At Home With Olivia Rodrigo

“I drew a lot of inspiration from this period of my life where I was feeling a lot of heartbreak and a lot of insecurity,” Olivia Rodrigo says about making her upcoming debut album SOUR. “I think there's this period of time 16, 17, 18-year-old kids go through where they just feel so incredibly lost and are just angsty for no reason and sad. This album to me is my interpretation of that period of my life that I was going through.” The rising singer-songwriter wanted to capture a snapshot of her young adulthood in all its messy and chaotic glory on the album, describing it as “reminiscent of albums like [Alanis Morissette’s] Jagged Little Pill.” Rodrigo got some much-needed inspiration from listening to other classic ’90s alt-rock artists (Elastica, The Smashing Pumpkins), as well as some of today’s pop heavy-hitters (Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift)—all of which are featured in this exclusive Apple Music playlist curated by Rodrigo herself. “Artists like Kacey and Taylor are using their imagination and are just absolute creatives,” she says. “I really look up to artists like that who don't buy into that sort of 'starving artists' narrative. You don't have to always be in pain to write beautiful songs.”