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Happier was released on May 21, 2021.

Fans are speculating that the Sour album is about Joshua Bassett (Olivia's ex-boyfriend) and Sabrina Carpenter (Joshua's current girlfriend); which is likely to be true.

Olivia's first song was driver's license which was released on January 8, 2021 (also in Sour).

If the songs are about one thing, how did she say "We broke up a month ago" in Happier while she has sung about her ex in January too?

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    Well, songs are not usually released in days. i.e. the fact that it was released in May, doesn't mean it was written in that month or even that year as well...
    – Tomerikoo
    Commented Jul 19, 2021 at 18:49
  • @Tomerikoo You could probably turn that comment into an answer.
    – PiedPiper
    Commented Jul 21, 2021 at 20:47
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    @PiedPiper Well I couldn't find any reference for the writing date of the song or any other example for a song being released later than written so this is more of a personal feeling/guess so feels weird to be an actual answer. If I can find something to base it on, I will turn it to an answer
    – Tomerikoo
    Commented Jul 21, 2021 at 20:55
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    @Tomerikoo songs are necessarily released after they are written unless the song is composed extemporaneously during a live broadcast, for the simple reason that a song's composition must take place before or during the recording session, and the recording session must take place before the release. The time between composition and release could be fairly short, but it would more typically be measured in weeks or even months.
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 28, 2021 at 10:41

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Olivia had been writing songs for her album Sour months prior to its release. She took to Instagram to post covers of her songs in their beginning stages, many of which have since been deleted. However, fans have uploaded those covers to YouTube, including this video of Happier. This video was originally uploaded to her Instagram on January 13th, 2020. Although we don't hear the lyric "We broke up a month ago" in this particular video, we can assume it was written when it actually had been month following her breakup with Joshua. There are countless videos and articles explaining the timeline of the love triangle between Olivia, Joshua, and Sabrina, which might give more insight into the story behind the song.

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Without wishing to detract from Payton Pingree's detailed answer, I would add that poetry generally may evoke a particular past moment in time. William Wordsworth described poetry thus:

the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility

In that model, this poem may be seen as a depiction of the emotion experienced by the author roughly one month after the breakup. The author recollected that emotion on writing the poem and invites us to experience it as well by hearing the poem (and the music that accompanies it). We may consider what it is like to be one month past a breakup at any time, regardless of when the words may actually have been written, much less of when the song may have been written, recorded, or performed.

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  • Can we consider song lyrics poems?
    – Snack Exchange
    Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 15:45
  • @aminabzz why wouldn't you?
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 17:03
  • As far as I know, a poem is literary, not an everyday life thing like the words of a popular song. If a songwriter can be called a poet, then why don't we see the word poet in the songs personnel list?
    – Snack Exchange
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 16:28
  • @aminabzz as far as I understand it, song lyrics are literary; the Swedish Academy obviously agrees, at least. The controversy around the award to Dylan did not include arguments about whether song lyrics constitute literature, but rather about whether Dylan's song lyrics possessed sufficient merit to justify his selection. Furthermore, song lyrics typically employ poetic elements such as rhyme and meter. Are Shakespeare's songs not poetry? If they are, why aren't Cole Porter's, John Lennon's, or Olivia Rodrigo's?
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 1, 2021 at 12:57

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