The Last Mixed Tape

Why Gen Z Loves The Cure: Olivia Rodrigo, Robert Smith and the Future of Music Discovery

Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love features a guest appearance from Robert Smith of The Cure, while also referencing one of the band’s most beloved songs, Just Like Heaven. On the surface, it appears to be a collaboration between a modern pop superstar and an alternative music icon.

In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, I explore how platforms like TikTok, Spotify and YouTube have fundamentally changed the way we discover music. Drawing on an idea from Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, I examine whether music history has stopped being a timeline and become something closer to a giant archive, where old and new songs coexist side by side.

Through Olivia Rodrigo’s relationship with artists such as Robert Smith, Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne, we explore how modern pop stars have become gateways to earlier generations of music and why younger listeners are inheriting artists like The Cure in entirely new ways.

Topics covered include:

• Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith
• The Cure’s influence on modern artists
• David Byrne’s views on music discovery
• TikTok and Spotify’s impact on listening habits
• Why Gen Z connects with older music
• Musical influence and cultural inheritance
• The changing nature of music fandom

The Last Mixed Tape is hosted by Stephen White, and is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.