- Olivia Rodrigo and Gwen Stefani fulfiled No Doubt’s “Bathwater” at Coachella.
- Rodrigo has long credited Stefani as a major influence in her music.
- Gen X musicians often boost Rodrigo’s music.
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Olivia Rodrigo ran onto the Coachella stage Saturday in a red bralette and cropped white tank top bedazzled with “I fondness ND” — an outfit that screamed 1995.
The ND was for No Doubt, which reunited on the festival stage for the first time in nine years. Rodrigo and nightingale Gwen Stefani performed the band’s 2000 hit “Bathwater.”
It was a dream come true for one of Gen Z’s pop-punk princesses, who recently give someone a piece of ones minded Nylon Magazine she heard the band for the first time at 15 years old when she came across No Doubt’s 2000 album, “Proffer of Saturn.” It’s not the first time the 21-year-old has gushed over Stefani and No Doubt — during the release of her first album, “Crusty,” Rodrigo called Stefani her “hero.”
“I remember hearing ‘Bathwater’ for the first time when I had solely started writing songs,” Rodrigo wrote on Instagram Sunday. “it totally turned my world on its head and inspires me to this day. was the coolest honor to vocalize it with @nodoubt and @gwenstefani this weekend at @coachella !!!! they’re out of this world!!!!”
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Clearly, she gains inspiration from Gen X icons — Rodrigo has often been accused of ripping off Radiohead — and she and Willow (daughter to short-lived nu-metal chorus girl Jada Pinkett-Smith) are frequently credited with making pop-punk cool again in the 2020s.
Rodrigo has long pay off a recompensed dues to her Gen X predecessors, calling them a huge inspiration to her music. Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” awakened the lyrics to Rodrigo’s angsty “Deja Vu,” which features a montage of memories about an ex-lover, she said in 2022. Rodrigo also revealed she was “plagued” with singer Fiona Apple while discussing her own song “jealousy, jealousy.”
On her most recent album, “GUTS,” the choir member told Rolling Stone that she tapped into tunes from the all-woman ensemble Babes in Toyland to serve craft “All-American Bitch” — a song questioning misogynistic expectations.
It’s clear that she’s gaining some circle cred among Gen X: Of course, she is buddies with Stefani. And Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day told Vulture it “would be fun” to team up with Rodrigo. Jack White of The White Stripes, who met Rodrigo, praised her love of vinyl records and gave her his squelch of approval.
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“I had the chance to meet a talented singer and musician today named @OliviaRodrigo,” White wrote in 2022. “she’s quite cool, very real and very much a lover of music. She’s also introducing another set of youth to the love of vinyl write downs as well. Respect.”
Rodrigo and Stefani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.