brutal

“	I told everyone that I wanted to make “brutal” the first track on the record, and they were like, “Girl, are you sure?” Just ‘cause it’s kind of a little polarizing, I think, but I absolutely love it. It’s a really angsty song I suppose, and I sort of just talk about everything that I’m upset about in the song, to put it very plainly and broadly.	”
– Rodrigo on Brutal

brutal
General information
Release date	May 21, 2021 September 3, 2021 (single)
Genre	Pop-punk • emo • alternative rock • grunge • indie rock
Length	2:23
Album	SOUR
Label	Geffen
Songwriter(s)	Olivia Rodrigo, Daniel Nigro
Producer(s)	Daniel Nigro
Singles chronology
Previous	"traitor"
Current	"brutal"
Next	"vampire"
SOUR chronology
"brutal"
"traitor"
ㅤ⠀ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎‏‏‎Music video
ㅤ⠀ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎‏‏‎Lyric video

"Brutal" (stylized in all lowercase) is the first track from Olivia Rodrigo's debut studio album, SOUR. It was released on May 21, 2021 through Geffen Records.

Background

In the song, Rodrigo sings about the misleading promise of youth, including all the betrayals, disappointments and challenges in our "golden years".

Composition

"Brutal" is one of eleven songs from Olivia Rodrigo's debut album Sour. The song resents the idea that one's teenage years are the best years and shares a sentiment of teenage frustration. It was written on a whim by Rodrigo and the song's producer Dan Nigro. It has been described as a pop-punk, emo, alt-rock, grunge, indie-rock, and rock song with elements of folk-punk, punk rock, riot grrrl, and power pop. "Brutal" features a guitar riff similar to that of Elvis Costello's 1978 song "Pump It Up", leading to accusations of plagiarism. Costello—who cited Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as inspiration for "Pump It Up"—replied to a tweet about the topic, "This is fine by me ... It's how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand-new toy. That's what I did."

Music video

The video begins with a vintage, 2000s-style background and a 1980s arcade-style rendition of Brutal's soundtrack, with a man stating "Choose your player" and displaying Rodrigo's various looks, before cutting to Rodrigo and ballet dancers, all dressed in blue and wearing a light blue wig. On releve, she breaks her foot. Throughout the video, we can observe the apple pro-create masks. The video then cuts to a ballet class scenario in which Rodrigo is laying on the floor with her fractured foot clutched and surrounded by dancers. A news station is shown on a television in the ballet room, and two television hosts are conversing. Alongside actor Lukas Gage, Rodrigo is dressed in a blonde wig and a pink blazer. Both of them are sporting pro-create masks. Rodrigo is being pushed around by the stylists and photographers for a modelling shoot, wearing a stunning orange wig and silver set. She is apparently modelling a drink called 'Golden years'.

It cuts back to the newsroom, where Rodrigo is bleeding and the hosts of the show are laughing and pointing blankly at her on the television. Rodrigo is dressed in a fairly generic throwback punk attire with a red beret and plaid skirt in the following scene, which takes place in a 2000s classroom. A teacher is pointing at a poster, while the other students are at their desks. The teacher may be seen mouthing the lines "Enjoy your youth" as they appear in the song. Rodrigo is employing a filter that shows tears constantly pouring from her eyes. The remainder of the classroom, as well as the students, is panned over.

Rodrigo sits in a purple bedroom with actor Nico Hiraga, gazing at his phone in the following scene. Rodrigo glances down at his phone, where she is depicted as a sulky girl with a blonde wig in her live stream, with the username 'spicypiscesync.' She's on a beach, according to the comments on the live broadcast, which included hints from her album SOUR, such as "can you even parallel park", as well as lines from other songs like "hope ur ok" and "good 4 u." "God it's Brutal out here," Rodrigo's current self remarks, which is the song's key line. Rodrigo is shown in an empty, partially lit mall, walking down the stairs. Rodrigo is then shown being pulled away from her two best friends, actresses Salem Mitchell and Alien tits um who are very likely defending her, in a brightly illuminated mall.

Then she and her friend are stuck in a traffic jam in an open-top car with a slew of people honking and shouting at them. Rodrigo looks back to face the camera and mouths, "What the fuck?" Back in all the scenes, Rodrigo is seen singing the lyrics, including the newsroom, the modelling session, and the livestream. In her beautiful green vehicle, artist Lei is seen mouthing the classic remark, 'God it's brutal out here.' Rodrigo climbs onto the top of one of the vehicles and begins singing the song's slow finale, as the ballet dancers return to dance on the hoods of the other cars. All of them are yelled at and honked at. Petra Collins directed this music video. Choose your character represents being forced to conform to society's standards, and ballet is something Rodrigo felt compelled to do. The livestream is Rodrigo explaining how she feels, the overuse of filters is how she feels she needs to look when she finally does what she wants to do, and steps into her own shoes is when she is in the car, but the filters can come back slightly, and the ballerinas return meaning she's still joyful, and the honking means people are angry that she's not living up to their expectations.

Chart performance

"Brutal" debuted and peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of June 5, 2021. It also debuted at #1 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, making it her first #1 in that category.

Official Versions

	Version	Released on	Release date	Producer(s)	Creation date	Length
	Final	SOUR	August 23, 2021	Dan Nigro	2021	2:23
Demos
	Demo	Unreleased	Unleaked	Nigro	2020	Unknown

Lyrics

[Intro]
I want it to be, like, messy

[Verse 1]
I'm so insecure, I think
That I'll die before I drink
And I'm so caught up in the news
Of who likes me and who hates you
And I'm so tired that I might
Quit my job, start a new life
And they'd all be so disappointed
'Cause who am I, if not exploited?

[Verse 2]
And I'm so sick of 17
Where's my fucking teenage dream?
If someone tells me one more time
"Enjoy your youth," I'm gonna cry
And I don't stick up for myself
I'm anxious and nothing can help
And I wish I'd done this before
And I wish people liked me more

[Chorus]
All I did was try my best
This the kind of thanks I get?
Unrelentlessly upset (ah, ah, ah)
They say these are the golden years
But I wish I could disappear
Ego crush is so severe
God, it's brutal out here
(Yeah!)

[Verse 3]
I feel like no one wants me
And I hate the way I'm perceived
I only have two real friends
And lately I'm a nervous wreck
'Cause I love people I don't like
And I hate every song I write
And I'm not cool and I'm not smart
And I can't even parallel park

[Chorus]
All I did was try my best
This the kind of thanks I get?
Unrelentlessly upset (ah, ah, ah)
They say these are the golden years
But I wish I could disappear
Ego crush is so severe
God, it's brutal out here
(Yeah! Just having a really good time)

[Outro]
Got a broken ego, broken heart
(It's brutal out here, it's brutal out here)
And God, I don't even know where to start

Cross-references

• The line, "And I can't even parallel park" could be a reference to "Drivers License".
• The line, "Where's my fucking teenage dream?" could be a reference to "teenage dream", since the song was originally intended for SOUR and could have been written at the time.

Videos

Olivia rodrigo – brutal (live from SOUR prom)

Olivia Rodrigo - brutal (Official Video)