Post by Gabo on Feb 28, 2016 20:07:58 GMT
This week, we dare ourselves to get a little bit lacy, leather and pink to tread where certain tomboys fear to go, so get your Doc Marts and safety gear on as we head up this mountain. We might encounter an avalanche of ‘Avril proportions’.
Get your kohl liners out tomboys because our Tomboy Musician for the week is Avril Ramona Lavigne as we find out how she has weathered the changes in the music industry where artistes are getting younger by the day and indie hipster is the new and exciting buzzword. Is she still the relevant force she once was?
Petite Punk Pop Rock is what I call her only because she is quite the small-sized lassie who, like a bite-sized chilli, packs quite the punch with her punk tomboy style with lots of sizzling lyrics on the side.
Call her what you will; skateboard chick, punkboard dyn-O-mite, tomboy tart even, but a Canadian bacon she isn’t – at least in the music scene. So now, that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s check in on what makes Avril edgier than most of the successful divas of her generation?
RULE #1: Don’t play by the rules
Avril never played the game all her peers like Taylor Swift, Britney and Beyonce engage in. By taking clothes off or aiming to …In that millenial gap in music before Lady Gaga and Katy Perry came bulldozing through in the 2010s, Avril was the only big-name punk-goth pop-rock chick who yelled, screamed and taunted audiences with her attitude and chic pink leather get ups.
RULE #2: Don’t make music about the rules. Break ’em (and the decibel levels on your stereo)
Avril’s ‘yay-yay-yay’ choruses from her upbeat tracks are full-on skateboard ring chants. No cheerleaders or pom-poms allowed. Sing loud. Sing proud.
RULE #3: Get TKO’d in the relationship ring.
Maturity has hit Avril hard. She has come a long way from the bird-flipping early anthems from her debut album ‘Let Go’. She has been through the heavyweight championships of marriage and divorce and while that hasn’t taken away her spunk, it has lent her some maturity in her songwriting and fashion sense.
Canadian-born Avril Ramona Lavigne shot to fame at 16 when she shared the stage with Shania Twain and had signed on a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Talk about a lucky break!
Her edgy tomboy chic style and attitude, plus anthemic punk-pop rock songs sizzled the charts, selling more than 30 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide.
Frankly, she was a breath of fresh air in the early half of the millennium when most of us were getting sick and tired of hearing Britney and her comet-trail of enthusiastic Pussycat Doll wanna-be’s. Sex was oozing out of the airwaves and most tomboy girls and ladies suddenly faced a void in music where there was no sensible, non-sex obsessed female pop star on the charts.
Avril came along and then suddenly the balance was set right again. The icing on the cake was when Lavigne became the youngest female soloist to reach #1 in the UK. Suddenly life was “Complicated” again.
Five albums later and Avril’s music has suffered a tad on the charts although her fan base is still very loyal to her. Her massive following in Asia is ridiculous with anime-obsessed teens citing her style and music as a major influence in their lives. Perhaps that’s why they feature so prominently in the video of her latest single “Hello Kitty”. Tasteless stereotyping or just paying ignorant homage? I don’t know. Either way, it sat quite badly with the public and I have to agree because cats and anime is just so yesterday in the tacky music halls of today, especially when Gwen Stefani and Katy Perry have already prowled those same spaces before.
But before Avril fans flush me down the toilet for saying that, let’s get one thing straight. For all the massive success she’s had in the past, she is currently struggling to gain a foothold in the charts.
Singles off her latest self-titled album, ‘Avril Lavigne’ have barely cracked Top 10 territory and to top it all off, her image as a skater girl with a ‘screw you’ stance has evaporated with her growing up, getting married, divorced and then married again. She now hits red carpet premieres in gowns and jewellery even Joan Rivers might sing punk songs to.
And yet, Avril insists that this fifth record is an ode to her 17-year-old self, with some nostalgic tracks that sound like some of her earlier stuff.
“I’ll always be young at heart and have a free spirit. It doesn’t matter how old you are – you can be young forever in your spirit and your attitude. For me, I actually had to grow up quick being in this industry so young. I was surrounded by adults which was kind of weird, but I had my band around me and they were my age. I’ve always been the baby and the youngest one. I think it prepared me for this world,” Avril comments in an interview with Digital Spy.
In a landscape where true pop rock music seems to be driven out the doors of radio, Avril doesn’t seem to be sweating it much.
“They don’t play rock songs on the radio anymore. It’s all very, very pop and dance. For me, my music’s always been heavy pop rock… I’ve always experimented but at the same time remained true to my roots. For me, I’m happy for the opportunity to still be making music and so grateful to the fans who have kept me here.”
With youth on her side, Avril looks set to maintain a sound that has worked for her at least for the next 5 years, but we wonder what her take on music will be when she hits 40 or 50? Will she take on a more indie sound or be rocking it out, stadium style like Angus Young from AC/DC? We just have to wait and see.
Frankly though, I’d like to see a more deep powerhouse rock sound emanating from the skater halls of ‘Le Avril’, because besides Gwen Stefani, there are no longer many enigmatic guitar-wielding female rock n roll musicians of Generation Y thriving in the industry, which used to produce the Chrissie Hyndes, Patti Smiths, Heart, Bangles, Courtney Loves, Bikini Kill and Lita Fords of our generation.
Today the business is dominated by wispy-sounding, indie, hipster bands that don’t really have a stage presence. In that sense, Avril’s music does kick some ‘Green Day’ balls and we want to see her keep rocking it out in the years to come.
www.tomboy-tarts.com/tomboy-musicians-series-avril-lavigne/
Get your kohl liners out tomboys because our Tomboy Musician for the week is Avril Ramona Lavigne as we find out how she has weathered the changes in the music industry where artistes are getting younger by the day and indie hipster is the new and exciting buzzword. Is she still the relevant force she once was?
Petite Punk Pop Rock is what I call her only because she is quite the small-sized lassie who, like a bite-sized chilli, packs quite the punch with her punk tomboy style with lots of sizzling lyrics on the side.
Call her what you will; skateboard chick, punkboard dyn-O-mite, tomboy tart even, but a Canadian bacon she isn’t – at least in the music scene. So now, that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s check in on what makes Avril edgier than most of the successful divas of her generation?
RULE #1: Don’t play by the rules
Avril never played the game all her peers like Taylor Swift, Britney and Beyonce engage in. By taking clothes off or aiming to …In that millenial gap in music before Lady Gaga and Katy Perry came bulldozing through in the 2010s, Avril was the only big-name punk-goth pop-rock chick who yelled, screamed and taunted audiences with her attitude and chic pink leather get ups.
RULE #2: Don’t make music about the rules. Break ’em (and the decibel levels on your stereo)
Avril’s ‘yay-yay-yay’ choruses from her upbeat tracks are full-on skateboard ring chants. No cheerleaders or pom-poms allowed. Sing loud. Sing proud.
RULE #3: Get TKO’d in the relationship ring.
Maturity has hit Avril hard. She has come a long way from the bird-flipping early anthems from her debut album ‘Let Go’. She has been through the heavyweight championships of marriage and divorce and while that hasn’t taken away her spunk, it has lent her some maturity in her songwriting and fashion sense.
Canadian-born Avril Ramona Lavigne shot to fame at 16 when she shared the stage with Shania Twain and had signed on a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Talk about a lucky break!
Her edgy tomboy chic style and attitude, plus anthemic punk-pop rock songs sizzled the charts, selling more than 30 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide.
Frankly, she was a breath of fresh air in the early half of the millennium when most of us were getting sick and tired of hearing Britney and her comet-trail of enthusiastic Pussycat Doll wanna-be’s. Sex was oozing out of the airwaves and most tomboy girls and ladies suddenly faced a void in music where there was no sensible, non-sex obsessed female pop star on the charts.
Avril came along and then suddenly the balance was set right again. The icing on the cake was when Lavigne became the youngest female soloist to reach #1 in the UK. Suddenly life was “Complicated” again.
Five albums later and Avril’s music has suffered a tad on the charts although her fan base is still very loyal to her. Her massive following in Asia is ridiculous with anime-obsessed teens citing her style and music as a major influence in their lives. Perhaps that’s why they feature so prominently in the video of her latest single “Hello Kitty”. Tasteless stereotyping or just paying ignorant homage? I don’t know. Either way, it sat quite badly with the public and I have to agree because cats and anime is just so yesterday in the tacky music halls of today, especially when Gwen Stefani and Katy Perry have already prowled those same spaces before.
But before Avril fans flush me down the toilet for saying that, let’s get one thing straight. For all the massive success she’s had in the past, she is currently struggling to gain a foothold in the charts.
Singles off her latest self-titled album, ‘Avril Lavigne’ have barely cracked Top 10 territory and to top it all off, her image as a skater girl with a ‘screw you’ stance has evaporated with her growing up, getting married, divorced and then married again. She now hits red carpet premieres in gowns and jewellery even Joan Rivers might sing punk songs to.
And yet, Avril insists that this fifth record is an ode to her 17-year-old self, with some nostalgic tracks that sound like some of her earlier stuff.
“I’ll always be young at heart and have a free spirit. It doesn’t matter how old you are – you can be young forever in your spirit and your attitude. For me, I actually had to grow up quick being in this industry so young. I was surrounded by adults which was kind of weird, but I had my band around me and they were my age. I’ve always been the baby and the youngest one. I think it prepared me for this world,” Avril comments in an interview with Digital Spy.
In a landscape where true pop rock music seems to be driven out the doors of radio, Avril doesn’t seem to be sweating it much.
“They don’t play rock songs on the radio anymore. It’s all very, very pop and dance. For me, my music’s always been heavy pop rock… I’ve always experimented but at the same time remained true to my roots. For me, I’m happy for the opportunity to still be making music and so grateful to the fans who have kept me here.”
With youth on her side, Avril looks set to maintain a sound that has worked for her at least for the next 5 years, but we wonder what her take on music will be when she hits 40 or 50? Will she take on a more indie sound or be rocking it out, stadium style like Angus Young from AC/DC? We just have to wait and see.
Frankly though, I’d like to see a more deep powerhouse rock sound emanating from the skater halls of ‘Le Avril’, because besides Gwen Stefani, there are no longer many enigmatic guitar-wielding female rock n roll musicians of Generation Y thriving in the industry, which used to produce the Chrissie Hyndes, Patti Smiths, Heart, Bangles, Courtney Loves, Bikini Kill and Lita Fords of our generation.
Today the business is dominated by wispy-sounding, indie, hipster bands that don’t really have a stage presence. In that sense, Avril’s music does kick some ‘Green Day’ balls and we want to see her keep rocking it out in the years to come.
www.tomboy-tarts.com/tomboy-musicians-series-avril-lavigne/
