i'm not one to usually make long posts, but i thought this was good enough to, this was written by my roomate ben. i think it's pretty funny.
Since the beginning of the punk movement, there has been a constant dispute as to whether it started in the United States or in Great Britain. Now we know that neither conclusion is correct -- punk in its truest form originated in Canada. Many people claim Avril Lavigne is a punk because she writes many of her own song lyrics and dresses herself. These people certainly have a point. I mean, nobody can deny that the likes of the Subhumans, Television, or the Exploited usually picked out their own clothing both on tour and off. Furthermore, while songwriting has been a mainstay of punk rock, many bands can't even claim to have written all their own material. Some examples of unoriginal songs include the Ramones' "California Sun," Sid Vicious' "My Way," and the Dead Kennedys' "Viva Las Vegas," not to mention the controversy about Quincy Jones having written all of Black Flag's material (which I, for one, do not believe). Despite all this, there are many who claim that Avril is not a punk, feeling that the above qualifications leave something to be desired. Let it be known, however, that Avril achieves true punk status not through these sorts of justifications but through a much more subversive and hardcore means than anyone could previously have imagined.
Originally, I had planned to research this young artist for a week before writing my article, but I soon realized that to reach the desert island home of her volcanic inner nature, I'd have to cross an ocean of solitude on a raft of despair. To fully understand Avril, I undertook a ravaging year-long study of this young artist -- a journey filled with many long nights blasting her music at full volume, questioning my own place on this spinning rock and many days spent in the thrall of the kava root wishing, just wishing I could take some of her pain away the way I was able to drown my own sorrows. Now I'm finally ready to reveal my shocking conclusions, but as you read, keep in mind that as they say, "if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
So, the truth? Avril's entire life is a massive expression of self-loathing manifested in the public embodiment of everything she truly hates. She doesn't just wear designer clothes; she wears clothing designs inspired by DIY fashion, mass-produced and sold back to people as the new non-conformist style with a bold new price tag. She doesn't just follow the trends; she meticulously sets them, making sure to wear a tie and a wifebeater at every public appearance and in every photo. And she doesn't just work for MTV; she offers them as a symbol of status and success (appearing on MTV is her Sk8r boi's means to overcoming the negative stereotypes the rest of our pretentious, ballet-dancing society ascribes to him). It is this outward affinity for both the specific (MTV) and general (corporate globalization) labor-exploiting and culture-homogenizing structures that is her way of saying "I want you to hit me as hard as you can," only she never hits back. Instead of denouncing what she hates, she becomes it. She basks in the commodification of what was once a movement generally opposed to the sort of dehumanizing authoritarian structures that now use her as their tool.
She cries herself to sleep thinking about how she totally relinquished her self-determination, yet every day she continues to make it worse. She wears armbands and bracelets all the time just to cover up the scars on her wrists (and some even claim that the tie she wears hides a self-inflicted gash that spans her throat). She writes these amazing songs, songs about nihilism, songs about sociopolitical theories she has, probably some of the most innovative music ever written. But as soon as she writes those songs, she rips them up and burns them, and then purposely writes crappy, superficial, completely obvious songs in their place. She taught herself to play guitar and to skateboard, which she publicly claims, but whenever she's asked to prove her skills in either field, she purposely comes off as completely inept just so that people will call her a poseur. It's like she has to kill Piggy and smash his glasses and then run away crying about it. At each new low, Avril develops a tolerance for her self-hatred -- the constant need to sell out even further is the only thing that drives her. Sid Vicious overdosed on heroin. Avril Lavigne is overdosing on capitalism.
Avril doesn't stop at total self-destruction-through-poseurhood, however. By transgressing against the traditional "definition" of punk, she actually works toward the destruction of the punk movement. What once was an expression of independence, contempt for the system and defiance of modern culture by Avril's hand becomes nothing but a hollow word. She goes a step beyond bands like Blink 182 and MxPx, broadening the use of her self-proclaimed category to a point where the term collapses upon itself in contradiction. Examining this, it starts to become obvious that she sees her career as a means to the de-genrefication of all music. The problem with her efforts in this direction is that she would never allow herself to publicly state her intent. She must maintain the purity of her public image, thereby collecting an entire generation of fans who might otherwise have found a way of escaping the clutches of the capitalist machine and dragging them right down into the heart of our image-based consumerist culture.
So what are her future plans? Will she drive herself and her fans so directly into everything she hates about the status quo that the whole image breaks once and for all, giving way to a massive backlash of self-expression and defiant independence all throughout the mainstream American youth? Or will Big Brother Behind the Wheel win this epic game of chicken, leaving her, the Anti-Gandhi, ultimately washed up and voiceless, witnessing the suppression of reality in favor of something PG-13 with a happy ending that you can watch on TV? It could be that she's putting the masses through the greatest test of humanity ever devised, the results of which will determine whether or not her life is worth living and accordingly, whether ours are either. So let the naysayers stand corrected -- If there is one true punk in this world, it is Avril Lavigne. Avril, in your own words, "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you."
Since the beginning of the punk movement, there has been a constant dispute as to whether it started in the United States or in Great Britain. Now we know that neither conclusion is correct -- punk in its truest form originated in Canada. Many people claim Avril Lavigne is a punk because she writes many of her own song lyrics and dresses herself. These people certainly have a point. I mean, nobody can deny that the likes of the Subhumans, Television, or the Exploited usually picked out their own clothing both on tour and off. Furthermore, while songwriting has been a mainstay of punk rock, many bands can't even claim to have written all their own material. Some examples of unoriginal songs include the Ramones' "California Sun," Sid Vicious' "My Way," and the Dead Kennedys' "Viva Las Vegas," not to mention the controversy about Quincy Jones having written all of Black Flag's material (which I, for one, do not believe). Despite all this, there are many who claim that Avril is not a punk, feeling that the above qualifications leave something to be desired. Let it be known, however, that Avril achieves true punk status not through these sorts of justifications but through a much more subversive and hardcore means than anyone could previously have imagined.
Originally, I had planned to research this young artist for a week before writing my article, but I soon realized that to reach the desert island home of her volcanic inner nature, I'd have to cross an ocean of solitude on a raft of despair. To fully understand Avril, I undertook a ravaging year-long study of this young artist -- a journey filled with many long nights blasting her music at full volume, questioning my own place on this spinning rock and many days spent in the thrall of the kava root wishing, just wishing I could take some of her pain away the way I was able to drown my own sorrows. Now I'm finally ready to reveal my shocking conclusions, but as you read, keep in mind that as they say, "if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
So, the truth? Avril's entire life is a massive expression of self-loathing manifested in the public embodiment of everything she truly hates. She doesn't just wear designer clothes; she wears clothing designs inspired by DIY fashion, mass-produced and sold back to people as the new non-conformist style with a bold new price tag. She doesn't just follow the trends; she meticulously sets them, making sure to wear a tie and a wifebeater at every public appearance and in every photo. And she doesn't just work for MTV; she offers them as a symbol of status and success (appearing on MTV is her Sk8r boi's means to overcoming the negative stereotypes the rest of our pretentious, ballet-dancing society ascribes to him). It is this outward affinity for both the specific (MTV) and general (corporate globalization) labor-exploiting and culture-homogenizing structures that is her way of saying "I want you to hit me as hard as you can," only she never hits back. Instead of denouncing what she hates, she becomes it. She basks in the commodification of what was once a movement generally opposed to the sort of dehumanizing authoritarian structures that now use her as their tool.
She cries herself to sleep thinking about how she totally relinquished her self-determination, yet every day she continues to make it worse. She wears armbands and bracelets all the time just to cover up the scars on her wrists (and some even claim that the tie she wears hides a self-inflicted gash that spans her throat). She writes these amazing songs, songs about nihilism, songs about sociopolitical theories she has, probably some of the most innovative music ever written. But as soon as she writes those songs, she rips them up and burns them, and then purposely writes crappy, superficial, completely obvious songs in their place. She taught herself to play guitar and to skateboard, which she publicly claims, but whenever she's asked to prove her skills in either field, she purposely comes off as completely inept just so that people will call her a poseur. It's like she has to kill Piggy and smash his glasses and then run away crying about it. At each new low, Avril develops a tolerance for her self-hatred -- the constant need to sell out even further is the only thing that drives her. Sid Vicious overdosed on heroin. Avril Lavigne is overdosing on capitalism.
Avril doesn't stop at total self-destruction-through-poseurhood, however. By transgressing against the traditional "definition" of punk, she actually works toward the destruction of the punk movement. What once was an expression of independence, contempt for the system and defiance of modern culture by Avril's hand becomes nothing but a hollow word. She goes a step beyond bands like Blink 182 and MxPx, broadening the use of her self-proclaimed category to a point where the term collapses upon itself in contradiction. Examining this, it starts to become obvious that she sees her career as a means to the de-genrefication of all music. The problem with her efforts in this direction is that she would never allow herself to publicly state her intent. She must maintain the purity of her public image, thereby collecting an entire generation of fans who might otherwise have found a way of escaping the clutches of the capitalist machine and dragging them right down into the heart of our image-based consumerist culture.
So what are her future plans? Will she drive herself and her fans so directly into everything she hates about the status quo that the whole image breaks once and for all, giving way to a massive backlash of self-expression and defiant independence all throughout the mainstream American youth? Or will Big Brother Behind the Wheel win this epic game of chicken, leaving her, the Anti-Gandhi, ultimately washed up and voiceless, witnessing the suppression of reality in favor of something PG-13 with a happy ending that you can watch on TV? It could be that she's putting the masses through the greatest test of humanity ever devised, the results of which will determine whether or not her life is worth living and accordingly, whether ours are either. So let the naysayers stand corrected -- If there is one true punk in this world, it is Avril Lavigne. Avril, in your own words, "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you."
