P-ISSN: 2808-0467 E-ISSN: 2808-5051 Homepage: https://iss.internationaljournallabs.com/index.php/iss 2085 LANGUAGE ROLE IN FORMING THE EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE OF “HAPPIER” BY OLIVIA RODRIGO Irma Nuraeni Salsabila 1* , Elvira Fitriyanti 2 1 Department of English Literature, Institut Pendidikan dan Bahasa Invada, Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia 2 Department of Digital Business, Politeknik Siber Cerdika Internasional, Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia * irmanuraenis84@gmail.com PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: March 2023 Revised: March 2023 Approved: March 2023 Background: Songwriters use language in creative ways to create meaning and depth in a song because they want to convey a certain message or emotion. Songwriters use language to paint vivid images and evoke strong emotions in listeners. Aim: This research aims to provide a deeper understanding of how language can influence listeners' emotions and feelings through Olivia Rodrigo's musical artwork entitled Happier. Method: This study uses a qualitative research method with a language and literature analysis approach. The data collection technique is done by literature study. Findings: The results show that language is used to convey various emotions, including heartbreak, regret, and longing. The song lyrics are carefully crafted to create a specific emotional landscape that reflects the narrator's state of mind. In addition, the language used in the song reflects the cultural and social context in which it was created. The lyrics address issues such as social media comparisons, breakups, and the pressure to always be happy. Through the use of language, the song provides commentary on these issues and how they can affect one's emotional landscape. KEYWORDS language, emotional, song, happier, Olivia Rodrigo © The author(s). This work is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) INTRODUCTION Songwriters use language in creative ways to create certain meanings and impressions. Songs are part of a literary work and are often categorized as poems that use language creatively to convey certain meanings and impressions (Muthalib et al., 2020; Simanjuntak & Lumingkewas, 2022). Literature as a form of fiction is the result of spontaneous emotional outbursts that are able to reveal beauty and aesthetics both in terms of language and meaning. Meaning is the meaning or intent inferred from a word, phrase, or clause. Talking about meaning is like thinking hard about the meaning of an object to be addressed. Meaning as a liaison between language and language in the outside world that has been agreed upon by the users so that they can understand each other's meaning of the language (Djajasudarma, 2009). Given that songs are strongly associated with meaning, songwriters often create songs with varying tones and lyrics, as the interpretation of meaning is an attempt to form one's own concept (Barrett, 2023; Osborn, 2021). In a song, the meaning expressed by the songwriter is conveyed through a unique language, revealing the soul and personality of the author (Antika et al., 2020). Songwriters use language to paint vivid images and evoke strong emotions in listeners. The language used in a work can usually create a certain effect by comparing one object with another. The use of allusions in essays is aimed at producing an imaginative impression on the