Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine is defending former Disney star and Joe Biden shill turned pop star Olivia Rodrigo, who is being accused of copying other artists while making her chart-topping debut album “Sour.”
In an Instagram Story on Friday, Levine said that writing music is “tricky,” adding that artists sometimes “rip something off inadvertently.”
“It’s a natural thing for it to happen, and sometimes it gets ugly and sometimes it’s warranted that people take legal action,” the Maroon 5 frontman said. “Sometimes it’s not warranted that people take legal action. And I think there’s definitely become more of a gray area that’s reared its ugly head these days.”
Some have said there’s something to Levine’s point about “inadvertently” ripping off other artists, as Rodrigo said in a recent interview that she grew up thinking only white girls could be pop stars — seemingly admitting to her own failure to notice a slew of pop icons, like Whitney Huston, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Beyoncé, among many others.
It was singer Courtney Love, however, who called out Rodrigo in June over the similarities between the 18-year-old’s Sour album and Hole’s 1994 album cover for “Live Through This.”
“Spot the difference! #twinning!” Love wrote on Twitter, reacting to an image of Rodrigo’s Sour album cover.
Additionally, Levine’s defense of Rodrigo came one day after it was discovered that Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro from the rock band Paramore were retroactively added to the writing credits of Rodrigo’s hit single “Good 4 U,” reports Page Six.
The decision to add Williams and Farro to the writing credits reportedly came after a fan-made mashup of Paramore’s “Misery Business” and Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” went viral on social media due to how eerily similar the two songs are.
You can listen to both songs below.
Listen Below — Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U”:
Listen Below — Paramore’s “Misery Business”:
Last month, President Joe Biden trotted out Rodrigo, who visited the White House to promote coronavirus vaccines to young people. The 18-year-old singer walked into the West Wing of the White House, addressed reporters, met with Biden and U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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