In defense of Avril Lavigne
April 23rd, 2003 -- by Augie De Blieck Jr.
I like Avril Lavigne’s album, LET GO. Hearing her live, you realize that she needs a little production work to smooth out the rough edges, but I think the kid’s got talent and the songs are catchy enough.
But the rapid success of her album has led to the inevitable ugly backlash. I thought this article did as good as job as can be done in defending Avril and poking holes in the bubble of that backlash.
April 23rd, 2003 at 8:57 am
My favorite quote from the article: “At least she wears clothes.” Man, what happened to singers like Debbie Gibson (yeah, I’m dating myself). She wrote teen-pop schtick but wasn’t some underdressed, overproduced, teenaged slut, prancing half nekkid on stage, and gyrating like a stripper. So Avril’s songs are juvenile. Big deal. She’s a kid.
It’s before 6am on the left coast, I havn’t had my coffee, and I’m working off 4 hours of sleep. Sorry for the ramble.
Scott
April 23rd, 2003 at 9:44 am
No need to apologize. I think you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head here. I couldn’t agree more. There’s a reason why her music resonates with people her own age. It’s because it’s written by one of them at their level. Nothing wrong with that. Obviously, that doesn’t make it the kind of stuff that will resonate for the next 50 years, and it won’t guarantee a spot in the RnR Hall of Fame (joke that it is), but so what? It’s fun and catchy now. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see the music evolve over the next couple of albums and morph into something new.
Heck, even the Barenaked Ladies’ albums have change into something more serious and less goofy…
-Augie