There's little point in trying to justify it -- we all have something in our music collections. Some of us more than others -- and sometimes it's right to be ashamed. But anyway, enough about the embarrassing songs on Mez's iPod.I first came across this song when I had to review it for the university paper. I'd been a slightly-ashamed fan of her early work, in a way not dissimilar to my liking for Britney Spears: I thought she was hot, and then liking the music sort of went from there. I even once tried to get an interview with her, back when I first heard of her, but that that was long before I knew the right way to go about it.
At first I just dismissed this song. More of the same, nothing new, nothing to see here, hated it. But sometimes the more you play something, the more it grows on you -- and I'm glad this did.
I will stand up and say it out loud, I'm not ashamed: my name's Jay, and I'm a fan of Avril Lavigne's music.
Don't get me wrong, her first album had some pretty bad songs on it -- Sk8r Boi is almost unforgivable, it has a stupid "txt spk" title, some terrible songwriting ("He was a boy. She was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?") and I personally think that the song "Things I'll Never Say" borrowed from Poe's "Angry Johnny" if only because of the suggestive use of the phrase "I want to blow you.....away". But I forgive Avril for it all, because I don't think she actually wrote any of the songs herself.
I liked her whole "Skater Girl" look. Much more than I like her more recent bleached-blonde-Mrs-Deryck-Whibley look. I never really cared if she was really 'punk' -- as far as I know, she never claimed to be a "real punk" anyway, although I did used to fantasise about forcing her to listen to the Sex Pistols and the Stooges. Among other things.
But this song is completely different. "Don't Tell Me" feels a lot more real, a lot more raw -- a song about someone who you thought cared about you trying to take advantage. I don't much care about what the "yoof" of today get up to -- god knows I wasn't particularly well behaved, myself -- but in the song she isn't making decisions for anyone else, she isn't making value judgements. I just liked that she was a girl, standing up for herself, and saying no.
And I don't think it should negate any of that if I think she looks hot, too...
She's a humourless twat but i do like some of her stuff.
ReplyDeleteI took my young cousin to see her live after her first album, and she didn't have much stage presence either.
oh well, she's still young.
I think you might have Mez's iPod confused with mine. In fact, for the past couple of days I've been listening to Avril on loop in my car on my way to work. (I even like Sk8er Boi, and when Things I'll Never Say comes on I belt it out at the top of my lungs. I am, in fact, a sad, sad man.)
ReplyDeleteWhen Avril first hit the scene, I was irritated by her image. I didn't like the random acts of violence in her videos, and while I understood what they were going for with that whole skater punk image, it reeked of falsity to me. It was a promotional image, a marketing ploy, a line of bullshit they expected the youth to gobble up like M&Ms. The plain kind, not the ones with peanuts. (What?) It's everything I hate about the music industry. They manufacture celebrity. Instead of an artist singing because they love to sing, because it's a natural expression of who they are and what they feel, because it's their art, music becomes a manufactured, mass-produced, homogenized and sterilized product. Instead of artists paying their dues and struggling to make it (where "making it" is more about being heard than being rich) which adds depth and feeling and urgency to music, marketing departments create stars, feed them the songs they know will sell (because they're basically the same as the songs that are already selling) and the mediocrity gets passed down to us, the pathetic consumers.
Maybe when Avril hit the scene she hadn't yet paid her dues, maybe she didn't suffer yet for her art, maybe she is just singing cookie cutter songs... but I think the real saving grace of Avril is that she was a teenaged girl when she recorded these things, and what is more emotional than a teenaged girl? By virtue of her age, she automatically brings emotion to her songs, by virtue of her talent she brings depth... and being hot doesn't hurt, either.
Sorry... I didn't mean to rant a treatise in your comments. But see? Avril makes me passionate!
Steph: She's a humourless twat? That's disappointing, I've thought she seemed pretty cool in interviews I've read. And I guess I won't be going to see her live very soon now, either. But despite this, it's good to know you can't resist her charms.
ReplyDeleteSaru-San: And speaking of not being able to resist her charms, you shouldn't apologise for being so passionate! I like your thoughtful comments.
HEYYY wait a minute *I'm* not the one listening to avril - that is surely worth about 20 press plays of "If you like Pina Coladas" dammit! :P heh
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of her stuff - though imo her newer music is much better than her older stuff. I was incredibly offended by her sk8ter image that she called "punk". I don't even think it was a marketing ploy - didn't she always write her own music? Anyway, I like punk. I wanted to kick her arse for even suggesting she breathe the same air as real punkers. Having said that at least she's grown up a bit since then.
I'm with steph on the humourless twat thing. She's a horrible interviewee!
She didn't. Know. Who. David. Bowie. Is.
ReplyDeleteNo love. XP