Just Jaded Weekly
July 2nd, 2021
Written By: Joanna Serrano
New Music Monday: Fletcher
With one last Monday in June, we’re extremely excited to feature the force that is FLETCHER as our last LGBTQIA+ focused New Music Monday! To be clear, in no way will the LGBTQIA+ features come to an end. Here at Jaded Productions, we celebrate Pride month every month! All artists deserve recognition for their talent and hardwork, and we are extremely grateful to have been able to share some out and proud artists with you all!
Cari Elise Fletcher, known to the world as FLETCHER, is a 27 year old American singer songwriter from New Jersey. The artist rose to fame after the massive success of her 2019 single “Undrunk'', but has been creating and releasing original music since 2016. FLETCHER has become a prevalent figure within the LGBTQIA+ community. She stated in an interview with Billboard, “... sexuality and gender is not black and white. It's a spectrum that we all fall somewhere in the world on. That's how I feel comfortable expressing myself -- loving who I feel like loving and who I'm attracted to.”
She recently released her new single “Healing”, her first release since her 2020 collaboration track, “Bitter”, with Kito. “Healing” shares a beautiful message to anyone who might be facing a moment of hardship within their lives. She sings, “The smoke ain’t gone, but it’s clearing. I ain’t there yet”. This inspiring song discusses the importance of everything in life constantly being a work in progress; the journey to recovery might take some time, but it will be worth it in the end.
Artist Rec Friday: Ella Jane
Love indie-pop artists like Clairo, Ashe, and BENEE? Well get ready to fall absolutely in love with this week’s Artist Rec, Ella Jane!
Ella Roth, known professionally as Ella Jane, is a 19 year old singer songwriter from New York. She was bound to follow the path of music after being named after the one and only Ella Fitzgerald, one of the biggest jazz singers of all time. Jane is currently balancing the skyrocketing of her career whilst being a full-time college student, only having recently made her musical debut in 2020, with her debut single “The City”.
After releasing her second single, “nothing else i could do”, and posting it to her TikTok @ellajanemusic , the song quickly became her most popular track to date! With over 7 million streams on Spotify, the soft-pop anthem quickly grew her fan base. Jane’s TikTok account now holds over 150 thousand followers.
Jane actually began writing her latest single, “bored&blind”, released in March of 2021, at the young age of 16. The track follows the hopeless feeling of a crush who does not notice or feel the same way towards you. With the inclusion of up-beat electronic beats mixed with the layering of her delicate vocal harmonies, the interesting choices in musicality are what makes this song stand out for Jane.
Although she only has 4 songs available to stream, I promise you will fall in love with Ella Jane! This indie-pop princess creates the perfect mix of current and vintage tunes that I am obsessed with! Also be sure to pre-save her new single “thief”, which drops on July 8th, 2021.
The Olivia Rodrigo Phenomenon
Written By: Kelly Carcie
Olivia Rodrigo is the new spectacle that has taken the media by storm. The 18-year-old singer-songwriter and actress from California recently put out her debut album SOUR on May 21st, 2021, with the lead single, “drivers license,” breaking records like no one before. The song reached 15.7 million streams on the first day of its release, and 17 million streams the following day, which broke Spotify's record twice for most daily streams ever in one day. Also, the song was the first in Spotify history to hit at least 80 million streams within the first week.
On May 12th, Rodrigo took to stage for the first time to perform her debut track at the BRITs in front of the biggest names in music. Days later, on May 15th, she performed as a musical guest at Saturday Night Live. So many artists would need years to achieve these milestones, but Rodrigo reached both in a week, 5 months into the height of her music career.
It seems near impossible for a fresh artist like Rodrigo to reach such immediate successes. So, what has made her so fascinating? What jolted her to this status? What is different? Well, it is not as simple as one would think.
Rodrigo had been developing her artistic skills for the majority of her life. She began acting and singing lessons at the early age of six and performed in school theatre productions. The "good 4 u" singer made her acting debut starring as Grace Thomas in the 2015 film American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. A year later, she took on one of the lead roles in Disney Channel's Bizaardvark, playing Paige Olvera.
It was not until November 2019 when the Disney+ television show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series became the talk of the media for weeks as Olivia took on the female lead, Nini Salazar-Roberts. Her song “All I Want,” from the series, had also temporarily taken over the charts. Her success led her to sign with Interscope Records and Geffen Records the following year.
After the craze of the first season of the Disney+ series had subsided, Rodrigo's dominance in the media had faded along with it. Although, her rumoured relationships had become intriguing to the general public, especially with co-star and love interest on the show, Joshua Bassett. Bassett was also rumoured to be going out with Disney star Sabrina Carpenter a little while after the rumours between Rodrigo and Bassett. Carpenter was rumoured to have filmed Bassett’s music video for his song "Anyone Else," released in July 2020. In addition, many photos of the two began to emerge sporadically afterwards. That is when a love triangle became the narrative to the general public, despite none of these rumours ever being confirmed by either of the three.
So why is this all relevant? On January 8th, 2021, Olivia released her debut single, “drivers license,” which alluded to the alleged love triangle. Lyrics like “you’re probably with that blonde girl,” could suggest that the song pertained to Bassett pursuing Carpenter shortly after he and Rodrigo were together. Carpenter soon after released her song "Skin" in response to the backlash she had been getting, which only furthered the theories. The rate at which this drama had propagated seemed way out of proportion. But, the fascination with the love life of this seventeen-year-old girl was different.
First, HSMTMTS was a highly-anticipated show that, one could argue, was aiming to profit off of the nostalgia of High School Musical fans. Nostalgia was big around the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 due to Disney, among other companies, remaking older series and films; the myriad of cast reunions in the following months; and for this series, the general reminiscing of being a theatre kid in high school. Considering that this series was targeted to both young teens and young adults that grew up on the movie franchise, it came as no surprise that one of the demographics to amplify the show was a group of young adults and older teens. That being said, Olivia had already garnered a community of fans that enjoyed her performance on the show's first season along with her musical abilities with her song, "All I Want".
When "drivers license" dropped, the general public saw a fragile seventeen-year-old girl pouring her heart out in an emotional ballad and fans of all ages had the urge to protect her at all costs. They would ask, "what could have possibly destroyed this girl," or "who hurt you?" When lyrics from the song alluded to the love triangle between her, Bassett and Carpenter, the general public declared war on the boy for the sake of Rodrigo's broken heart. Fans of the Disney+ show had already been amped for her music career, and when the song, and the drama, took to TikTok, it was a matter of hours before Olivia took over the internet. Her song had been one of the trending sounds on TikTok for weeks on end which drove her to become a universally appreciated artist.
Relatability is another factor that Rodrigo uses to her advantage. As of late, not many artists write about the familiar, adolescent feelings like one's first heartbreak. Instead, we see far more young artists trying to grow up, display maturity and discuss more adult topics in their work to fit in, despite their age. Even performers like JoJo Siwa have children as their target audience. Yet, not many artists shared the voice of a seventeen-year-old girl talking about simplistic issues teenagers like her face, such as jealousy and self-pity, like in her songs "jealousy, jealousy." and "happier". The singer even uses genres that are reminiscent of "teenage music," with songs like "deja vu," displaying some bubblegum pop, and "brutal," bringing back that teenage angst. Rodrigo makes it clear that she is like other girls. She is an honest, authentic songwriter depicting feelings that only a seventeen-year-old could write about. So, when Rodrigo stepped up, it felt as though she was filling that long-lasting void, that lack of teenage representation.
Not only was she relatable to teens, but older fans, those twenty-somethings that were confusingly drawn to the singer, felt a sense of reminiscence when listening to her music. They take in Rodrigo's music through an outside, wise older-sister-like, lens. They take in the emotions expressed in Rodrigo's music because they get it, they have been through the same experiences. These older fans will latch onto their youth through her music as if looking back through their high school yearbooks or a time capsule.
One could argue that the teenage experience was not displayed the same way since Taylor Swift's early work. Older Swifties have taken it upon themselves to adopt the girl after the "drivers license" release considering the musical parallels to Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer". If that was not enough, Taylor herself congratulated Olivia on her debut single, giving her stamp of approval, and even calling Olivia and singer Conan Gray her "children". At Taylor's status, getting that recognition would only set the teen up for future success. Olivia is a self-proclaimed Swiftie, and she makes it apparent through her songwriting, especially considering her song "1 step forward, 3 steps back" samples Taylor's "New Years Day". With the support of Taylor and her army of Swifties, it is no surprise that Olivia garnered an enormous fanbase instantaneously.
Sure, she had all of these factors on her side, but we cannot forget her amazing marketing. Even her marketing shows that she is playing off of that teenage experience. Her merch is covered in butterflies; she sells composition notebooks, bomber jackets; her logo resembles a vintage sticker; and more. She uses youthful imagery in her campaigns: she uses the concept of just getting your driver's license, high school lockers, and cheerleader uniforms. On June 29th, 2021, Olivia even hosted a prom where she performed and live-streamed on YouTube, with her promotion playing off of Carrie and the sad prom queen trope. In addition, nearing the release of SOUR, Rodrigo had a phone number set up, where her voice was the answering machine, and she would play the first few seconds of one of her unreleased songs. She also partnered with Sour Patch Kids to make boxes of exclusively purple Sour Patch Kids that she would give out to fans, as her album was titled SOUR and the cover was purple. Furthermore, Olivia channelled her inner-Swiftie and used Easter eggs and puzzles for fans to decipher to create anticipation for her releases. It is without a doubt that her marketing team delivered colourful, creative and memorable campaigns and continues to do so.
Olivia Rodrigo is a colourful spectacle that is taking the media by storm. It is important to note that Rodrigo is not an overnight sensation, rather, she had worked for years to achieve the status she has now. Her relatability and her shared interest in Taylor Swift definitely aid her in her success, but her fan engagement and marketing should not go unnoticed. Could luck and timing also play a part in her success? Absolutely. It is safe to say that those two are crucial to almost any successful artist. Nonetheless, Olivia Rodrigo's stardom has just begun and it seems as though she has so much potential, especially since she was able to reach all of her achievements by the age of eighteen. I cannot wait for future music and future campaigns, and I hope you are just as excited as I am.
