Olivia Rodrigo grew up thinking only white girls could be pop stars

[Jordan Miller]

Olivia Rodrigo recently received a wave of racist hate for her Asian background. She feels honored for being in her position, however Olivia's latest quote has caught a lot of peoples' attention for lack of awareness. 

“I sometimes get DMs from little girls being like, ‘I’ve never seen someone who looked like me in your position.’ And I’m literally going to cry, like, just thinking about it,” Rodrigo tells V Magazine.

“I feel like I grew up never seeing that. Also, it was always like, ‘Pop star,’ that’s a white girl.”

She adds: “I am so inspired by so many different genres of music. I love country music so much, and I love rock music so much. And obviously pop music is my favorite, and another thing that I think is really special is that, in 2021, I feel like artists aren’t really boxed into a genre anymore. I look at someone like Billie Eilish, who I’m so obsessed with, and her music is like pop, but it’s kind of rock, too.”

 

 

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[thebritmaster]

Maybe she was sheltered 

[Passionfruit]

Olivo stfu

[kfitz421]

Yeah def playing the victim card. Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Usher, MJ, Timbaland, Kelis, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna were so underground at the time 👀

[sparrowhawk]

[Mattyj7883]

Olivia, Samantha Mumba is on line 1 for you.

[MikeHunt]

Why can R&B and hip hop artists be considered pop acts and even nominated in pop categories but someone like Ariana Grande who's songs The Way, 7 Rings, Everyday ect (who's production is more hip hop/r&b ish) would never get nominated in those categories or ever be considered an R&B act? I know "pop" music is "popular" music but by now isn't it common that when someone refers to pop music they mean musical sounds of a Britney, Madonna, Katy etc? And if we are going to say pop music is any music thats popular for the time, what genre is Britney, Madonna, Katy etc?

Just looking at the artists that are on those tweets and I consider them all soul, r&b or hip hop artists. Beyonce, Rihanna and Mariah Carey dip in and out of pop but mainly stick to R&B/ hip hop.

[SlaymeMore]

4 minutes ago, Mattyj7883 said:

Olivia, Samantha Mumba is on line 1 for you.

Gotta tell you was my jam !!!!

[Mattyj7883]

1 minute ago, SlaymeMore said:

Gotta tell you was my jam !!!!

I liked Gotta Tell You, but this was my jam…

 

[Stefani]

How do you grow up in the 2000s and not know at least 5 non-White popstars? Did she live under a rock?

[Mattyj7883]

16 minutes ago, Stefani said:

How do you grow up in the 2000s and not know at least 5 non-White popstars? Did she live under a rock?

[Spicechinodiva]

55 minutes ago, kfitz421 said:

Yeah def playing the victim card. Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Usher, MJ, Timbaland, Kelis, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna were so underground at the time 👀

All of them except Michael Jackson was sold in the R&B/Hip hop genre in cd stores

She's not lying. The pop/Rock section was very little of people of color with the exception of Michael Jackson and Prince.

 

Even my mom said Paula Abdul isn't urban going off of her Lebanese ethnic background.  When she was lookung for her at Hastings..

 

She was shocked they sold Paula Abdul in pop cos of her skin color. 

[Mxra]

 

[PokemonSpears]

8 minutes ago, Spicechinodiva said:

All of them except Michael Jackson was sold in the R&B/Hip hop genre in cd stores

She's not lying. The pop/Rock section was very little of people of color with the exception of Michael Jackson and Prince.

 

Even my mom said Paula Abdul isn't urban going off of her Lebanese ethnic background.  When she was lookung for her at Hastings..

 

She was shocked they sold Paula Abdul in pop cos of her skin color. 

didn't Lizzo just call Rihanna "The pop princess"?

[kfitz421]

1 hour ago, Mattyj7883 said:

Olivia, Samantha Mumba is on line 1 for you.

Body to body? Fun to Funky?

[kfitz421]

And in a way what she says diminishes the many amazing POC pop queens that have proceeded her. Nice girl but not the smartest statement 

[kfitz421]

She might as well have said no one has ever sang about Chemtrails over a country club before tbh 

[IAmJustAKnee]

2 hours ago, thebritmaster said:

Maybe she was sheltered 

 

2 hours ago, kfitz421 said:

Yeah def playing the victim card. Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Usher, MJ, Timbaland, Kelis, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna were so underground at the time 👀

 

2 hours ago, Mattyj7883 said:

Olivia, Samantha Mumba is on line 1 for you.

 

1 hour ago, Stefani said:

How do you grow up in the 2000s and not know at least 5 non-White popstars? Did she live under a rock?

 

1 hour ago, Spicechinodiva said:

All of them except Michael Jackson was sold in the R&B/Hip hop genre in cd stores

She's not lying. The pop/Rock section was very little of people of color with the exception of Michael Jackson and Prince.

 

Even my mom said Paula Abdul isn't urban going off of her Lebanese ethnic background.  When she was lookung for her at Hastings..

 

She was shocked they sold Paula Abdul in pop cos of her skin color. 

She could be thinking about the lack of popstars that are like Asian given that she's half-Asian, etc. but yeah I think it's very dismissive of Black artists, she could've said something like how there was a lack of diversity or just not say anything at all, the statement is messy. I do wanna point out that she was born in the early 2000s (she literally turned 18 this year) so basing on the part about "growing up", that might be around from the 2009-2015 time period in music that she's talking about. As someone from the same generation as her, the first year where I began consciously paying attention to American music was like 2013 and from what I remember, if someone was young and only paid attention to mainstream top 40 music on the radio and wasn't aware of music from past eras (none of my peers would know Kelis or Samantha Mumba) or non top 40 music, then yeah I don't remember much diverse being played until like years later, if anything Asians (except Bruno Mars) were pretty non-existent during those times which might be Olivia's perspective. 

[RadicalOptimism]

I’m glad she’s getting called out on her stupidity. How she has stans is STILL a mystery. Aren’t Gen Z supposed to have all the answers and she couldn’t Google her history? 

[MyLittlePopstar]

I think ppl are being harsh on her. I get what she’s saying, obviously there are stars like Rihanna, Beyonce, Janet, Whitney, etc who cross over into pop, but they’re still consisted “RNB” by a lot of ppl. None I can think of off the top of my head have really stuck to just pop. I think when most ppl think “pop star” they think Britney, Gaga, Madonna, Katy Perry, Xtina, etc. I mean I don’t consider Beyonce pop at all anymore and when Destiny’s child started out, they were very RNB. So I get what her point was, even if she didn’t communicate it very well. There have definitely been huge POC musicians with pop songs, but most of them have been considered rnb or hip hop, or Latin or tejano, or some other genre primarily. No one is going to call Madonna a rock artist or Lady Gaga an rnb singer. It is all kinda racist the labels put of artists due to their race, that’s the way it’s been for a long time