and she has only released one album so far. She still has an entire career in front of her and who knows what direction she'll take? Will she continue on this path and join Billie Eilish in making indie pop a mainstream genre? Will she change her style to try out something different? As we wait for new music, we can only speculate.

The good news is we won't have to wait too long. Olivia Rodrigo has promised us new music in 2023, and I know many of her fans can't wait. To be completely honest, I can't either.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, Olivia Rodrigo is not an independent artist but I believe she qualifies as an indie pop artist. Whether indie pop has become a mainstream genre or not is still up for debate, but that's for another day.

Right now, I want to hear what you think. Is Olivia Rodrigo an indie artist?

Sources:

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