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Array ( [0] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 122 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2022-08-01 09:42:48 [post_date_gmt] => 2022-08-01 01:42:48 [post_content] => WRITING. Olivia Rodrigo is working on her second album after 'Sour.'
Olivia Rodrigo's Instagram page
After rising to fame as a Disney star, Olivia Rodrigo broke the Internet. In January 2021, while recording music for her now-platinum debut album, SOUR, Rodrigo took to TikTok to promote her first single, “drivers license.” The track received 76 million streams in its first week, breaking several global records.
The 19-year-old Grammy-winner has been candid about how she takes cues from her musical influences. But another SOUR single, “good 4 u,” was compared for its similarities to pop-punk band Paramore’s hit “Misery Business.”
While Rodrigo eventually granted Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Josh Farro songwriting credits in August 2021, critics, fans, and trolls alike asked: if Rodrigo is not original, what makes her stand out?
Rodrigo’s brilliance lies in her use of TikTok as a tool to present her celebrity image as authentic to a young, global audience. Her use of social media self-branding to remix already existing ideas, sounds, and texts in fresh, new ways is what makes her and other young artists and creators shine.
Released in 2018, TikTok is a social media platform that prioritizes short-form multimodal videos combining text, image, and sound. Users restyle, remix, and re-present already-circulating content, creating what media researchers Diana Zulli and David J. Zulli call digital imitation publics.
The platform is popular among younger users – particularly those in Gen Z.
After releasing “drivers license,” Rodrigo proceeded to post a now-viral TikTok asking followers to stream her track. The video features the song and a series of video vignettes explaining its significance.
Using TikTok’s green screen feature, Rodrigo appears before a picture of her driver’s license as the track plays. Next, a text block appears: “I posted this photo on Instagram saying how i was super excited to drive alone through the suburbs crying lol … thought the experience might make a good song.”
Rodrigo takes on the tactics of other Gen Z TikTok creators in this promotional content. Through her playful use of TikTok’s innovative features, such as green screen and duets, Rodrigo appears relatable to her fans and followers.
Akin to Rodrigo’s SOUR, viral content on TikTok is not necessarily “original.” It is instead an imitation or restyling that adds to an ongoing conversation.
Referencing postmodern philosophers Jean-François Lyotard and Frederic Jameson, philosopher Madan Sarup names pastiche as a form of parody that playfully teases the boundaries between art and life.
Pastiche challenges the dominant cultural conversations through finding new ways to remake old ideas — just like Rodrigo’s music and promotional TikToks.
TikTok welcomes imitation as a form of innovation. As media scholar Melanie Kennedy explains, repetition is key to going viral on TikTok. For example, US-based creator Mel Sommers shared her interpretation of Rodrigo’s TikTok, the “drivers license challenge.”
The challenge consists of two videos stitched together as a clip of “drivers license” plays along. In the first video, Sommers lip-syncs along to the song’s chorus wearing no makeup and a sweatshirt. As the sound transitions to the bridge, she makes eye contact with the camera and falls backwards. This is immediately stitched with a second “glow up” video as Sommers is shown lying on her bed in a fancy dress as the bridge plays.
Sommers’ original video accumulated 1.4 million views and inspired countless remakes by other users.
The challenge ultimately facilitated new readings of “drivers license” while promoting Rodrigo’s music further.
Rodrigo approaches her music as a composition of pop stars past, similar to how TikTok’s features encourage restyling already popular content. The “once-in-a-generation songwriter” shared her thoughts on music and originality with Nylon in 2021: “… I’m going to try and take all of my…influences and inspirations…and make something…I like.”
Rodrigo and other Gen Z creators curate their celebrity image by mixing content and social media presence as a combined entity. Rodrigo’s promotional TikTok content centers on how she takes on existing concepts through remix and play.
Through stitches, duets, and green screens, Rodrigo showcases the postmodern appeal of today’s popular music: a fresh face returning to the beats and lyrics of a previous generation. – The Conversation|Rappler.com
Jess Rauchberg is a Doctoral Candidate, Communication Studies and Media Arts, McMaster University.
This piece was originally published in The Conversation.
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source [post_title] => In defense of the remix: Olivia Rodrigo's promotional TikToks are relatable Gen Z self-branding - Rappler [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => in-defense-of-the-remix-olivia-rodrigos-promotional-tiktoks-are-relatable-gen-z-self-branding-rappler [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-08-01 09:42:48 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-08-01 01:42:48 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://remix.network/post/in-defense-of-the-remix-olivia-rodrigos-promotional-tiktoks-are-relatable-gen-z-self-branding-rappler/ [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [post_first_date] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [date_sharedcount] => 0000-00-00 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 80 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2021-11-05 08:49:43 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-11-05 00:49:43 [post_content] => Clock this. Florida rapper Kodak Black dropped his new single, “Senseless,” at 3:30 on Monday afternoon, and then, a few ticks after 4 p.m., DJ Frisco954 posted a “fast” remix: a sped-up, pitched-up version of “Senseless” that transformed the rapper’s serrated drawl into a 320-grit sandpaper chirp. And then it kept happening. Within the hour, other DJs had uploaded their fast remixes of “Senseless” to YouTube, too. Like cellular division, one song became two, then four, then more.
As dizzying as it felt, this was a natural, everyday occurrence in South Florida, where DJs began making fast remixes decades ago by speeding up national rap hits, hoping to eclipse the fastball tempos of Miami bass music. Eventually, a nightclub trend coalesced into a local tradition, and now fast remixes seem to exist entirely on their own terms. Regionally, “a sound like that will never go away,” Miami radio host DJ Nasty told the Fader in 2017. “It’ll never die.”
Unfortunately, the rest of us will, and that should make the abundance of fast remixes currently streaming online resonate with anyone who wishes they could fast-forward through the second summer of this time-thieving pandemic. On top of that, South Florida itself remains one of our nation’s most frightening harbingers of environmental catastrophe — an imperiled piece of planet where the waters are rising, the buildings are collapsing and the clock is ticking. This music obviously isn’t about climate change, but its urgency definitely feels of it.
Then again, clock-torquing has always been central to rap music, with DJs and producers perpetually tweaking the speeds of their samples, treating time like gobs of Silly Putty. Houston’s DJ Screw changed the trajectory of rap by famously slowing records down, loosening the tempo until it melted into a beautiful ooze — so it makes sense that a fast remix does something like the opposite. Instead of liquefying, the details crystallize. The beats become light and delicate. The rhymes get tight and Smurfy. Give a fast remix your most undivided attention and it’ll start to sound like a double-refusal of temporality and corporeality — a sort of metaphysical protest music.
Maybe start with DJ Fetti Fee, a Florida standout who makes iconic rappers sound like other people. His fast remixes have transformed 21 Savage’s dour murmurs into angel whispers and Pop Smoke’s godly baritone into the voice of a suave norm.
Fetti Fee seems to understand Florida rappers best. His latest mixes of WizDaWizard’s “Don Dada’s” and Wam SpinThaBin’s “Risk Taker” both feel opulent and jewel-like as they accelerate with weird stealth. Somehow, it becomes easier to notice each song’s intricacies as they zip over your ears. Life is racing past, but you’re getting more of it.
And it can work the other way, too, like with DJ Frisco954’s recent remix of “Summer Time” by YN Jay, a Michigan rapper who already does plenty of clock-bending on the original version of the track by rapping slightly ahead of the beat. So when DJ Frisco954 speeds everything up, time feels as slick and precarious as baby oil on a Slip ’N Slide — a reminder that, despite being stuck together forever, music will keep teaching time new ways to fly when we’re having fun.
Read more by Chris Richards:
No Name says the loud part quiet
Lana Del Rey makes music out of vague, vivid memories. How will it be remembered?
The world is fast. Bad Brains are faster.

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Remix Sessions and Producer Packs
If a year inside convinced you to shoot your shot at becoming an international DJ, Apple is updating GarageBand for iOS and iPadOS on Thursday with a low-stakes way to start dabbling in the world of remixes. GarageBand’s Remix Sessions lets you try your hand at remixing tracks from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga with short video tutorials available to watch while you mess with loops.
You can access the new Remix Sessions from the Sound Library section of GarageBand. There’s currently only one song for each artist, “Break My Heart” for Dua Lipa and “Free Woman” for Lady Gaga, but the amount of samples and loops each song comes with is surprisingly broad. If you’ve played with GarageBand’s Live Loops before, the experience should be self-explanatory. Apple’s implementation of its video tutorial is a bit clunky — the downloaded artist’s Live Loops project will show up in your GarageBand, but to watch while you edit your song, you have to start the video in the Sound Library page and pop it into picture-in-picture mode manually.
Apple is also releasing “hundreds of royalty-free loops, beats, instruments, drum kits, synth patches, and samples” in downloadable Producer Packs that, like the Remix Sessions, include video content that Apple says offers insight into the producers’ creative process. If a companion Mark Ronson Live Loops project that ties in to an upcoming Apple TV Plus show is of interest to you, that’s available, too.
Interestingly, these new GarageBand perks are currently only available on iOS and iPadOS: users of the original macOS desktop version will have to go without Lady Gaga’s encouragement. The macOS version of GarageBand does include “Artist Lessons” for free, which are more hands-on educational videos for specific instruments like guitar or piano, so there’s at least something for you there if you’re trying to start your music journey.
GarageBand’s Remix Sessions and Producer Packs are available to download now.
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After giving Mariah Carey's signature butterfly top an update last month and giving a nod to the diva during last year's Grammy Awards, Dua Lipa is back at it. In her latest Instagram gallery, Lipa showed off in another butterfly top — only this time, it was a denim version. A blend of '00s Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake with a dash of Mariah? Leave it to Dua Lipa.
The 2021 version of the outfit replaced Carey's bedazzled sequins (the OG version came courtesy of Emanuel Ungaro) for frayed, light-wash denim. Lipa paired the top, which had her tattoos and sideboob on full display, with coordinating wide-leg denim, which echoed the butterfly motif with an applique on the leg and another on her hip. She finished the outfit with other aughts standards: a trucker hat and a belly chain.
"Kaybug," she captioned the photos, adding an Atari-style Space Invaders emoji for good measure and the usual head-scratching moment that comes with all of Lipa's social media posts.
RELATED: Dua Lipa Went Braless in a Sheer Lace-Up Shirt
Lipa's not the only singer throwing it back to the Elusive Chanteuse herself. Olivia Rodrigo wore a sparkling butterfly top on Instagram earlier this year. Her caption paid homage to two of Carey's signatures with a butterfly and rainbow emoji. 
Carey debuted what would become one of her most iconic outfits at VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross at Madison Square Garden in 2000. Three years earlier, she released her album Butterfly, which included singles "Honey" and "My All," both of which hit no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. 

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