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Pop star Olivia Rodrigo tried writing love songs for her new album, then life got messy
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Pop star Olivia Rodrigo in the New York Times studio on May 14.
PHOTOS: CAROLINE TOMPKINS/NYTIMES
Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli
NEW YORK – Olivia Rodrigo was the first breakthrough pop star of this decade, a one-time Disney Channel star who set a fresh template for specific, confessional songwriting on a mass scale.
On billion-stream smashes like Drivers License (2021) and Good 4 U (2021), the American singer-actress, now 23, built a career on the back of two complementary musical impulses: exasperated power balladry and exasperated pop-punk.
