Olivia Rodrigo, who is only 18 years old this year, has become popular in Europe and the United States with a song "Driver's License", but according to MSN reported on June 30, the rising young star has recently been accused of plagiarizing the work of elvis Costello, a 66-year-old singer.
Costello, one of the most talented and influential singer-songwriters since Bob Dylan, did not hesitate to step forward to speak up for Olivia when the young Olivia was accused of plagiarizing his work.
On Olivia's album Sour, her single Brutal is said to have used chord sequences from Costello's hit 1978 single Pump It Up. When social media users discovered the similarity, one of them tweeted that Olivia borrowed almost directly from Costello's work.
Fortunately, Costello was dismissive of the report's act of copying, writing on Twitter that he not only had no problem with Olivia's borrowing behavior, but also made it clear that this was the way rock 'n' roll worked in the first place. In Costello's words, it's the equivalent of "you make another stimulus fragment into a whole new thing." Costello also stressed that that's what he did.
To better explain his point, Costello cites two more examples: 80-year-old Bob Dylan's classic song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" provided inspiration for Pump It Up, and the late singer Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" in turn influenced Bob Dylan's work.
In fact, this is not the first time Olivia has been accused of relying too much on her musical predecessors. The artwork for her "Sour Prom" concert movie live event bears striking resemblance to the cover of Courtney Love's Cave Band's album Live Through This. But Love, like Costello, expressed support for Olivia.
In fact, copyright claims are commonplace in the music industry, and pop stars such as Lizo, Ed Sheeran and Shakira also face such accusations. But every artist knows that imitating and borrowing from the work of their predecessors is actually the most sincere form of compliment.