“jealousy, jealousy” is the ninth track on Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 album ‘Sour.’ In the song, Olivia sings about how insecure feels about herself comparing her to the benchmarks of perfectness. Her fallout with her ex-boyfriend probably didn’t help her either.
Olivia Rodrigo announced her debut studio album ‘Sour‘ following the massive success she gained with her debut single “driver’s license.” She followed up this success with another single “deja vu.” Announcing the new album, she commented “alsoooooo i f*cked around and made an album. i’m so proud of it.”
In an interview with Nylon magazine, Olivia spoke about the real-life inspirations behind this song; “I was super obsessed with social media. I would look for things that would hurt my feelings all the time and compare myself to everyone. I felt like my life was only what I showed to others. I didn’t feel like my life was any deeper than my Instagram feed. That’s a really troubling mindset to be in as a teenager. And so I guess I wanted to write a song about that. It isn’t sad or “Oh, I don’t feel like I’m enough,” it’s “Oh, God, I’m so jealous.” It’s tongue-in-cheek, and a little funny to me. But the sonics on the song are the reason why we put it on the record. There’s this piano in the bridge that’s so convoluted and almost atonal. Sometimes it just doesn’t go with the music and it’s so chaotic.”
Listen to “jealousy, jealousy” by Olivia Rodrigo
“jealousy, jealousy” Lyrics Menaing and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse, we hear Olivia being quite hard on herself seeing all the beautiful girls of her age around her. Girls with perfect white teeth and perfect bodies. Olivia knows he has none.
However, this lyric alone deserves an award;
I know their beauty’s not my lack
The line suggests that just because someone else looks good, does not mean that yourself does not. Beauty is subjective, much like everything else in life. If you fail to see your own beauty, how would you expect someone else to?!
Chorus
Olivia Rodrigo is clearly talking about the influence of social media on today’s younger generation. Everyone’s highlight reel is on display on social media, especially platforms such as Instagram. Nobody posts pictures of their bad days. So naturally, it looks as if they have it all–the looks, the money, the glitz, and the glamour. Also naturally, you tend to compare their highlight reel to your day-to-day life. It’s never a good comparison. You will only put yourself down.
Verse 2
In the second verse, Olivia continues to compare and contrast what ‘they’ have versus what she doesn’t have. Olivia could be a multi-millionaire right now, but still, she could find a thousand things that someone else has that she doesn’t. For example, her ex-boyfriend!
Bridge
Social media influencers have got a hold on most of the kids today. They have become idols and role models. Idolizing to be independent and successful as these influencers is not a bad thing. However, comparing them to your life right now and putting yourself down is very bad. Jealousy is a very bad habit to develop. There is just no coming out of that well once you fall into it.
Olivia Rodrigo has some eye-opening comments in this song that can help a lot of us. Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.