Grunge queen Courtney Love is locked in a feud with teen queen Olivia Rodrigo over artwork inspo.
It all kicked off when the ‘Good 4 You’ bopstress (no, that’s not a real term, I just made it up: it’s a combo of bop and songstress, just roll with it, okay?) announced that she’s doing a concert movie with a prom theme, featuring tracks from SOUR.
The accompanying promo photoshoot shows Olivia attending prom and it looks like she’s had an emotional one as her mascara is running and she appears a tad dishevelled.
Grunge queen Courtney noticed a similarity between the piccy and her band Hole’s iconique cover Live Through This album cover.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQg97qal2-g/
“Spot the difference! #twinning! @oliviarodrigo,” Courtney wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of Olivia’s promo, which the teen shared on her own page a day earlier.
Olivia responded, “Love u and live through this sooooo much.” Courtney then replied, “Olivia – you’re welcome. My favourite florist is in Notting Hill, London! Dm me for deets! I look forward to reading your note [winking face emoji].” Woof, she’s not playing.
The commentary on this has been fairly mixed, with some siding with Court and others being like LOL, you didn’t invent proms, doll.
People were also confused as to whether or not Courtney Love is actually pissed or if she’s just taking the piss, and it seems like it’s the former ‘cos on Facebook (yep, this argument went multi-platform), she wrote: “She didn’t ask… I dig manners.”
Courtney Love is pissed at Olivia Rodrigo for supposedly emulating the Live Through This album artwork without permission. “She didn’t ask… I dig manners.” pic.twitter.com/Yaqd5DQtTU
— Matthew Galea (@mattygalea_) June 25, 2021
Courtney Love also wrote, “I’ve informed her I await her flowers and note. I sure hope it’s long. Does Disney teach kids reading and writing ? God knows. Let’s see . Yes this is rude. Rage inducing ? Honey if I had a dollar for everyone this happens ? I’d be real rich !”
A fan later wrote the following message to Courtney: “This is a silly thing to get mad about. Artists steal all the time… Plus she’s a kid. Why not be proud of the impact you have on her and others, instead of sniping at someone paying homage or borrowing one of your ideas?”
She then replied, “I am both . Your version isn’t mine . Stealing an original idea and not asking permission is rude. There’s no way to be elegant about it . I’m not angry . It happens all the time to me . And he really I’m very gracious or say nothing . But this was bad form . That’s not bullying or bomb throwing . This persons music has nothing to do with my life . Possibly never will . It was rude And I gave every right to stick up for my work . Don’t gatekeep me ! I’m honourable as fuck to my fellow artists , and I expect the same.”
What do I, a big Hole / Courtney Love fan boi, think? Well, look, as they say, there’s no such as an original idea, is there? Everything is inspired by something. Was the Live Through This cover art a complete original back in the ’90s? Nope. Photographer Ellen von Unwerth once told Another magazine that Courtney “had the idea of re-enacting the scene of the movie Carrie, which I loved, too.”
And it turns out Olivia had the same inspo in mind, as the day before she unveiled the promo, she posted a pic from Carrie on her Instagram Story, which leads me to believe that if she had taken inspo from the Hole cover, she woulda posted that inspo pic up as well.
It looks like Olivia and Court were both inspired by the same film and this is much ado about nothing? But hey, what do I know…
Matty Galea is the Senior Entertainment Editor at Pedestrian who also dabbles in woo-woo stuff like astrology and crystals and has been penning horoscopes since the start of his career. He also Tweets about pop culture and astrology and posts spicy content on Instagram.
