Avril Lavigne is a Canadian emo pop musician known for the hit song "Complicated" in 2002. She is also known for a few other popular hits and music albums between the early 2000s up to the 2010s and today. She is mostly known for her older music. Although many consider it much better than her newer music, that's not true at all.
Description[]
Avril Lavigne is an Canadian pop music icon who was mainly popular between the late 1990s to the 2000s. She is most popular for her songs including "Complicated" and other hits, but her career declined in 2010s. She is now starting to become the new Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter.
Even back at her height in the 2000s, she was (not unlike Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera), one of the evil, mega-millon dollar music industry's puppets. She is also the most pretentious image in pop culture. Along with Pink, she started the whole contamination of pop punk and helped water it down. This was also the final nail in the coffin for punk rock, which Avril and Pink helped turn into a wasteland. For most of the 2000s, she did fairly well, only to turn straight down over time. She is notorious for contradicting herself in interviews and calling herself punk when she almost never abides to the values of punk, and of course, makes commercial pop crap that is often not even rock or punk in the slightest. She is just as infamous for her emo posturing as she is for pretending to be punk.
"Complicated" and Let Go (2002-2003)[]
In 2002, "Complicated" was set by Arista Records as Avril's debut single and the first one off of her debut album Let Go. The early noughties already had a dump truck full of landfill-worthy, corporate, radio-friendly garbage—but now the Sony Music-owned Arista Records was deciding that they should unleash this: The uranium that is Avril Lavigne's "Complicated". It was a slice of pure audio cruelty that made it into the lexicon of pop–and it was, indeed, a CIA operation that sounded like a Walmart commercial. It never should’ve been released as a single, yet it was and went to #2 on the charts. This piece of true, inhuman filth was hoisted upon the most vulnerable and tasteless population in America–the little teeny boppers and sad little, angry, emo kids. It was scathingly annoying, overrated, overplayed and something that anti-pop and punk elitists could barely stomach. It was a bland, faceless, safe, pop rock, sell-out, boring, soft, gentle, fascist, middle-of-the-road, soccer mom-pandering, fundamentalist, inoffensive, conformist, corporate, harmless track; its eldritch influence managed to spread its tendrils throughout society. Even if a child hadn't listened to Avril or watched Over the Hedge (where she played Heather the possum, who is just as bad of a character as her), there were still other incarnations of her. For the kind of adult simple enough to fall under the song's sway, or under Let Go's sway...
If the radio wasn't enough to burrow the track deep enough into his wafer-thin fontanelles–there was the self-infliction of MTV, Radio Disney and mind-controling CD programs like Kidz Bop and "Pop Princess". "Complicated" was a cacophony like everything else on pop radio at the time. It showed just how well America could pull Canada's strings, and Avril is a Canadian who has been milked dry for 21 years as of today. "Complicated" shows how much she could be solidified as a wimpy soft rock pussy who sold her soul to adult contemporary radio. It remains one of the worst songs of 2002 and one of the worst songs of all-time. Until 2009, it was 2002 that used to be the year music was at its absolute worst and crappiest. "Complicated" by Avril was no exception, as it was guitar solo-less and all her backing band could play were simple power chords, yet it was a big hit back then. No one can tell how it came to be that way. It was one of the most overplayed songs of 2002, which–given how bland and Simple Plan levels of immature and whiny it is–ought to be surprising. Avril recieved so much ubiquitous fame for her first hit–so much that it seemed as if she'd never really reach the same level of popular success and would be considered a one-hit wonder. Everyone who hated this spoilt little poser hoped she'd be remembered as faintly as possible over time and would only ever have that one song. Unfortunately, no. Avril basically threatened that she'd come back and that no one would see the last of her. No matter how much of a piece of garbage "Complicated" was like the teen pop of the '90s and early 2000s–or how much only teeny boppers and angry little, wrist-cutting kids could ever relate to this song–Avril went on to have many more hits, including four more on the top 10 ("Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend"). Unsurprisingly, "Sk8er Boi" ended up being even worse and more juvenile than "Complicated".
Avril would rather make garbage than music, apparently. Ambition and creativity were her claims to fame, though neither was present in her music; regardless of value, she had way too many labels and claims to fame behind her. Her lyrics were safe, her lyrical content was safe, her music was safe and she just wanted to make people feel good. What Avril liked to create was "music" for mall-going posers that only corporate millionaires with too much money on their hands, or not enough time, would even consider creating. She contributed to the murder of heart–the heart that rock and punk were made with and the heart of which would be a girl like her just playing an instrument. She needed more than just that, you see. Something beyond creating art through mastery of a musical instrument... we mean, something far from creating art through such mastery and something that wasn't even close. Avril needed a computer, the lowest common denominator as her audience, pitch correct (B.K.A. Auto-Tune), DJ scratching, a cheap sequencer and someone to make the beats using one. Hey, you know what? We had Alanis Morissette years earlier, and she needed the same!
All Avril ever did was try to pander to these troubled emo kids–despite her being pretentious, "tough, rebellious girl", pedestrian pop rock and not emo.
Avril's pop rock music has often been thought of as "groundbreaking" and such, but critics who deride pop music as a slick, commercial product and non-authentic can see what she really is through her. They can also see through pop music, which is nothing but garbage, and what is. You know what? The critics are right. Be glad the Avril Lavigne craze has died down since "Girlfriend" was released, because if you hated pop music and had a sibling back in 2002, you were forced against your will to listen to this song–"Complicated", a sorry excuse for music that just stuck in the back of your mind and tortured you endlessly whenever you came to think about it. "Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?" Sometimes, your dad who was tortured with this song wishes he could ask Avril the same question. He also wishes he could ask her why she can't act, or why she even bothered to act and thought she could. She should've stayed out of the film industry, and taking the fact that she sold her soul to the music business into consideration, she should've stayed out of both as well. Her mall-bought clothes can't make up for the lack of insight that the horrible singing and her backing band's playing bring.
"Complicated" is basically the auditory equivalent of 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde and Clueless trying to rewrite punk or alt-rock. Why, you may ask? Well, because Avril has an unrealistic and unlikeable character and so do the guy's friends (whom Avril refers to in the song as "everyone else"). Julia Stiles has the same thing in 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a stereotypical chick flick. In this song, Avril is the highly flawed girl who gets the guy. She is the chick who gets this guy she likes SOLELY because a.) no couple = no life and b.) they just really like each other the way they are. Even then, the song has such an unintentionally pervading message, the unintentional message being that "a person isn't a person unless they're in a relationship and not in a terrible one". When Avril DOES get the guy she likes and he becomes "somebody else 'round everyone else who's watching his back like he can't relax", she's suddenly a total idiot about it. She basically screams "I hate my life!" and acts like the guy being two-faced or her being in a complicated relationship is the worst thing that EVER happened to her, all while there are much worse things happening in life like murder, poverty, cancer, AIDS, suicide and heart attacks. No one in that group that Avril refers to as "everyone else" is worthy or seems to be inclined to help him either. Not even Avril, who acts like a brat and tries to brag about how much she really IS one in the song, seems to be inclined to help the guy. It's as if we should all cease to exist. It's as if helping him would throw the earth off of its axis.
"Complicated" was not only a pop song masquerading as a rock one and a major pop façade–an attempt to emulate and imitate rock–but it was a romantic drama disguised as music (well, so was almost every power ballad ever made, from REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Lovin' You" to Bad English's "When I See You Smile"). It was the same as all the other romantic dramas and romantic comedies disguised as music. Same plotlines, same gags that barely got any laughs, same lyrics, same themes, same topics, same subject matter, same lyrical content. The producers might've just counted on making Avril have us listen to "Complicated" with someone we liked. It must have been intentionally bad so we wouldn't pay attention, but I doubt it. The music industry tries to keep pumping out music as fast as it can to make as much money as possible, leading to many poor quality songs with archaic, cliché lyrics and themes. It's all quantity over quality. Auditory equivalents to romantic dramas or comedies like this garbage sucked because they still sold as they were and they all had the same plot. "Complicated" starts off with the guy and Avril meeting; they get to know each other and start to appreciate what kind-hearted souls they are on the inside. They somehow catch feelings for each other and everything seems to be going well–until the guy messes up and becomes "somebody else 'round everyone else" shortly after they like each other upon their first encounter. Don’t expect Avril to leave the guy or the guy to go up to her and apologize, because that hardly (if ever) happens in the song, nor does such an auditory equivalent to a generic teen movie need such happy endings as the couple kissing. The two don't just simply break up and let each other go when Avril realizes what happened was a mistake (but they do in "My Happy Ending", which was released just two years later). It's one thing that this was a pop song. It's another thing that it had stupid lyrics too. But romance and drama were what seemed to matter the most here, as romantic or dramatic rock and pop songs spoke the least of creativity. There were preset golden rules that were always followed, and that's why you can always predict the songs. "Complicated" really was the epitome of high school drama and the lyrics were just so... mean-spirited? Spiteful? Malicious? Nasty? Who knows but us?
This song is just four minutes of Avril screaming at this dude because he's bothering her by just putting on a face and acting like he's somebody else. To be fair, Avril does get some points for being straightforward and upfront on how wrong it is to be a poser, but she instantly loses them for being a total brat about it–and for doing the exact same thing, which everyone has caught her doing, especially when she contradicts herself in interviews. The overall sound of this song is bland and mind-melting too. Too anodyne, too poppy, too smooth with clean-sounding electric guitar sounds that are constantly ringing (or jangling, in other words), too cheap and plastic, too acoustic, too middle-of-the-road, too corporate, too mellow, too edgeless, too light and too safe. Even "Sk8er Boi" is at least more guitar-heavy and "punk"-adjacent, which this song doesn't have anything going for. That’s hardly saying anything at all, however, because "Sk8er Boi" is even worse and more annoying.
Like the majority of pop music and romantic comedies like the ones mentioned above, this is the auditory equivalent of two painfully unfunny things–the first of which is a dad joke, and the second of which is a generic teen movie; bonus points for teen dramas and romantic teen comedies. This is the dad joke: Who goes and makes things so complicated? Who makes you frustrated when he's somebody else? What do you call a guy who strikes a pose and never takes off his preppy clothes? A poser! Songs like this are written with the purpose of being appealing to a very specific audience: One that primarily enjoys filthy, steaming piles of pure GARBAGE. The major record labels can produce said hot GARBAGE with very little money and effort. It's a dad joke so whiny and painfully unfunny that it isn't even "so bad, it's good". Avril, the mom who told this dad joke, is purely awful to an intriguing degree and is embarrassing to the women who told the same. I mean, come on, Avril! Saying "How do you feel when a guy acts like he's somebody else? Frustrated!" is not funny. Saying "What's having a life like when someone falls, crawls, breaks and takes what he gets? It's meaningless, isn't it?" is NOT funny either. Depression needs to be taken very seriously, you know. It's nothing to joke about. This isn't entirely the worst song ever, but it's so annoying and unfunny as much as it's whiny like all of Simple Plan's music. The key to enjoying the soccer mom-pandering "Complicated" is to just laugh at it. Laugh at the crappy melody and guitar riffs. Laugh at the tone of Avril’s voice and the way she sings, and then laugh at the lyrics. Laugh at the horrible, extremely low quality of the whole song. I don't want to go out of my way to offend people, but music like this is made because of 1.) corporate greed and 2.) suburban kids getting too much allowance. To those parents listening to "Complicated" while fearing what might happen to their urchins, THIS is what you should fear. Never mind those leaping out to abduct your kids in your safe, leafy, cookie-cutter suburb; kids are more likely to fall victim to worse things, especially if this single or any of this brat's other singles and albums keep being bought. That’s most definitely what’s gonna happen.