Olivia Rodrigo speaks about Sour songwriting credits: "Nothing in music is ever new"

Rodrigo was criticised for adding songwriting credits to hit songs after their release, but in a new interview with Teen Vogue, Rodrigo has spoken about adding the likes of Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, Jack Antonoff, Paramore’s Hayley Williams and ex-guitarist Josh Farro to hit songs from her debut album Sour.

Speaking about dealing with criticism in general, Rodrigo said, "I just feel like sometimes there’s so much noise and criticism and weird things going on in the world. I hope people know that deep down, all that I do is write songs and talk about how I feel, and that’s the most important thing to me. Everything else, I think, is not so important."

Responding to the songwriting credits controversy, Rodrigo continued, "I think it’s disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work. But at the end of the day I’m just really proud and happy to say that my job is being a songwriter … All music is inspired by each other. Obviously, I write all of my lyrics from my heart and my life first. I came up with the lyrics and the melody for "good 4 u" one morning in the shower."

"What’s so beautiful about music is that it can be so inspired by music that’s come out in the past," she added. "Every single artist is inspired by artists who have come before them. It’s sort of a fun, beautiful sharing process. Nothing in music is ever new. There’s four chords in every song. That’s the fun part — trying to make that your own."

It wasn't only song similarities that were pointed out with Rodrigo's Sour. Courtney Love called out Rodrigo back in June for copying Hole’s Live Through This album artwork. Although Love called the move "rude", Rodrigo responded to the comments in a cool manner, by simply saying, "To be honest, I’m just flattered that Courtney Love knows that I exist."