Olivia Rodrigo and the second verse massacre
5/5/202644 min
Olivia Rodrigo's chart-topping new single "drop dead," the lead single from her forthcoming third album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, breaks one of pop's oldest rules by abandoning the traditional second verse and replacing it with something entirely new. From Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" to Sabrina Carpenter's "Manchild" and Chappell Roan's "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl," a growing wave of today's biggest pop stars are ditching the verse-chorus formula listeners have been trained to expect for decades. Rodrigo didn't invent the second-verse switch-up, but on "drop dead" she may have just killed off the predictable second verse for good. Songs Discussed Frank Zappa "Charlene" Olivia Rodrigo "drop dead" The Cure "Just Like Heaven" Jean-Baptiste Lully "The Tragey of Armide" Ryan Brown conducting Opera Lafayette Olivia Rodrigo "drivers license" Olivia Rodrigo "good 4 u" Olivia Rodrigo "vampire" Olivia Rodrigo "ballad of a homeschooled girl" Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire — Patricia Kopatchinskaja Mariah Carey "Fantasy" (ft. Ol' Dirty Bastard) Blackstreet "No Diggity" (ft. Dr. Dre, Queen Pen) Peter Gabriel "Don't Give Up" (ft. Kate Bush) Kendrick Lamar, SZA "luther" Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars "Die With a Smile" Post Malone, Swae Lee "Sunflower" HUNTR/X "Golden" Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodrigo "Start of Something New" Matt Cornett, Olivia Rodrigo "What I've Been Looking For" Olivia Rodrigo "All I Want" The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You" Sheryl Crow "Strong Enough" Sabrina Carpenter "Please Please Please" Sabrina Carpenter "Manchild" Chappell Roan "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" Chappell Roan "HOT TO GO!" Chappell Roan "Red Wine Supernova" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsCharlie Harding· Host0:00
Support for this show comes from AT&T. Summer, it's when we share more time, more memories, and more photos. And at AT&T, the iPhone 17 Pro is your summer essential. Its center stage front camera auto-adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. You don't even have to turn your phone, and AT&T makes sharing those pics with everyone easy. Right now at AT&T, ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible iPhone trade-in, any condition. Requires trade-in iPhone 15 Plus or higher, excluding iPhone 16E and 17E. Requires eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit att.com/iphone for details. Support for this show comes from LIMPI, the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production and Industries. It's a one-year program in Norway built by hit songwriters where you learn music the way music actually gets made, in the studio every day alongside the people doing it professionally. LIMPI believes classrooms don't create artists, studio sessions do. So rather than pitch you LIMPI, I wanna introduce you to one of their graduates, a producer-songwriter who's written songs for Tate McRae and K-pop groups.
Gucci Caliente1:04
Hi, I'm Gucci Caliente. I'm from Norway.
Charlie Harding· Host1:07
For Gucci, the dream started very early.
Gucci Caliente1:09
Everything started after I watched School of Rock. I was just like, "This is what I wanna do with my life."
Charlie Harding· Host1:15
She's just a kid. She has her parents drive to the nearest music shop and buys her first guitar.
Gucci Caliente1:18
I had nothing going on. I was, like, living in the middle of nowhere. I'd barely written a song at this point. It took me a long time to, like, understand, like, song structure and that, you know, songs have a chorus.