IIn just two weeks, three Disney stars have engulfed young and old in their bizarre love triangle.
On January 7, Olivia Rodrigo, known for her acting and singing at Disney’s Bizaardvark and Disney + ‘s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, released ‘Driver’s License’, a love song that not only shot straight to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 but also twice broke Spotify’s record for the most daily streams of a non-holiday song. The song quickly became an overnight phenomenon, with TikTok users creating millions of videos to recreate the music video or explain the drama behind it.
The song’s ripped backstory only added to the audience’s obsession. Rodrigo has been a Taylor Swift fan since she was one child, and Swift’s songwriting style has clearly inspired Rodrigo, who has gathered specific details from her life to tell the universal story of lost love. “I got my driver’s license last week just like we used to about it / because you were so excited I finally drove home,” she sings, later writhing about seeing the man everywhere, especially in all the white cars. Fans quickly picked up on this, pointing out that Rodrigo said in an interview that her rumors were the former flame (en High School Musical co-star) Joshua Bassett taught her to drive his white car.
But perhaps the most telling lyrics come when Rodrigo sings “I bet you’re with that blonde girl who always made me doubt / She’s so much older than me, she’s all I’m insecure about” because it turns out, Bassett used to be recently seen with a blonde girl who is “that much older” – four years old, which is practically a decade for a 17-year-old like Rodrigo.
Enter Sabrina Carpenter, recording artist and star of Girl meets world and that of Netflix Working on it. She’s the rumored ‘blonde girl’ because she and Bassett were seen together at Black Lives Matter summer protests and dining out in California – a year after Bassett reportedly wrote a love song about Rodrigo called ‘Anyone Else’ in his Salt Lake City apartment during filming HSMTMTS, to which Rodrigo nods, “I don’t think you meant what you wrote about me in that song” in “driver’s license.” Rodrigo and Bassett seemed to be on good terms until the end of April, then Rodrigo liked Bassett’s tweet urging his followers to “remind someone that you love him right now.” But in August, Rodrigo posted a message on TikTok about ‘failed relationships’.
In an effort to tell her side of the story, the 21-year-old carpenter released “Skin” last week, which lacks any kind of self-awareness, especially considering that she is the oldest in this situation. On ‘Skin’, she sings, ‘Maybe then we can pretend there’s no gravity in the words we write / maybe you didn’t mean it, maybe’ blond ‘was the only rhyme’, and later ‘you can try to creep under my, under my, under my skin / While he’s on mine. Bassett then praised the song on his Instagram, writing, “It’s been stuck in my head since I heard it !!!”
Oh, and Bassett has a song too. It’s called ‘Lie Lie Lie’, and although he wrote on his Instagram story that it’s about a ‘friend’, fans think it’s about Rodrigo. In it he sings, “So you tell them it’s all my fault / You’re the victim this time”, and in the accompanying video clip, Bassett hangs out of a car window, which is a reflection of what Rodrigo is doing in her video clip.
Both Rodrigo and Carpenter have cited Lorde and Swift as inspiration for songwriting – “Taylor Swift is my songwriting idol and I wouldn’t be half the woman and songwriter I am today without her,” said Rodrigo to NME. Carpenter said in an interview: “I think Lorde is an incredible lyricist and someone I always look up to and musically she does her own thing in her own job.” As for Bassett, he says John Mayer is his inspiration.
Somehow, by the grace of God or good publicists or possibly both, all three artists have released their own song about the love triangle in two weeks. Not only that, but Rodrigo and Bassett seemingly put their hatred aside while promoting HSMTM: The Holiday Special in December, even praising each other’s prolific songwriting skills.
“Somehow, by the grace of God or good publicists or possibly both, all three artists have released their own song about the love triangle in two weeks.“
Rodrigo, Bassett and Carpenter are far from the first young lovebirds to set their lifelike drama to music. In 2008, an 18-year-old Common Swift moved on The Ellen Show to tell the host and her millions of viewers that boy bander Joe Jonas broke up on a 25 second phone call and wrote a song about it – “ Forever and Always, ” which is on her Grammy-winning album Undaunted. There were other songs too, such as “Better Than Revenge” where Swift sang about another girl who “stole” her boyfriend. “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress / She’s better known for the things she does on the mattress,” Swift sang. The Jonas Brothers returned fire with “Much Better,” nodding to Swift and all the “tears on her guitar” and how “much better” the new girl was. The rumored “much better” girl was actress Camilla Belle, who doesn’t write songs, so maybe we’ll never know her side of the story. (However, when Swift receives bad press, Belle usually tweets.)
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake also played this game with ‘Cry Me A River’ and ‘Everytime’. But the alleged other man in this situation, Wade Robson, was just a dancer, so he never got the chance to sing the blues or cast a Spears lookalike in a music video. Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Aaron Carter made comments about each other in the press and all SNL about their love triangle, but as far as the songs are concerned, there was really only Duff’s “Haters” where she sang, “You say your boyfriend is sweet and nice / But you’ve got your eyes on mine.”
Rodrigo may not have gotten the man in the end, but she did get Swift’s approval. “I say that’s my baby and I’m really proud,” Swift noticed on Rodrigo’s Instagram photo.