Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett: Why Fans Think Their New Music Videos Are Connected
Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett both released music videos for their respective singles “drivers license” (Jan. 7) and “Lie Lie Lie” (Jan. 14) within a week from each other. Fans are already connecting the dots between the two Disney+ High School Musical: The Musical: The Series stars’ music videos, speculating if the two songs were written about each other.
Read on to see what the similarities are between Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett’s music videos.
Why Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett releasing songs and music videos in the same week is interesting
Rodrigo and Bassett are actors and singers that are connected due to them both starring on Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The young stars play love interests on the show, Nini and Ricky, and fans have speculated if the two have been involved romantically in real life, too.
While people have wondered if the songs themselves are connected, neither Rodrigo nor Bassett have confirmed the rumors. Rodrigo spoke with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview about “drivers license” and the song’s origins.
“I wrote the bulk of the song literally crying in my living room, and I think that it definitely has that feel to it,” Rodrigo told Lowe.
“I was driving around my neighborhood, actually listening to really sad songs and crying in the car, and I got home and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll write a song about this, crying in the car,'” Rodrigo said about creating her hit debut. “So, I just sat down at my piano and plucked out some chords that I liked, and it kind of happened that way. But it was really, really natural and organic. Very much me writing in the depth of my emotion.”
What Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’ music video shows
Rodrigo’s music video for “drivers license” shows Rodrigo driving in a white car through a purple-lit night. Scenes flash of Rodrigo walking on a suburb street and her playing a small keyboard on the ground.
Rodrigo also sings in a parking lot full of cars, and she lies on a bed with another person, though their face is hidden. At one point, during the bridge of the song, Rodrigo hangs out of the side of the car while it’s moving. (Don’t try this at home, folks!)
Much of the “drivers license” music video is shown at nighttime, perhaps symbolizing the dark loneliness Rodrigo may have felt when she spoke about crying in a car before writing the song.
How Rodrigo’s video might be connected to Bassett’s
Bassett’s music video for “Lie Lie Lie” dropped exactly one week after “drivers license” and Bassett is shown in daylight for most of the video, until the very end, which shows lights flashing and Bassett hanging out of a car in the same manner as Rodrigo.
Fans picked up that Rodrigo wears a similar jacket to the one that Bassett’s character Ricky wears in HSMTMTS. Furthermore, they noticed that both Rodrigo and Bassett hang off the side of their cars in their music videos, a notable parallel from the artists — intentional or not.
However, both Rodrigo and Bassett have worked together on songwriting before, and the two are currently filming season two of HSMTMTS, so the music video parallels may just be a coincidence and a sign of similar creative visions. One thing is for sure though — we can’t wait to see more from these two artists.
