Avril Lavigne: Worse than the sum of her punk rock parts

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February 3, 2011
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Avril Lavigne: Worse than the sum of her punk rock parts
Text and Ilustrations by Tyler Ostermayer
with files from Michael Grondin and Rebekah Jarvis
At one time, punk rock was full of passion, angst, and unbridled energy. This edgy
genre once prided itself on being anti-fashion, anti-corporate, and anti-consumerism. Follow the Weal’s music reviewer Tyler Ostermayer through the evolution of
punk’s genesis, to the exodus of its ideals.
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground came out of nowhere in 1965, forging a dark and ambient sound the world had yet to hear. Never a commercial success, the band has
been cited as being hugely influential on modern punk and alternative music. As
the punk and alternative movement began to spread, new artists such as Iggy Pop
began to take notice.
Iggy Pop
Although Iggy Pop and The Stooges started around
1968, they didn’t become successful until Pop met
David Bowie. Bowie produced The Stooges’ second
album Raw Power in 1972 and Pop became a forefather
of punk rock. Pop is famed as the first artist to ever
execute a stage dive at a live performance. Around this
time, U.K. audiences started eating up the dirgy sound
going on in the United States.
PIXIES
BLACK FLAG
Black Flag is considered
one of the first hardcore
punk bands.
Fronted
by Henry Rollins, Black
Flag is often referred to
as one of the most influential punk bands of the
late ‘70s and early ‘80s,
inspiring everyone from
the Pixies to Nirvana to
the Ataris.
SEX PISTOLS
As a response to the American Punk movement, The
Sex Pistols are to directly to blame for initiating the
punk movement in the United Kingdom, during the
late ‘70s. They only produced one studio album, but
changed music history forever. Their performances
often ended in violence, and God Save The Queen is
considered to be the most-censored song in British
music history. After the Pistols’ breakup, their momentum and energy continued as new breeds of bands
such as Black Flag began to craft their own version of
what the Sex Pistols started.
BLINK 182
Nirvana paved the way for alternative and punk music
to bless the airwaves of popular radio, allowing bands
such as Blink 182 to find success in the mid ‘90s with
cheeky music about adolescence, partying and chasing girls. Blink was edgy enough to piss off parents,
but poppy enough to sell out stadiums. Carbon copy
bands such as Sum 41 were soon to follow.
NIRVANA
Nirvana began touring
and recording in the late
‘80s, but achieved worldwide success when their
1991 album Nevermind
hit number one on the
U.S. charts, displacing
Michael Jackson. Grunge
was born, and alternative music found a home
on mainstream radio. The
influence of Nevermind
can still be heard in mainstream and underground
music. Nirvana’s career
was cut short when singer,
songwriter and guitarist
Kurt Cobain committed
suicide in 1994.
AVRIL LAVIGNE
And all of this unfortunately brings us to Avril.
Avril Lavigne is often wrongly termed The Princess of Punk. But despite all of the
influence decades of punk bands desperately tried to give her – and even a brief
marriage to Deryck Whibley of Canadian pop-punkers Sum 41 – Lavinge simply
isn’t punk.
Punks rarely put out their own fragrance. They don’t pose for Maxim. They don’t
have their own clothing lines. And they probably wouldn’t bore this writer so close
to tears that he spent his weekends putting together the history of punk, rather
than reviewing a new album. Furthermore, punks tend to enjoy playing punk rock.
Lavigne’s new single, What The Hell, is anything but punk. The song is another
watered down representation of what some record label execs want 14-year-old
suburbanoids to think punk is.
By this definition, punk rock would consist of a music video filled with product
placement, choreographed middle fingers, and a cameo by Lavigne’s mother (moms
are so punk). That said, the song title couldn’t be more appropriate. Upon hearing
it, I began to scratch my head and wonder out loud, “What the hell?”
Highly influenced by the
energy and DIY attitudes
of punk rock predecessors such as Black Flag
and The Wipers, the
Pixies were one of the
first to mix the energy of
punk with pop melodies.
After moderate success,
they disbanded before
the sound they forged
spawned a new generation of alternative songwriters. One songwriter
in particular who cited
their influence was the
late Kurt Cobain.