How far are you willing to go for someone that entices your romantical interests? Are you the type to drop everything and prioritize learning the texture of their minds or the distant lover that find comfort in the walls of your own bedroom to digitally stalk? Beloved artist, Olivia Rodrigo, encapsulates the torturing, yet thrilling universal teenage girl sensation to have a crush. This special sensation is seen in her song “drop dead,” where she stresses the giddiness of holding onto unknown fate when it comes to pursuing a person of interest. In her music video, she is set in the Palace of Versailles where she digitally stalks her crush, fantasizes provocative situations with them while being unapologetically herself with dances and intrusive questions.
Here is how “drop dead” became the anthem to listen to when navigating through the perplexing mind of a hopelessly devoted teenage girl.
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[Verse 1]
“I know that the bar closes at 11I hope you never finish that beerYou know all the words to ‘Just Like Heaven’And I know why he wrote themNow that you’re standing right here”
Rodrigo alludes to “Just Like Heaven” to foreshadow the glimpse she has with her crush. They are seen together, where everything seems like a utopia and allowing her to attain understanding on why the genre of love is so continually expressed in the art of songwriting. The song starts us at their first encounter, highlighting her diary-like prose that is most admired by her fans. The first verse is also an element of surprise, specifically seen in the music video, where the setting changes from a regular downtown bar to the Palace of Versailles.
[Chorus]
“One night I was bored in bedAnd stalked you on the internetIt’s feminine intuition‘Cause I always had a vision of us standing like thisAll pressed up in the bathroom lineYou’re looking like an angel on the walls of VersaillesThe most alive I’ve ever beenBut kiss me and I might drop dead”
This catchy chorus highlights the rush of conclusions one makes with a new person to fantasize over. Some fans speculate that the song was about her partner, Louis Partridge, with the allusion to the Place of Versailles, lacing the song with deeper meaning. Rodrigo poses herself as a walking contradiction as these feelings add life to her days, yet the more energy that she invests into it, the harder it will feel to let go.
[Verse 2]
“And I feel like I might throw upLeft hook, right punch to the gutYou’re so, so pretty boyI’m paranoid I made you upYeah I’d love it if you walked me homeIf you promised we could go real slow‘Cuz I got chewing gumAnd a bunch of stuff I’d like to knowLike, have you ever been to Japan?Or taken that Eurostar to France?”
Rodrigo sings this verse in a “word vomit” fashion to suggest how love is making her seem delusional by once again, over romanticizing an encounter once again. With her mention of bubblegum, she was able to make an aesthetic for her fans to indulge themselves with, especially touching in with their feminine side. Rodrigo emphasizing curiosity as a love language simultaneously defies modern conditions to dating.
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Ultimately, whether you find comfort in the lover girl aesthetic or not, this track becomes the testament that love can still be messy and unconditional, not just limited to social media views on romance. With this song, Rodrigo was able to enter a new era of music to embrace the whimsicality of the world and expose the melodramatics of love, just as any drug would have its side effects so will a crush. In other words and in the lens of Olivia Rodrigo, the next time you fall into the traps of modern romance, do the exact opposite of those expectations to make the others drop dead in surprise.
