Hello everyone!
My friend is an insider who works for Walt Disney World in Florida. My friend has reported to me that imagineers have been working to retheme the Rock n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith at Disney's Hollywood Studios for a while, as Aerosmith is no longer as popular a band with as much mass appeal as it was at the time of the rides' debut in 1999. There have been a few ideas proposed, such as retheming the ride to one of various Pixar properties such as the door vaulter scene in Monsters, Inc. or the Incredibles. Many people who work for disney are proponents of the less expensive but still rather enduring concept of keeping the ride's current unique theme as a roller coaster themed to music, but switching out the featured musical act. Such plans have been in a state of general possibility for over a decade by now, during which time several artists (such as Paramore, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and - for a brief period in 2010 - the cast of glee) have been proposed and contacted for the idea, although plans have never yet gone as far into the realm beyond the drawing board as they currently are.
Unless you have been living under a rock during the year 2021, you must be aware of ascendant pop icon Olivia Rodrigo. In a span of months, she has racked 2 Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles (the transcendent power ballad drivers license and pop-rock explosion good 4 u), which happens to be one more than Aerosmith have accrued in their decades-long career. Her debut studio album Sour, which was released on May 21, has held the highest US sales of any album in a week of this year with almost 300,000 units. Not only is her music extremely commercially successful, it is also very good (this is obviously subjective, but I like her music and so do most people I have talked to as well as critics). In genre, her music can be best described as at the center of a three way venn diagram between levitating bedroom balladry, unkempt psychadelic grunge, and uptempo pop-rock, although perhaps more instrumental to her musics success than the production is the lyrics and themes. She sings with honesty, specificity, and humor, conveying the abstract pangs of angst and heartbreak as a vivid image of the rebellion and sadness of youth.
In fact, Rodrigo has shined so brightly in the past few months it has been easy to forget the fact that she is a Disney Channel star like Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez before her, having starred in Bizaardvark and currently starring in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. In fact, my insider friend has reported that Disney is trying to negotiate a contract with Rodrigo to allow the licensing of her solo music (which has been released by the label Geffen Records, the same label that has worked with Aerosmith) in the ride currently known as Rock n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, as well as to film an all-new pre-show starring Olivia herself. The plan is for the track layout to stay roughly the same, although plans have been thrown around for the space between the ride’s loading area and launch to be extended, accommodating for a new, slow-moving dark ride scene built around Rodrigo’s deceptively gentle but extremely powerful signature track drivers license. The more intense parts of the ride will be soundtracked by higher-octane tracks by Rodrigo such as brutal, deja vu, and good 4 u.
So, what do you think of these rumors? Would you like to see Aerosmith replaced with Olivia Rodrigo? Would you be sad to see Aerosmith go?
