Whether she’s paying tribute to her pop predecessor Taylor Swift, doing her best Jennifer’s Body cosplay or pissing off Courtney Love, it’s clear that Olivia Rodrigo isn’t afraid of a good reference.
But the singer’s panache for making old things feel new again has irked some fans (did she ever send those flowers, by the way?) ― especially when it comes to the similarities between her smash single Good 4 U and Paramore’s triple-platinum track from 2007, Misery Business.
Upon the song’s debut in May, listeners almost immediately drew comparisons to Paramore’s pop punk-tinged sound. Creators flooded the internet with mashups uniting the two songs into one epic, cross-generational breakup anthem.
Now, months after the release of her debut album Sour, Olivia’s team has retroactively credited Paramore’s lead singer Hayley Williams and former guitarist Josh Farro as songwriters on Good 4 U, according to Variety.
Hayley and Josh are now listed alongside Rodrigo and producer-songwriter Daniel Nigro on the website of the American Society of Composers, Authours and Publishers for Good 4 U, Billboard noted.
A source told Billboard that Olivia’s and Paramore’s teams had communicated about the track before it was released.
The Paramore frontwoman appeared to react to the update via her Instagram Story on Tuesday, resharing a post from the band’s publisher that read: “A huge shoutout to our writers Hayley Williams & Joshua Farro.”
“Our publisher is wildin rn,” Hayley wrote on Instagram.
The songwriting credit could result in a major payday for the Paramore musicians, as Good 4 U has made itself comfortable on the US Billboard Hot 100 since topping the chart in May. The song is Olivia’s second No. 1 single, following her debut Driver’s License, which launched her career.
Olivia is making something of a habit out of crediting artists after the fact, as she gave Taylor Swift a non-collaborative credit on her song Deja Vu in July. The song features an arrangement similar to the pop superstar’s track Cruel Summer, most notably in how Rodrigo shouts at the tail end of the bridge.
Taylor, however, was credited from the jump on a separate Olivia track, 1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back, which uses a melody from New Year’s Day, the closing track on Taylor’s album Reputation.
While Olivia has courted plenty of critics for her many inspirations, she has at least one music icon in her corner.
After fans attacked the former Disney Channel star for borrowing a guitar riff from Elvis Costello’s song Pump It Up, he came to her defence on social media with a compelling argument about the nature of making music.
“It’s how rock and roll works,” Elvis wrote on Twitter in response to a fan who’d spotted the similarities. “You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”