Driver's Seat

The bridge of the song "DEJA VU" by OLIVIA RODRIGO, who has emerged in the past half year as one of pop's great proponents of the very idea of bridges, owes a fairly obvious debt to the bridge of the song "CRUEL SUMMER," by another fan of pop bridges, TAYLOR SWIFT, of whom Rodrigo is an avid fan. This became the source of news stories on Friday, when it was revealed that Rodrigo had retroactively given co-songwriting credits to Swift and her co-writers JACK ANTONOFF and ST. VINCENT. But it had never been a secret. Promoting her single in a video interview with Rolling Stone the week it was released, Rodrigo said she was thinking of a specific vocal effect from the "Cruel Summer" bridge when she was writing her own bridge. "I wanted to do something like that," she said. She borrowed a bit more than that, and if she was feeling self-conscious about it, she probably wouldn't have written her bridge using the same two chords, the one and the four, in the same key as Swift's. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with this. This is how music works.

Music's first plagiarist was probably the first Neanderthal to make any music at all, tens if not hundreds of thousands of years ago, who almost certainly was aping sounds he or she heard in nature—animal songs, or sounds of the Earth itself, according to one of several theories floated in TED GIOIA's MUSIC: A SUBVERSIVE HISTORY, a book currently sitting on my nightstand. Music's second plagiarist was no doubt the second Neanderthal to make music, whose likely source is even more obvious. Art tends to be inspired by other art that came before, whether the artist is a Neanderthal, a classic-rock or jazz icon, or a 2020s pop star. Here's DAVE GROHL telling PHARRELL WILLIAMS how in rock's late Neanderthal era, tens of years ago, he stole bits "in every one of those songs" on NIRVANA's NEVERMIND from the drummers of the GAP BAND, CAMEO and CHIC. Not a soul, as far as I know, has suggested those drummers be given songwriting credits, retroactively, on one of the 1990s' biggest rock albums or has called Dave Grohl a plagiarist, even though he's literally trying to tell us that he is. The most common reaction to Grohl's admission was that it makes him and Nirvana even cooler than everyone already thought they were.

It would be nice—I might even say it would be equitable—if we could react to Olivia Rodrigo the same way. It would be nice if we could say that her homage to Taylor Swift, who looms as large in her day as the Gap Band, Cameo and Chic loomed in theirs, actually makes Rodrigo cooler. "Deja Vu" is about her ex-boyfriend stealing her moves and using them on his new girlfriend. "Everything," she tells him, "is all reused." She tells him that in the middle of the bridge, in the exact spot where she's stealing Swift's vocal move. She's *demonstrating* how everything is reused. It's a great bit of self-aware songwriting.

Earlier in the song, when she complains about her ex playing the same BILLY JOEL song for his new love that she played for him, Rodrigo refers to the moment "between the chorus and the verse." She doesn't come out say it, but that's the exact spot where, in many pop songs, the bridge goes. The bridge is the part of songwriting on which Rodrigo is making her reputation. And it's the part of this particular song where she nods to her fellow queen of pop bridges. This is songwriting with intention. This is good songwriting. I'm with the tweeter who wanted the world to know that "adding taylor swift to deja vu doesn't diminish olivia rodrigo as an uber-talented songwriter pass it on." I might suggest going one step further. It's a kind of proof of how good she is.

Etc Etc Etc

BARACK OBAMA's annual summer playlist includes one of the most infamous examples of rock plagiarism, GEORGE HARRISON's "MY SWEET LORD," along with newer tunes from the likes of BROTHER SUNDANCE, SZA and AROOJ AFTAB (!!!)... For the first time, people of color constitute a majority on the RECORDING ACADEMY board of trustees... Post-it notes: Posters scattered around New York and LA for POP SMOKE's second posthumous album, out this week, contain QR codes that link to otherwise unreleased music from the album... Sending love to MARK HOPPUS, who was nothing but a complete mensch in the very brief moment we overlapped as contract employees of FUSE.

Rest in Peace

BYRON BERLINE, bluegrass fiddle great and in-demand session player for rock and country stars... Drummer ANDY WILLIAMS of Christian rock band Casting Crowns... Philadelphia jazz saxophonist SAM REED.