Avril Lavigne

Oh, Avril. How many lies have you told already?

**Avril Lavigne** is a Canadian-American pop rock band. The group originally consisted of Avril Ramona Lavigne (lead vocals), Clif Magness (bass), Corky James (guitar), and Josh Freese (guitar). Since the release of their second album *Under My Skin* in 2004, Avril has been the only original member of the band. They have released seven studio albums and have received several accolades and nominations, including eight Grammy Award nominations. They celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2022. Their songs feature influences from trap, hip-hop, country, funk, pop-punk, and teen pop.

## Bad Qualities

1. You might be thinking at first that their songs are so deep, that Avril's clothes are so cute, or that they're just otally punk rock. Well, that's false, as they (along with all their fans) missed the bulletin notifying those that dressing in every article of clothing ever put out by Hot Topic does not make you punk. Clothing should not define a musician's style. Their **MUSIC** should, not clothing. Their frontwoman Avril is also infamous for posing in pictures with a skateboard or guitar, despite barely skateboarding or playing guitar for real.
2. Their songs lack anger, rebellion, social or political themes, heaviness, and aggression when these things all have in common with punk rock. This makes them even less punk.
3. Annoying drum loops and record scratches some of their songs.
4. They have been pushed into every aspect of the media like with the rock band Journey and their song "Don't Stop Believin'". Avril Ramona went so far as to star in the 2006 film *Over the Hedge* (in which she voiced Heather the o'possum) and they even performed a cover of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song for the 2004 film based on the show.
	* While there do seem to be a good chunk of people who consider "Sk8er Boi" a classic, they should have only had that one song and nothing else. But Avril Lavigne has a dozen other hits like "When You're Gone", "My Happy Ending", "Girlfriend", "Losing Grip", "I'm with You", "Keep Holding On", "Head Above Water", and "What the Hell". This is a problem due to how controversial the band is and that critics saw them as posers. They are like the herpes of the music industry. Once you hear them, they will be stuck in your head forever. It's like they were on a mission to create as many hits as possible.
5. Most of *Let Go*, the band's debut album, is basically power ballads and soft rock/adult contemporary fare. Their fans call them "punk rockers", yet they can be easily be described as or have been described as "rock-lite", "diet rock", "adult alternative", "punk-lite", or "diet punk". The only exception seems to be "Sk8er Boi", the only song on *Let Go* to be more high-energy and rock-oriented.
	* Speaking of "Sk8er Boi", it may make you form an impression of Avril Lavigne's music based on this song or think that their songs are all power pop or skate punk. Even the song began blaring when one visited their official website back in 2002. Most of their songs are nowhere near as rocking or energetic and are much softer instead. The band's primary song types include...
		+ Soft rock/adult contemporary songs with heartfelt or heartbroken lyrics and light pop melodies (such as "17", "4 Real", "Together", "Nobody's Home", "Remember When", "Complicated", "Mobile", "Losing Grip", "Alice", and "Slipped Away")
			- They act like they thought of enjoying the idea of hearing Muzak versions of Mandy Moore or Shania Twain (whom the lead singer Avril is actually a fan of) songs being played in department stores because of this. Furthermore, "Complicated" is a good example of the kind of song that plays or was once played on radio stations all the time—stations that someone's mom would be listening to.
		+ Upbeat, catchy bubblegum songs with or ocassionally without guitars (such as “What the Hell”, “Hello Kitty”, “Dumb Blonde” featuring Nicki Minaj, “Smile”, “Girlfriend”, and “The Best Damn Thing”)
		+ Pop/power ballads intended to trigger emotions, most of which are mentioned above
		+ "Grunge-lite"/"diet grunge" songs they try hard to be as dark and edgy with as possible (all of 2004's *Under My Skin*)
6. Their producers (most notably Max Martin and the Matrix) mostly push guitar-based rock sounds towards the background in their songs. Despite Avril saying she was "a skater punk who did guitar-driven rock" with her band, their songs are normally **backed** by guitars instead of guitar-based. Yes, you must all be told that the guitar is way too subtle in most Avril Lavigne songs and is just a background instrument.
7. The frontwoman of the band, Avril Lavigne, contradicts herself nonstop. (e.g. one of her quotes is "I'm a skater punk who does guitar driven rock," yet in an interview she said, "Like, dude! I'm not punk. I never said I was punk and I really claimed to be punk. My music definitely isn't punk."
8. Avril herself sings like trash, as her vocals are mediocre at best and downright irritating at worst.
	* What's the worst thing about the band's first-ever single "Complicated", though, is that the singing is even worse than usual. Here, Avril sounds like a robot or a text-to-speech program and tries way too hard to sound pretty, only to fall flat on her face. She sounds so warbly and choppy, and barely anything like herself whatsoever. Her use of Auto-Tune is also much more embarrassing than usual, as her voice seems to break or glitch a bit at times.
		+ Avril Lavigne uses Auto-Tune to make her voice sound "better". Yes, really. It may not seem like a bad thing in her band's case since it's relegated to subtle uses and not used heavily or flagrantly, but Avril's use of Auto-Tune is still pretty clear and technology wasn't so advanced back in the early 2000s.
9. They write juvenile, often angst-ridden lyrics like the majority of pop punk and emo bands, with lyrical content including hanging out, divorce, adolescence, being heartbroken, angst, and skateboarding.

## Good Qualities

1. With the advancement of technology, Avril's studio voice from *The Best Damn Thing* onwards is slightly better than on their first two albums. She is also much better as an actress and a fashion designer.
2. *Let Go* and *Under My Skin* are better than their other five albums (*The Best Damn Thing*, *Goodbye Lullaby*, *Avril Lavigne*, *Head Above Water*, and *Love Sux*).
3. They have a few good songs that are more rock-heavy than most of their others. Examples include "Sk8er Boi", their covers of Green Day's "Basket Case", "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett, and the SpongeBob theme, "He Wasn't", and "I Always Get Want I Want".