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Satire Meets Americana in Olivia Rodrigo’s “all-american bitch”
I am built like a mother and a total machine!
After the release of her 2021 debut album, SOUR, Olivia Rodrigo skyrocketed to fame and critical acclaim over her lyricism, talent, and honest portrayal of adolescence in the Gen Z era. Rodrigo’s unapologetic and unabashedly critical discography appeals to multiple generations, especially regarding the universal thread of love and loss so often interwoven within her work. As such, Rodrigo’s subject matter largely centers around the difficulty of existing as a teenage/young adult — especially a woman — in the world and the confusion, pain, and heartache that accompany the act of growing up.
In her sophomore album GUTS, Rodrigo extends this inquiry into adolescence/early adulthood more deeply into the socialization of womanhood and femininity in the modern day, especially regarding love and the social/gender roles inherent within heteronormative relationships.
In the first song on the album, “all-american bitch,” [sic] pop-rock, bubblegum pop, and folk merge effortlessly to produce a song as chaotic, electrically charged, and dynamic as the general experience of womanhood is. The song begins like a folk ballad, with Rodrigo’s voice floating angelically and softly over guitar-picking. In an instant, the verse…
