The new Avril single, “Girlfriend,” has made its way around the globe. The girl who used to be a wannabe punk is now a wannabe punk. She earned major cred with 10-12 year olds with her early hits “Complicated” and “Sk8r Boi.” We saw a maturer Canadienne on her later album with “Happy Ending.”
But the new single and video seem to be a step off the 10th floor into an empty elevator shaft. The artist who wanted to be taken seriously as a punk, you know, like Johnny Rotten, Joey Ramone, and Iggy Pop, has a single that sounds tamer (except for one lyric) than a Disney Channel music video.
Dismiss it? Hell no. Avril Lavigne has invented her own genre with “Girlfriend.” Post-wannabe. Its definition is still unclear, but she certainly knows what she’s doing. Still skeptical? Well, have you ever had a single re-recorded in Mandarin? Has any other artist ever played the wannabe role and then when completely dismissed as part of a genre, settled so comfortably into the genre that everyone knew she was all along? The degree of consciousness has been raised considerably. I can only hope there’s a gig at UP Mall on the next tour.
(Update: She may have partly lifted the lyrics to her chorus from the Rolling Stones tune “Get Off of My Cloud.” Is ambiguous lyrical plagiarism a requirement for the genre? Guess we’ll have to wait for the album)
