Olivia Rodrigo and David Byrne Team Up to Bring Some Light Into the World

With all the craziness that is happening in our world, and it seems to get worse every single day, I have been trying to find stuff, when I go online, that makes me smile. Last night, after reading about the terror happening in LA, I found myself watching concert videos on Instagram. Music makes me happy, especially live music. Throughout my thirty or so minutes of viewing, I happened upon the Governors Ball shows going on right now.

This is a big time festival type thing, with all of the most popular artists in music, past to present. I watched a good chunk of Tyler, the Creator's performance and loved it. And then I happened to stumble upon Olivia Rodrigo. I am a fan of hers. It is a joke in our house that I tell my wife I'm on Team Olivia because she enjoys Sabrina Carpenter more. She likes both artists, she just tends to listen to Carpenter more. I do genuinely prefer Rodrigo. I like her writing more and her music is a bit heavier and more guitar driven, which hits my ears best.

While watching her perform, and she was doing a great show it seemed, I happened to notice her band playing a tune very familiar to me. It sounded like "Burning Down the House". A few more seconds in, that was the song she was about to perform for sure. Then this older gentleman walked on stage with red overalls on. I thought that person looked a whole lot like David Bryne. I let my mind wander even more, thinking that it would be rad if she invited him to do this classic song with her and her band.  Sure enough, it was David Bryne and he was about to sing and dance on the same stage as Olivia Rodrigo. And it was awesome.

I must have rewatched that performance three or four times last night. It was so good. I loved hearing these two sing, with wildly different voices, singing one of the better songs that have ever been released. And, to give Bryne credit, he kind of held his own dancing alongside Rodrigo. It made my heart sing watching these two titans of their industry having a good time sharing the stage and giving one hell of a live performance.

After I watched it for the last time last night, I went to bed. Then I found myself thinking about it this morning, finally deciding that I wanted to write about it. I've already told you all why I liked the performance, but there is another thing I want to point out. I absolutely adore it when young pop/rock stars pay homage to the greats that came before them. What Rodrigo did last night, or whenever this show was, introduced a whole new generation to Talking Heads. There had to be young kids who had zero idea who David Bryne is, and now they have searched his music and are probably listening to his stuff right now. I love it that Talking Heads and Bryne's solo stuff is going to see a big, big bump in streaming and record sales simply because Rodrigo is a, most likely, big fan and had an opportunity to perform with Bryne. I think it is so cool that there are some younger kids who are professional musicians that understand the importance of a person like David Bryne. She is given him another moment to shine and show younger generations that their folks listen to some cool music. My kids are not the biggest fans of Talking Heads, but I bet if an artist they like used one of their songs or performed live with them they'd be more willing to take a second look.

I didn't really need a reason to like Olivia Rodrigo any more than I currently do, and then she invited a living legend to perform live on stage with her. This is so cool and I wish more and more current music stars would do more of the same. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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