Imitation
One crucial part of the popstar formula is imitation—not as a lack of originality, but as a strategic gesture of both flattery and cultural alignment. GURL’s acoustic bedroom cover of “Lie to Girls” taps into a long-standing tradition of artists using covers to place themselves in conversation with the industry. Whether it’s viral TikTok renditions, BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge performances, or the early YouTube days of now-superstars like Justin Bieber or Billie Eilish, cover songs function as a rite of passage. They allow rising performers to reflect existing musical values back to audiences while subtly reframing them through their own voice, tone, and style.
This act of imitation builds cultural capital—it tells the listener, “I know the canon. I belong here.” But it’s also a performance of intimacy. GURL’s stripped-down rendition, filmed with just a guitar in her bedroom, evokes a familiar and cozy aesthetic, blurring the line between polished artistry and relatable vulnerability. It plays into the “bedroom pop” ethos that suggests authenticity, even when that too becomes part of the constructed persona.
For GURL, the bedroom cover is a soft power play. It's intimate and familiar, but also deliberate. It signals both reverence and ambition—quietly placing her within a lineage of rising stars who turned imitation into identity, and borrowed brilliance into a platform for their own voice.