Everyone has seen the TikTok trend that goes: ““The Archer” is for the anxious people,” ““The Grudge” is for the people that can’t let go.” Well “Making the Bed” is for the people who spent their whole childhood wanting to grow up. Hi I’m Izzie and I’m going to tell you about one of my favorite songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s new album, GUTS!
“Making the bed” is track six on the album. It’s right after “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” and right before “Logical.” The entire first verse of the song is Rodrigo saying almost regrets. “Want it, so I got it, did it, so it’s done. Another thing I ruined I used to do for fun.” After looping this song for weeks on end, I can say that this song is a lot of Rodigo spilling regret and the things she didn’t do and things she wished she did differently.
The chorus has a few lines that I would like to speak about. First,“push away all the people who know me the best.” I’ve interpreted this line as when Rodrigo goes through something she pushes everyone away. Or when she doesn’t want people to know she pushes them away hence “people who know me the best.”
I did say that the chorus has two lines I like, so the second is, “I’m so tired of being the girl who I am.” This kind of goes back to the point of regret. I can relate to this line, just feeling predictable but also so out of place. Not knowing who you are or why you are this way. It’s a very relatable line. Rodrigo usually writes very relatable things because she is so young she understands what it feels like to be a teenager today.
In the second verse she sings “can’t stop at the red light, can’t swerve off the road. I read somewhere it’s ‘cause my life feels so out of control.” This brings me back to my point of Rodrigo knowing how teens feel today and being able to write lyrics that teens will relate to, even if she doesn’t mean to write it that way. Teenagers constantly feel like they have no control in their lives because it’s that middle stage between child and adult that’s so hard to navigate. People don’t take teens seriously so therefore they feel like they have to do something drastic in order to get people to listen. In this case Rodrigo used swerving off the road as an example.
The most well known line in the song is “got the things I wanted, it’s just not what I imagined.” As I said previously, “making the bed” is for people who wanted to grow up too quickly. However, this can be interpreted in a few different ways. It’s a matter of getting the things you’ve hoped for for so long and it’s just different. In my case I spent so much of my childhood wanting to be the seventeen years olds in the coming-of age movies. Now I am seventeen and it’s nothing like those movies. It’s a classic case of “this was nothing like High School Musical.” Which is ironic because Olivia Rodrigo was in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Another line that can show wanting something and getting it but the outcome is different is the line “sometimes I feel like I don’t wanna be where I am. Countin’ all of the beautiful things I regret.” This line repeats in the chorus but this chunk is specifically in the outro of the song. I’m viewing this line as being grateful for everything you’ve been given but also regretting everything you’ve done.
When Olivia Rodrigo writes a song she doesn’t write to be seen she writes to be heard. Whether it’s a song about relationships or someone’s mental state she always manages to touch the lives of millions. I’m lucky enough to have known Rodrigo since her American Girl Doll days and seeing her grow into the person she is now, touring and writing the way she is now, is insane.
