Navigating Conflict Correctly Can Breed a Pop Star Overnight
In such a saturated space of music it's hard as PR professionals to try to direct the right light to your client, especially in such fast paced environments like social media it seems like one wrong move will completely strip a musician's likeness but sometimes conflict is what breeds a popstar. One prime example is Sabrina Carpenter and how her team handled the media storm when musician Olivia Rodrigo's debut single alluded to a love triangle involving the star.
When “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo debuted in early 2021 it literally took the world by storm. The song was everywhere and the cryptic lyricism pointed to the now iconic blonde polly pocket pop star Sabrina Carpenter. The internet ran with rumors of a possible love triangle between the girls and possible ex Joshua Bassett. Sabrina quickly found herself being the internet's real life worst Disney villain. Her name was becoming a hot topic and for all the wrong reasons.
However her team approached the situation very strategically, there was never an actual statement from her to any social media or her team addressing the feud. They did however redirect the attention to new music. Her silence made the internet grab at any strings when only weeks later she released “Skin” which could be the response to the drama. Her monthly listeners went up and we started to see a split of sides since the initial drama. She never defamed Rodrigo, instead truly redirected eyes to her craft and took the momentum to really catapult her next project. Her album “Emails I Can’t Send” had groundbreaking achievements for the artist considering she was not new to the music industry this was her fifth studio album.
She went on to do a world tour and open for Taylor Swift to be one of music's biggest 21st century pop stars. Many fans now don't even know about the feud and that is because she successfully rebranded her image.
As PR professionals we are taught to make statements and do crisis management but we forget how powerful silence can be in a time like this for an artist. Carpenter's team fully put all eyes on her music and if the media wanted any answers they needed to listen to the songs. This is what allowed the star to reclaim her image and rebuild it. They kept her out of any possible negative reactive press like paparazzi or misinterpreted social media statements.
It's impossible to avoid conflict in today's social media world but it is vital to know how to handle it for an artist and their craft. While communicating transparently with the public is incredibly important, if the comment will make no difference we need to know when no comment is the best comment.
Bio: Ashley Lopez-Arana, a first-generation college student at California State University, Northridge, studying Journalism with a focus on Public Relations and a minor in Entertainment Media Management. Her dream? To one day walk the Oscars red carpet and dive into the world of PR—hopefully with a dream job at Letterboxd (because who wouldn't want to talk about movies for a living?). For now, she’s soaking up everything she can to make that dream a reality, exploring new opportunities, and staying open to whatever exciting path comes her way.