Avril Lavigne is the anti-Britney. She is the love child of Sid Vicious and Debbie Harry. She is Canada’s very own punk rock princess. And she is taking over the pop scene all over the country generating thousands of 14-year-old Avril wannabes. Avril Lavigne is my arch nemesis.
In Entertainment Weekly’s Nov. 1, 2002 issue, she discusses what it is to be “punk.”
“Punk is a touchy subject,” Lavigne said. “A punk is a person who’s always getting in trouble and doing things they’re not supposed to. Yeah, I do that … then there’s punk as a way of life, and punk rock as an aggressive form of music, which is very political, and I never said I was that … People are like, ‘Well she doesn’t know the Sex Pistols.’ Why should I know that stuff? Look how young I am. That stuff’s old, right?”
Now, I’d like to think someone who claims to be a “punk” or “punk rock” would know who the Sex Pistols are and why the band influenced the punk revolution. But, sadly, I’ve been let down by our generation’s newest punk princess.
How can people who are “hardcore” about being punk not know their roots within the revolution? They don’t even know what it is to be “punk.” So, in an effort to enlighten Avril Lavigne, as well as all the “hardcore punks,” here’s a history lesson.
Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten–for those who have no idea who these two gentlemen were, they were the Sex Pistols’ guitarist and singer. This combination was explosive; it put punk rock into the mainstream.
The purpose of the punk revolution was to give teens an outlet for their angst and boredom by creating music themselves.
When the Sex Pistols formed, the idea of DIY: do it yourself went down the tubes. Malcolm McLaren put the band together for publicity purposes alone. He created the Sex Pistols because he fell in love with a punk band from the U.S. named the New York Dolls, and wanted to bring the trend over to England. So he made a few calls and voila, the Sex Pistols were born, the media jumped on board and punk was marketed into the next big thing.
Avril Lavigne, among others, should care about this bit of history because history is repeating itself with the punk rock princess herself, along with various other “punk” bands on the market these days. Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, Blink 182, and the list goes on to name every band that considers itself punk in any way, shape or form. Bands are being created for publicity alone. They are marketed and sold just like a can of soup, and just like the Sex Pistols were.
I do enjoy some of these bands’ music. But I feel it necessary for them, as well as other fans, to know their roots if they want to be punk.
The punk revolution didn’t start with the Sex Pistols. That band came at the end of the revolution. The punk trend started in the late ’50s. It started with the breakout of rock ‘n’ roll. Without Buddy Holly and Elvis, there would be no punk.
In the 60’s, The Velvet Underground was a major influence in the underground movement. This is what punk was considered to be part of: the underground. The new “underground trend” turned into the “punk revolution” and moved onto bands such as the MC5, The Stooges, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, and the Sex Pistols. And now the punk revolution has turned to the trend we all know as the “punk rock” of today.
And so, the cycle repeats itself with Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte leading the “revolution,” as it once was called.
Once upon a time, kids actually got off their rear ends to pick up a guitar and sing into a microphone just because they could do it themselves. Then came the wicked witch of the entire country: the media. All hell broke loose. The notion of DIY was lost forever, and the media controlled every aspect of the music business, which when it first started wasn’t considered a business.
It’s sad how things change. But don’t let this heartbreaking tale get everyone down in the dumps. Go out there. Pick up a guitar. And do it yourself.