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,” Rodrigo’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.
Williams and Farro are now listed alongside Rodrigo and producer-songwriter Daniel Nigro on the website of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for “Good 4 U,” Billboard noted Wednesday. A source told Billboard that Rodrigo’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,” Williams 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 Billboard Hot 100 since topping the chart in May. The song is Rodrigo’s second No. 1 single, following her debut “Driver’s License,” which launched her career.
Rodrigo is making something of a habit out of crediting artists after the fact, as she gave 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.
Swift, however, was credited from the jump on a separate Rodrigo track, “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” which uses a melody from “New Year’s Day,” the closing track on Swift’s album “Reputation.”
While Rodrigo 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 defense on social media with a compelling argument about the nature of making music.
“It’s how rock and roll works,” Costello 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.”