I genuinely see water as a symbol in many Olivia Rodrigo videos. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this before me, or if it's intentional or not, but it seems to symbolize an idea of escape, whether that be from a past relationship, or the everyday challenges that come with growing up, or maybe something else entirely. So, next time you watch an Olivia music video, pay attention to any appearance of water. I've connected every music video to a use of water as a symbol of escape, and it's actually more interesting than you're probably thinking...
..ooooooookay fine. I'll admit, at least two of these are stretching this a little bit, and one of them is actually referencing a movie I've never watched so I don't quite understand the video, but most of them are more interesting than you're probably thinking. Also, I know that this is a "common"-ish motif. It's also used in Taylor Swift songs & videos... and in the book Fahrenheit 451... and a lot of other things. And I know it's also mentioned in a few lyrics of Olivia's, but I'm not going to go through all of those right now. This is just her music videos.
(I'll just say quickly, my favorite three uses of the water motif in her lyrics are "I fell for you like waterfalls from the February sky / But now the current's stronger and I couldn't get out if I tried / You convinced me, baby" from Logical, "In the shower, in the car, in the mirror before bed" from The Grudge, possibly referencing the car from the Drivers License video, which I'll get to later, and even though it's a common phrase, the clever choice of "Crying on the floor of my bathroom" to convey a longing for escape in Good 4 U.)
Anyway let's start now!
All I Want: feeling extremely close to an escape
Since the very beginning, Olivia has been making super well-crafted videos, and her debut music video already has a genuinely great use of the water motif. For most of the second half of the video, Olivia is playing a piano directly on top of what appears to be a large body of water. However, she never seems to go inside this water. This means she feels like she's so close to this water (i.e. escaping her sadness through finding someone who makes her happy) but never quite reaches it. Additionally, this might seem like a stretch, but since the piano and the bench are standing directly on top of the water, it looks like the water may not actually be real, which might reference the fact that her expectations of an escape aren't actually realistic.
Drivers License: illusion of escape when an ex is thought about the most
Yes, before you ask, rain counts as water, because... well, rain is literally water, why shouldn't I count it? I'm not sure if this is actually rain or not, but in the closeup scenes of Olivia driving in the car, there are noticeable lines on the window that resemble rain. This means that Olivia is at least faintly seeing the escape while inside the car, i.e. the place where she thinks about her ex the most. However, the escape doesn't actually exist. This is because in literally every scene that takes place outside of the car, there is no rain. The rain from inside the car is simply an illusion caused by thinking intensely about the relationship: that's when she begins to believe that there is an escape.
Deja Vu: being pulled away from escape
While it's not my #1 favorite video of hers, this is my favorite use of the water symbolism. A prominent scene in this music video is a scene of Olivia walking on the beach, slowly moving towards water. But just as she's nearing this escape, something happens every time - the scene rewinds. So, essentially, she's being pulled away from escape every time she comes close. It's pretty self-explanatory: she feels like she's going to come close to escape, but constantly becomes farther away from it. It's super simple, but I really love this one.
Good 4 U: finding escape in the end
This is my favorite overall music video Olivia Rodrigo has. This is the first one where Olivia actually does escape. A huge theme in this video (which may be symbolized by the fire) is revenge. But the iconic room at the end of the video is not only on fire: it's flooded with water. This notably appears during the line "crying on the floor of my bathroom", which makes me think this water is Olivia's tears. So the escape here was found through "crying" about the situation and pouring it out into a song to express her feelings about her ex. In the end, the water beats out the fire, and the escape beats out the revenge, so the final scene is in a very simplistic setting: just Olivia and water. This video is probably her most Easter-egg-packed video, while still having a well-made story, which is why it's my favorite Liv vid so far.
Traitor: lack of a lasting escape
So, this is kinda the video that made me first realize this motif. Water is very prominent in this video. At first, Olivia is surrounded by it but never fully in it, and therefore not escaping the anger & depression brought on by her ex's betrayal of her. When she reaches this water, her first instinct is to jump into it for an immediate escape. But here's the thing about escape: it can't last forever. She can't stay submerged underwater forever, so she has to lift her head out of it sometimes. This is another one that's pretty straightforward, but I love how it's done here.
Brutal: escape piled on by others & the escape itself beginning to escape
This is a weird one, but trust me, it makes sense if you really think about it. Normally, I wouldn't think of crying as a part of this escape motif, but this video has very bold, exaggerated crying filters that somehow manage to highlight the fact that tears are, indeed, water. This could very well be unintentional, but I couldn't help but notice the fact that the tear filters in this video appear almost as if they were water dripping down her face after it was poured on by someone else, which makes me think that here it's symbolizing someone expecting (almost "forcing") her to escape from the challenges she describes in this song, which ultimately doesn't work because it'll spill right down her face. Also, there's a scene in this video with popping bubbles, which could mean the escape itself is escaping from her, or "popping".
Vampire: holding on to false escape
This is another one of my favorite uses of the water symbolism. In the first half of this video, we just see Olivia near water, which is something that appears in a lot of these videos: being close to escape but not quite reaching it. But there's a twist: after the first chorus, it is clearly revealed that this is all staged. The water is not real. In the song, she mentions the escape of reminiscing about the past relationship ("I see the parties and the diamonds sometimes when I close my eyes") but this is when she realizes that this won't work in the long term as an escape ("Six months of torture you sold as some forbidden paradise"). I love how this scenery change so subtly captures these two simple yet powerful lines. As the video progresses, she gets farther and farther away from this false escape, and eventually even starts flying. But the thing is, she doesn't want to. She wants to go back on the stage, because she'll even settle for a false escape in this situation. She just doesn't want to be completely removed from escape.
Bad Idea Right: escape becoming more powerful and tempting
Of course, every artist has to have... the rain video. That one music video where all you ever see is rain everywhere. But just like with Taylor Swift's Delicate video, Livrod uses this rain as a symbol for finally reaching escape. As the video continues, the rain continues, and gets more and more powerful... and more tempting to meet with her ex as an escape from the pain of their breakup, even though she knows deep inside that it's a bad idea. The rain is just screaming her name this whole time. Not much to say for this one, it's another straightforward use of the motif.
Get Him Back: being surrounded by vague signs of escape
Uh... so, these last three are definitely the stretchiest. This particular video actually doesn't have any water in it, but I noticed that an insane amount of this video is a water-like teal-ish color, from the walls to the furniture to quite a few of the cars. And the breaking windows kinda vaguely resemble water here. I think the point here is that she's not truly finding escape, but she's seeing so many signs that remind her of the fact that there's an escape somewhere out there, which exactly reflects on the theme of this song being about conflicting feelings regarding what to do to her ex: she could either get him back, or she could G E T H I M B A C K . (Literally just came up with that right as I'm typing this, I don't know why.)
Obsessed: there's no escape
Because there's no water. Except for that one random person crying, but that doesn't count here. And the blue carpeting on the stairs, but it's such a rich, vivid blue that no water could ever be. There's not even really a slight sign of true escape: just pure obsession. Ok, moving on.
Can't Catch Me Now: escape being very distant... maybe?
Yeah I don't know for this one. I still haven't watched the movie that this song was featured in, so I don't know all the lore behind this song or this video. From what I've seen, it seems like there is an escape but it's just very distant, as we see a body of water way off into the background, which would fit the theme of this song about feeling like you could escape someone but not. But there's this one scene of someone who appears to be putting a dead human body into this water, and I'm not quite sure what that's all about. I might eventually update this if I watch the movie and figure out what all this means, but for now I'll just stick with this.
That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!
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