Avril Lavigne and "Complicated" Suck
Artist: Avril Lavigne
Song: "Complicated"
Year: 2002
Writer(s): The Matrix (Lauren Christy, Graham Ewards, Scott Spock)
Produced By: The Matrix (with mixing by Tom Lord-Alge)
Genres: Pop rock, post-grunge, sadcore
WARNING: This is not meant to be violated, reported or removed. This is only made for comedy purposes, in opposition to pop music and as a rebellion against what music hipster elitists consider creatively stagnant "classic rock". It is intended solely for mature audiences, as it contains coarse language and adult themes. With that out of the way, let's begin.
Fuck this song. No, seriously. This song and the artist it's by can just go screw themselves. I fucking hate "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne. The early noughties had a dump truck full of landfill-worthy, corporate, radio-friendly garbage; it was in 2002 when they unleashed the uranium that was this. It was a slice of pure audio cruelty that made it into the lexicon of pop-and it was, indeed, a CIA operation. This demonshit never should?ve been released as a single, yet it was and went to fucking #2 on the charts. This piece of true, inhuman filth was hoisted upon the most vulnerable, tasteless population in America-the little teeny boppers and the sad, angry, Hot Topic-going "emo'' kids who shouldn?t have called themselves emo in the first place. This song is scathingly annoying, overrated, overplayed and something that I can barely stomach. It?s a bland, faceless, safe, pop rock, sell-out, boring, soft, gentle, confining,
middle-of-the-road, soccer mom-pandering, 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 she gave birth to. For the kind of adult simple enough to fall under the song?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 and mind-controlling CD programs and compilations like "Pop Princess" in the UK, Kidz Bop, Disney?s "Superstar Kidz" and "Now That's What I Call Music! 10th Anniversary" in America, etc. The song was a cacophony like everything else on pop radio at the time. It showed just how well America could pull Canada?s strings. Avril is a Canadian who
has been milked dry by major record labels for 21 years as of today; "Complicated" shows how much she can be solidified as a wimpy soft rock pussy who sold her soul to the adult contemporary/teen pop devil, which is not a punk thing to do and is the least rock thing that?s ever been done. Teen pop/adult contemporary, just like its parent radio format (top 40), is the biggest insult to people who like music. Each and every song sounds exactly the same. The music clock format is also very predictable and formulaic: news; top of the hour jingle; classic music; short radio sweeper; current music; short talk; recurrent music; short jingle; classic music; power intro; current music; short sweeper; classic music; long talk; recurrent music; short sweeper; classic music; pre-sell talk; recurrent music; short sweeper; classic music; pre-sell talk; promo; commercials; rinse and repeat.
Teen pop/adult contemporary is comparable to
what was called, in the ?70s and ?80s, "soft rock"
or "FM lite". Since this is a pop genre, that
means it is generally more beholden to the
mainstream tastes of the buying public and to
the emotional space it creates than to
groundbreaking originality. You?re going to find
familiar time signatures, familiar chords, chord
progressions and a simple "verse, chorus"
structure. You?ll rarely find hugely divergent
bridges or extended solos that break the verse or
chorus progressions. The music must also be
"beautiful" or appropriate by the standards of
the buying public. Ugly, atonal, challenging
stuff is right out. The genre conspicuously tends
to exclude rap, hip-hop, a great deal of
higher-energy dance music, hard rock, metal
and punk. The genre is sentimental and meant to
appeal to a sentimental,
generationally-perspectival notion of "when
music was nice". That?s in the eye of the beholder, I grant. But remember, just as what "contemporary music" means changes with the decades, "what pop music used to sound like" means the same. As such, if it strays from its exclusion areas, it will be to include songs that are compatibly sentimental and "chill". In looking at this genre through its many reinventions, it almost always seems to be a reaction to emerging music trends and a standing-apart from "the new sound". At the turn of the ?60s, teen pop/adult contemporary was called "bubblegum", "easy listening or "MOR". It was a badge stations used to advertise "We?re not just an oldies station, but we?re not going to play that stuff that offends more conservative parents or isn?t kid-friendly like rock and roll." When it turned into "soft rock" in the ?70s and later teen pop/adult contemporary, it served as a home for the gentle,
non-belligerent folk rock, country rock and ?60s balladeer acts, as distinct from the heavier studio rock acts. Some of the softer, more ballady pieces from acts that would have been considered "harder rock" would slide into this format by the ?80s, due to the aforementioned nostalgia effect and generational changes. Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Toto and some of Styx?s ballads were a bit bolder than most of what passed for "soft rock" in years past, but still represented a "standing apart" from disco, punk, emerging synth-funk, metal and hair metal/hard/arena rock.
Like many so-called "punk rockers" who don?t sing and aren?t punk rock, I?m sure Avril would resent being labeled as pop. And you know what? She actually fucking resents being labeled as pop! Avril doesn?t even rock like most bands of the pop punk era and rarely sings pop punk, yet record companies did their best to make her
fit within the pop punk crowd for God knows some reason; that?s about as pop punk as she gets. I?m pretty sure this is what the whole "pop punk" thing has more to do with being and truly is: a fucking cultural movement and a terrible one at that. She also falls under the category of "My second biggest and most well-known hit song ?Complicated? didn?t rock and was bland as fuck; I wasn?t even given the creative freedom to rock hard. My third biggest hit was a fucking obligatory ballad called ?I?m with You? and it rocked even less." I?m not sure why, exactly. In her defense, "I?m with You" and especially "Complicated" have all the hallmarks of "soft rockers" and ballads recorded under duress. In fact, you should ask Avril the question given in the chorus. Arista Records, the same record label that Pink signed a contract with, wanted Avril the wannabe rockstar to replicate the success of Shania Twain and Faith Hill; as such,
Lavigne was destined to be a country artist, which pretty much alienated her. When Let Go was released in 2002, it was more punk-influenced pop rock with a slight influence or two from country pop acts like Shania Twain and Faith Hill, thanks to Avril taking her criticisms to heart. There was even a power pop banger called "Sk8er Boi", a few hard rockers that blurred the line between post-grunge and emo pop and an emphasis on the "bad girl" elements previously hinted at in Pink?s music. The album?s success set the course for the rest of Avril?s career. Did you think I was being serious when I brought up Faith Hill and Shania Twain? No, I wasn?t. I?m not even saying that they?re country, because they?re not. When she eventually grew up listening to rock and pop bands, she later became the slave for manufactured, cliched pop music she is now. Why was "Complicated" ever recorded? I think
a bunch of shady managers at the Sony Music-owned Arista Records must have been involved in this piece of shit being made:
L.A. Reid: Oh, good! You?re here, Avril! So tell me, is it true that you want to go to Hollywood? Is it true that you moved here to record your first album?
Avril Lavigne: Like, yes! Absolutely!
L.A. Reid: Good for you, Avril. That?s what I like to hear. Hey, we need some folk songs on your album.
Avril Lavigne: Like, no way! Like, I?m a rockstar! I, like, wear ties and shit because I can! I just discovered, like, guitar-based rock!
L.A. Reid: Well, I found you auditioning in a balladic, "new country" style. Here?s the thing, Avril-we need to get you on the radio and MTV as part of Total Request Live or one of the
network?s other music video blocks. The radio means record sales. Disney?s AM radio brand means the same. Record sales mean limos and mall-going pretty boys.
Avril Lavigne: Like, no way, man! MTV and the radio suck! Like, I don?t need them!
L.A. Reid: Well, then, I guess we?ll have to find another group or artist to open on those upcoming tours.
Avril Lavigne: You mean... I?d actually have an audience to play, like, in front of? People who won?t be offended by me or pick fights with me when I?m putting on my makeup in the women?s bathroom?
L.A. Reid: Sure, but I need some "new country" songs and a couple of lighters-in-the-air ballads first. In the next year or so, if nothing works for you, you?ll probably be on the verge of you having to drop us.
Avril Lavigne: OK, but I?m not singing any trash pop or what me and my family have called "country" as much as everyone else when it isn?t. Not that I hate it...
You might think of Avril as someone who rejects "today?s popular sound" and is looking for tomorrow?s or is looking for more of yesterday?s sound rather than what?s current. You might even believe she is the antidote to teen pop/adult contemporary, or as the former should be called, teen poop. Teen pop/adult contemporary is a terrible genre in music. Boy bands like N Sync and girl groups like Destiny?s Child are despised by many to this day for igniting the manufactured band wars of the late ?90s. Say what you will about them, but at least they didn?t try to be "avant-garde" like Avril. If there?s a wrong way to do music with which you try to be all "original" and "different", then her
songs would be prime examples of that; aside from the bitchy, whiny, devoid-of-emotion, screaming, angst-laden, mean-spirited lyrics and overproduction, she has such a horrible voice. Hell, she even lacks the creativity of Joan Jett and the Donnas. Keep dreaming all you want to, as you?ll be dead wrong if you think that Avril is any of the above. She and her music are manufactured and poppy as hell. Music is constantly evolving, and as we all know it, most music (especially metal, punk and jazz) shares a few qualities. Music like rock and jazz originally became popular due to having inherent art, rebellion and resistance to the Status Quo. For the longest time, however, mainstream forms of music have been as conventional and popular as they are; many popular acts have unfortunately been controlled by companies and the mainstream media, but music will always be the most important form of
expression and has influenced all climates of every country around the world. Music like rock and jazz, if not abused or cloned for mass consumption, is mostly considered respectable entertainment. Sadly, cloning such genres and abusing them for mass consumption are so rampant that anyone can do them. Avril is still around to this day solely to a few things, the main one of which is appealing to the lowest common denominator. No matter how much she wants to kick and scream that it?s not what she does, it is. People might argue, "Making music can be very difficult. It takes a skilled professional to do such a thing on a regular basis." Not at all. Everyone can make music or be an artist, which implies that everyone can and will make music to accommodate school, their hometown, their friends and their family; in those immediate areas, that music will instantly be a hit. It takes a lot of work to be a
good artist or to form a good band, but seriously, anyone can do it. In recent years, I?ve been feeling worked up over new music that isn?t talented and entertaining enough, due to the fact that one couldn?t possibly be entertained by it. No one could possibly understand the lyrics or not think they were too over-the-top, vulgar and/or obscene. These really are the excuses to cross off certain musical experiences like pop music and popular music (e.g. Latin music, "generic radio rock", country, electronic music, R&B, soul and rap). Selling your soul and/or pandering to a movement that attempts to make normal teen angst cool, or is a "my life sucks harder than yours" contest you have to win on with your pretensions, is also not rock and roll.
Now no one around Avril was suffering from hormones and high school in her freshman years, but this does not explain why she?s now a capitalist pop star who wants to convince
everyone that pretending to be emo is original or cool. I mean, it?s not original or cool at all. To break away from their boredom, Avril?s fans like to wear Hot Topic or Amazon-bought T-shirts of shitty artists and bands like Paramore/Haley Williams, My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, System of a Down, Hollywood Undead, Five Finger Death Punch, BABYMETAL, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and Green Day. If they?re preps and not posers, they might even wear T-shirts of Taylor Swift, One Direction and the fucking Jonas Brothers. Just Google "the jonas brothers hot topic" and you?ll see what I mean. The fans of Avril also like to grow these freakishly long-ass bangs to help warp their vision. Sometimes, they might even dye them black. Otherwise, they?ll dye them blonde for some reason (hell, even Avril chose to dye her hair blonde). This new vision causes Avril?s so-called "emo" and "punk" fans to insult people
who love real emo (such as At the Drive In) by making a fad of feigning the modern rock crowd?s hatred for fake/false emo. Avril?s (punk-influenced) pure pop and "emo" songs consist of lyrics about the greatness of being in the stereotypical "emo" style. She?s a girl who has too much of a "skater" sort of look going on and not enough theatrics to be considered emo; however, she is severely narcissistic, insensitive and insincere, leading her fans to believe that they alone know what sincerity is or what a sincere album is like. In fact, most of them are simply experiencing or have experienced puberty, just like everyone else. They all believe that their personal introspections could not be worse and life in a quiet suburban house with a TV and computer is the worst that anyone?s ever had. Some also think they?re "tough" and "burly" because they enjoy Slipknot and MCR. For others, it?s because they were born thinking
about a curse that made them think they were real demons or vampires who saw no good in themselves. Basically, some "emos" are virgin twats who take denial of their unattractiveness to a new extreme by walking around in PetSmart into personal pride. When they?re told to fuck off, the so-called "emos" know they've been suddenly rejected by society.
Avril is someone who stripped away all the complexities of "alternative" music (or as it?s often called, alt-rock). Punk too. She boiled them both down to a few tropes, and voila! Avril now had the perfect blueprint for cashing in on modern rock?s success; it was given to her when some brilliant exec at Sony Music said, "Hey, let?s replace rock and punk music with pop disguised as both! We should also replace all the smart girls with better tastes and healthier senses of drama who see through and rebel against us with some painfully annoying,
spoiled little Canadian brat!" Those execs must?ve been the ones who said to the real rock and punk bands, "We need you to make music that is more commercial AND obnoxious." The more I listen to these stupid pop rock songs, the more stupid I feel! They are so vapid and horrible! They didn?t just destroy rock OR punk; they tore them up, spat on them and took a shit on them. By all means, I recommend The Ramones or Bad Religion. However, do not listen to Avril. Now Avril?s primary style is pop rock, which is just watered-down rock music at best. At worst, it's too light, poppy and simple to even be considered rock. Avril has a really bad case of the latter, and a simplification of the rules or activities present in the rock-sphere should be used carefully and deliberately rather than to just streamline the experience. Dumbing down rock, especially this much, means that it's no longer complex or interesting.
Emo wasn?t about being sad all the time, frowning and sitting in a corner while crying. It was all about being emotional- happy, sad, silly, glad, peaceful, energetic, excited, creative, you name it; these are all considered orange (bittersweet) and yellow (positive) emotions. Avril isn?t even fucking emo, is hardly considered such and is barely pop punk; she has every right not to be the latter, but shouldn?t be accepted as a solo pop punk artist. She is pop with rock instrumentation. I?m sure not everyone in her scene will hate or have anything against her like I do, but I sure as hell would hate for people to think of Avril when pop punk is mentioned. From what I see, she barely represents the aesthetics or values of the emo or pop punk scenes. I call her emo in name only (``emo'') or emo pop because she has little importance to pop punk and commercial success is ultimately not what?s important to emo; if it
was, then everyone would look and sound like Avril. She is pop with a rock flavor and also doesn?t like being slapped in the teen pop genre because she says that?s not what she is. The problem with her watering down punk and emo is that she dresses like she does, which would be perfectly fine for her to understand if she could be open-minded, but she?s just so closed off in her own little label-ridden world. Another problem is that she hardly associates herself with pop punk, which led to me calling her emo pop or "not real emo" instead. Calling her emo would be the same thing as calling 5 Seconds of Summer "rock", One Direction "punk" because someone thought Hot Topic would be punk by offering 1D clothes, Kesha "rap" or Stone Temple Pilots "post-grunge". Lavigne doesn?t even write poetry and fakes everything she does. If by some chance she makes a really manufactured pop song where she manages to
get a date like "My Happy Ending", she?ll be pissed and break up when she?s not bragging about how much of a bitch she is and playing the victim. The principle of her "freedom" in doing "what she wants to and not what major record labels tell her to do" is that the more you bitch about no one liking you, the more no one will like you, which she ignores. Unfortunately, this bitch and her fans who think they?re all emo and punk when they?re not are some of the biggest pussies in the universe, so they just about never get it right.
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 all her backing band could do was drum slowly and play three or four simple power chords, yet it was a big hit back then-along with "Don?t Let Me Get Me" by Pink and "Blurry" by Puddle of Mudd. I can?t tell how they all came to be that
way. They were some of the most overplayed songs of 2002, which is surprising when taking how stupid, bland and faceless they are into consideration. No matter how much of a piece of shit this song was like the teen pop turds of the ?90s and early 2000s-or how much only teeny boppers and angry little "emo" kids could ever relate to this song-Avril went on to have many more hits (including four more singles in the top 10: "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend"). There must be some inside joke that I?m not familiar with where everyone tries to push Avril into the media as if they love her in a weird attempt to troll. Honestly, I think there are a huge chunk of people who consider "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" classics. If she were a small fish in the big industry pond like Michelle Branch or a one-hit wonder like Right Said Fred, that would be fine, but Avril has many pop rock staples like the
other top 10 hits I mentioned above. The worst part is that she?s so catchy, her songs are all like a disease. Once you hear them, they?ll be stuck in your head forever. If you can?t learn to cope with them, you?ll feel miserable for the rest of your life. Another horrible thing is that people think she is some incredible singer, but I don?t even understand why, and her songs are so annoyingly catchy; they?re not even anything special because they?re pop shit. She doesn?t have many specific songs that stand out in a shitty sort of way. No, that?s not a compliment. 97% of her music is gigantic shitloads of disposable, bubblegum, third world-grade pop garbage vaguely disguised as rock or punk/emo music. Or both.
Along with Simple Plan and Good Charlotte, Avril further commercialized the "emo" movement and brought it to its popified conclusion. She made pop an even more toxic
musical environment than it already was; apparently, she would rather just be part of the pop punk movement than make pop punk songs. She?d also rather make pure pop shit, or hell, even diarrhea instead of music. Yes, you all heard that right. A song that is so horribly written like this should never, EVER become a hit, yet it seems that people must be used to being fed shit for music when it does. They must be used to seeing pop diarrhea, thinking that it?s something new and slurping it right up like the mass consumers they are. I don?t even want to classify Avril as pop punk. Ambition and creativity are her claims to fame, though neither is present in her music; regardless of value, she has way too many labels and claims to fame behind her. Her lyrics are safe (vulgar and filled with swear words at the most), her lyrical content is safe, her music is safe and she just wants to make people feel good. What Avril
likes to create is masturbatory, digital, robotic-sounding ear-fuckery for mall-going posers that only millionaires with too much money on their hands, or not enough time, would even consider creating. She is responsible for killing the heart that rock and punk came from, which is just picking up an instrument and playing. Avril needs more than just playing an instrument, you see. Something beyond creating art through mastery of a musical instrument... I mean, something far from creating art through such mastery and something that?s not even fucking close. Avril needs a computer, the lowest common denominator as her audience, a vocal harmonizer, a DJ who can do lots of 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. She spent six years (2002 to 2008) trying to pander to these kids who:
Were proud because they listened to Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, or at least pretended to be.
Said they liked metal but only listened to the manufactured, corporate, non-genuine, whiny, angst-ridden, atonal crap that was all screaming noise like System of a Down, Korn, Linkin Park, Bring Me the Horizon and Slipknot.
Tried too hard to be random.
Never talked about any yellow or orange (positive) emotions, just like Ms. Lavigne, instead wallowing and drowning in self-pity. Yep, no positivity or real emotion, just this nonsense.
Got butthurt over small things.
Were posers like Avril was.
Said they could do what they wanted because they were ``emo''.
Were stereotypes because they wanted to be stereotypes.
Were hypocrites like Avril.
Complained about the "popular kids".
Used being "emo" as an excuse to complain.
Not unlike Bella from Twilight, Avril is portrayed in ``Complicated'' as an unlikable and cliched girl who calls out the guy she?s in a relationship with for his CCP (cute, cool and popular socialite) but goes out of her way to make him and his buddies feel miserable. She is not overly intelligent, overly beautiful, overly witty or even brave. In fact, Avril seems to be based on having pretty much nothing worth mentioning going for her except for being an asshole and a jerk. Bella from Twilight and Avril are immediately identifiable to every
insecure, mopey, isolated teenager on the planet. They could be any one of them and any one of these teenagers could be Bella or Avril. Bella is what we call an "empty vessel" character. There?s nothing about them that?s even an identifying marker. While Bella went from a paragon of mediocrity to a damsel in distress, waiting for her white knight to show her a world she never could have imagined, Avril starts out as the former when she gets the guy she likes here and the latter in "I'm with You". Think about it for a moment, people. I could at least stomach that song better than this atrocity. The only real reason listeners who like such shit music as this do is because of the miserable central relationships between Avril and her boyfriend. That?s sad. Why? It?s sad because Avril is not who you want to end up with, especially for the long haul. 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", the bitch is suddenly a total jerkass about it. She feels there?s no way around this and can?t resist the guy in anything. She starts bitching about how "horrible", "complicated" and "tragic" her life is and acts like the guy being two-faced or her being in a complicated relationship is the worst thing that EVER happened to her when there are much worse things that could happen in life like murder, lack of water, corruption, a decline in education, political instability, hunger, war, poverty, terrorism, etc. That?s what we got after
39 years or so of the women?s rights movement: Avril?s first-ever song and one where she feels there?s no way to resist the guy in anything. How about if the guy kept whatever integrity he had and ran away from her? How about breaking up with her? How about getting her to ask herself the all-important question, "What
would you do in a situation like this?" By the way, the runner-up is when Avril believes she couldn?t imagine anything about herself being in any way interesting to the guy. For all those folks who say we?re in a post-feminist generation, I guess we still have a teensy bit of work on the whole self-esteem-building business for our girls. Back to the self-description of Avril and the guy as specific members of the food chain: girls, remember that if you?re the lion and he?s the lamb more than you are, you shouldn?t lie down with him. "Everyone else" is also unworthy and no one in that group seems to be inclined to help her or the guy when THEY?RE HIS FUCKING BUDDIES. Not even AVRIL seems to be inclined to help him. As the auditory equivalent to some dad joke or generic teen movie that nobody cares about, "Complicated" is a damaging one. Even, or especially, as an escape
for a young girl who?s longing to break out of her everyday confinements, Avril?s music is a trap and she is a whiny, spoiled brat. Not only does she bitch about life and/or how much she hates herself in this song, but she does in some of her other songs as well (e.g. "Losing Grip", "Unwanted", "My Happy Ending", "Don?t Tell Me", "Fall to Pieces", etc.). Even when she?s on her "fun" side, Avril is even more atrocious and still a douchebag in every possible way, like when she cheats on her boyfriend to get back at him in "What the Hell??; she goes on lots of dates with other boys because he never calls on or listens to her and at that point in the song, Avril doesn?t care if her boyfriend loves or hates her, so she acts like him. She ruined MTV and helped turn it into PTV (Pop Television), as did all the trashy reality shows that turned the network into RTV (Reality Television). There were better shows on MTV in the past like
Beavis and Butt-head and Celebrity Deathmatch, but that doesn?t mean The Real World never ruined MTV. It most definitely did. The Real World involves a cast of dumb idiots who act stupid and go crazy. Even just watching a few seconds is enough and you?d probably be puking if you were ever forced to watch a whole episode. This so-called "punk" music isn?t any less stupid and just dumbs down the masses, especially little kids and teens; they tend to be the ones listening to this mindless shit. I hate Avril so much. It pisses me off that crap like Avril used to saturate the airwaves here in America while quality music, as usual, would be completely neglected. At least the Ramones, as tuneful and melodic as they were, never embraced crappy genres of music as openly as Avril. They make her look like a puppy in a basket. Do you honestly think that Linkin Park could ever write a song with lyrics like those on
"Loudmouth", "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat on the Brat", "53rd and 3rd", "We?re a Happy Family" or "Chinese Rocks"? I don?t think so. The Ramones are old school, bop-along punk. I?m not even going into hardcore punk bands or thrash bands because, chances are, they?re a million times angrier than Avril and they have real credibility. I hate Avril. Then again, I hate any and all artists who take shelf space away from quality music. Avril isn?t just bad-she is one of the worst things in existence and one of the most annoying, braindead things ever. You retch. You gag. You scream as you run from the building in hopes that she won?t follow you. None of her legions of self-pitying fans even care, as they feel they can truly connect with her "inspiring" and "deep" music. "Complicated" is a stupid song with its pathetic whining and it?s essentially the anthem for mallcore cultural stagnancy where stupid, retarded posers are
never what they act like and are basically losers trying to fit in. I mean, does the lyrical rejection of conformism necessarily have to imply an assumption of any political, non-conformist views or rejecting pop music and Hot Topic? I don?t think so. I doubt that Avril and the Matrix put that much thought into this. Dance-pop was the most commercially viable type of pop music at the time this song came out and noted for its commercial aspect. It was also cited for a lack of authenticity and cut into the commercial viability of the kind of "rock"/"punk" that Avril Lavigne would base her career around. It was a lot for the mall-going pop fans who attached themselves to the music, to say the least. Dance-pop is the music that kids these days are listening to because they don?t know about the stuff that we had back in the good old days. It?s always amusing when people automatically assume some kind of nefarious, underlying
bigotry as the reason for rejecting any kind of music, like disco due to its connections to racial and sexual minorities (even more so when there were talks about music as prevalent in the mainstream as disco once was), for instance. Maybe these arguments would hold water if there were an unsolicited line Avril threw in about queercore or something. What I?m trying to say is that, with a song that does as many shitty things as "Complicated" or "Sk8er Boi", there?s no reason to try and grasp for some kind of superficially anti-conformist or political subtext. Next to "Sk8er Boi", this is the worst track on Let Go. Even if it was a rock song and could rock, it wouldn?t be that good, if ever. I think we can all hear the irony of Avril complaining about her friend lacking soul and how soulless posers are when she, in fact, is pure pop/Nickelbackian shit and a fucking poser. It?s a crime that "Complicated" and
"Girlfriend" are her most popular songs because her "better" ones, which also suck in my opinion, deserve more attention than them. "Nobody?s Home" deserves more attention because Avril wrote it for a friend who was experiencing problems and tried to do something for her. "Take Me Away" deserves more attention. "I?m with You", as well-known as it already is, deserves more attention than those two abomination songs and the dreaded "Sk8er Boi". "He Wasn?t" is a less shitty pop punk banger than "Sk8er Boi" and is post-grunge, which is something "Boi" has nothing going for. "How Does It Feel" deserves more attention. "Forgotten" and "Slipped Away" deserve more attention. Even her 2002 album cuts like "Mobile" and "My World", as shitty as they are, deserve more attention.
"Complicated" is not only a pop song masquerading as a rock one and a major pop
facade-an attempt at emulating and imitating rock-but it?s a romantic drama disguised as music (well, so is almost every power ballad ever made). Literally everything I hate about pop music is right here. It marks just about every box in the mainstream, poser, sell-out pantheon of music like anything by Good Charlotte and Simple Plan. It?s the same as all the other auditory equivalents of romantic comedies and dramas. Same damn plotlines, damn gags that barely get any laughs, damn lyrics, damn themes, damn topics, damn subject matter, damn lyrical content. I honestly think the producers just counted on making Avril have us listen to this song with someone we liked. I?m pretty sure it was 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,
cliche lyrics and themes. It?s all quantity over quality. Romantic dramas or comedies disguised as music like this piece of shit, which starts off with the guy and Avril meeting, suck because they still sell as they are and they all have the same shallow meanings. If this song had a greater meaning, that doesn?t mean it wouldn?t be unimportant, shallow or contrived. When Avril and the guy get to know each other, they 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, and neither romantic dramas nor romantic comedies disguised as music 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 came out two years later). It?s one thing that this is a pop song. It?s another thing that it has stupid lyrics too. But romance and drama are what seem to matter the most here, as romantic or dramatic rock and pop songs speak the least of creativity. There are preset golden rules that are always followed and that?s why you can always predict the songs. This song really is the epitome of high school drama and the lyrics are just so bitchy. I?m so shocked over this. I really wanted to elaborate on why these lyrics are awful and I needed to, so I did. Hey, I have a crazy idea, Avril: you wanna know what it is? Here it is: pay attention to what songs you're writing about (in part, that is) and what you do or how you act in them. Maybe you should do that instead of glorifying yourself for committing such heinously petty,
undignified and downright imbecilic acts of what you call "revenge" or "rebellion". If you elevate yourself from the basic visceral joy of whining for a long time around a guy (and it can be just any guy) and fantasizing it, you?ll realize that acting out this fantasy doesn?t make you seem strong, independent or respectable at all. That would be like Carrie Underwood busting someone?s four-wheel drive in "Before He Cheats"! Yeah, the first reaction when Carrie finds out that her husband?s cheating in that song is to bust his car in half a dozen ways instead of addressing his behavior to his face! Avril won?t feel left out any fucking less or any more included if she has the same problem in any of her songs as Good Charlotte and Linkin Park; both bands are known for having the most headache-inducing, angst-filled lyrics in history. The fact that THIS is her reaction in "Complicated" when a guy who?s more popular
than her tries to fit in but only comes off as a poser and a typical alpha kid shows that she?s weak, impulsive, vulnerable, thoughtless and immature! This is the sort of reactionary act of wanton "rebellion", anger, "revenge", "strength" and "girl power" that we must endure from her when she believes she?s helpless and has nothing else to do! And she?s proud of what she did?! WHY?! Why does she think she should be proud of what she did?! She fucking shouldn?t! Does she really think he?ll turn his crap into honesty and promise her she won?t find him faking? Honestly, she should be promising him not to live out some ridiculous "revenge" fantasy without any understanding of the consequences or how it reflects her as a person!
"Complicated" is just four minutes of Avril screaming at this dude and displaying her psychotic tendencies because he?s bothering her by acting and dressing differently. 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 dick about it. She just has to be a cunt about EVERYTHING, doesn?t she? Yeah, that?s the saddest thing and it makes "Complicated" as sad of a song as it gets. But Avril likes to contradict herself in interviews,
WHICH MEANS THAT SHE CAN DO THE EXACT SAME SHIT AS THE GUY IN THE SONG ALL SHE WANTS TO. That makes her a fucking POSER and a HYPOCRITE! The overall sound of "Complicated" is fucking bland and mind-melting too. Too anodyne, too boring, not that loud, too middle-of-the-road, too conservative, too corporate, too mellow, too Mandy Moore-esque, too edgeless, too light, not rock and roll, too safe and most definitely not punk. The opening guitar line makes me want to kill myself and even "Sk8er Boi" has more
guitars than this song. I?ve hardly even said anything at all, however, because the more "punk"-adjacent "Sk8er Boi" is even worse and more annoying. I know how much sense it made to call the poser bands who were considered "rock" (like Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Jimmy Eat World, Forever the Sickest Kids, Fall Out Boy and the Jonas Brothers) or "punk" (like the former five and Green Day) poser bands, but this is PURE POP. Just because your name is Avril and you worked to get to where you are now or look good doesn?t mean you should be considered musically talented. That?s what happens when, if you?re a talentless charlatan, computer-generated sounds and beats get thrown in. Lyricists and Auto-Tune are also thrown in for the same reason, so where?s the talent? Nowhere! Let me play it fair by saying that "Losing Grip" and "Unwanted" are decent songs and "I?m with You" is average. To hell
with the rest of this whiny, faux-punk, pseudo-rock garbage. And people call her "a pop punk queen"? I don?t believe it. Her shit is nothing but pure mainstream pop that appeals to teen girls who don?t understand music. Why in the name of Jesus Christ, the most metal of all deities, do people consider her rock and roll or punk when she?s ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT?! I think it?s because rock and punk must have been very horribly rewritten. It?s amazing how many people view Avril as an actual rock singer. "Girlfriend" was big enough of a hint that this mindless, fucking stupid, wide-eyed rock wannabe sold out as soon as Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin entered the recording booth. I also doubt that she was never signed solely for one reason-to produce pop rock hits. But this bitch?s fans continue to think that there?s artistic merit hidden somewhere in the middle of her songs, mostly her older ones
like "My Happy Ending". Yeah, so little for my happy ending and so much more for an unhappy one. On the other hand, modern rock (when it was given the name "alternative rock" in the 1980s) used to describe a style of music that emerged in the late ?80s and early ?90s. It used to be characterized by bands who had a "do-it-yourself" or non-conformist attitude; hence "punk" with punk, and "alternative" with modern rock. Modern rock originated with the jangle pop guitar sounds of R.E.M. and the "loud, soft" dynamic of the Pixies; it gained popularity when a grunge band called Nirvana brought it into the mainstream with their album Nevermind in 1991. Ironically, modern rock became probably the most popular music of the time period, which was a paradox of sorts in itself-although purposely anti-mainstream and "against the norm", it became commonplace for people to conform to non-conformity. Today,
``alternative'' is more or less a term often thrown around by people who don?t really understand what it is and think that it can be applied to any band or artist of their choosing. This term has even been applied to, you guessed it, Lavigne. Of course, the people who consider her "alternative"-along with the pop punk bands and any "singer-songwriter" garbage-must be clueless. What if they don?t perform in an already-established style of modern (not alternative) or indie rock like dream pop or jangle pop? Also, all of them follow a bad mindset instead of a good one. All of their music is pure mass media shit at best, pop shit pretending to be something that it?s not at worst. They hardly even follow the mindset that they must influence, be inspired and inspire others, evolve and-if they?re big names and major label products-avoid being controlled by said major labels and the mass media. It?s ironic that the
likes of Blink-182 and Avril have CLONED alt-rock just to become as popular as they did. Bonus points for Avril since most of her music is NOT EVEN FUCKING CLOSE TO ROCK. That?s what I mean when I say her music is, well, NOT ROCK. She represents an attempt to clone rock music so calculated and off-the-mark, not even all the payola in the world could sway your typical radio DJ. Avril doesn?t even know that punk is, or was, supposed to be the opposite of what most people like hearing. Fucking sad. "Complicated", a low to no-quality piece of shit, is not even a rock song IN THE SLIGHTEST. It?s adult contemporary/teen pop and everything about it is wrong. It?s nothing but pompous, overproduced, over-polished nonsense with ultra-synthesized vocals and vinyl scratching/drum loops galore. Fuck the media for lying and claiming that Avril is from a whole
world of more organic-sounding, less polished music. She fucking isn?t at all. She?s manufactured and corporate as hell, for the love of God! Look outside the mainstream pop-sphere for once, people. Seriously, this song would sound a lot better if the instruments and the vocals were recorded together in the studio. Music shouldn?t be perfect; it just sounds overproduced and unnatural that way. It?s one thing that every single instrument and vocal is recorded by themselves on single tracks and then meshed together, but it?s another thing for Avril to be so desperate to conform to blandness in music. Avril lies in her interviews about beholding to ambitious musicianship and groundbreaking originality when, as I?ve stated before, rock music has to be original and can?t be fused with pop. She also messes with listeners? brains by pretending to have both and appearing to be a legitimate musician when, let?s
admit it, her music is pure fucking SHIT POP! In "Complicated", she is laid back in her delivery of the verses. The song is 90% live drums (on the Tom Lord-Alge mix), acoustic guitar and drum loops. The music panders to the buying public-known for being in opposition to harder-edged music like hard rock, metal, punk a la Bad Religion or Black Flag, grunge or club music-with its acoustic and "clean" electric instrumentation. The drum loops are notes taken from hip hop, plus they are smooth as hell. You don?t hear a lot of loud guitars and there isn?t any distortion. Fuck, it?s even difficult to hear any of the rock guitars on songs like this with the slick production burying them.
Like the majority of pop music and romantic comedies like the ones I mentioned above, "Complicated" is the auditory equivalent of two painfully unfunny things: the first is a dad joke, and the second is a generic teen movie. 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 fucking 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 human shit. Major record labels can produce said warm, just-squeezed shit 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 "What can a dude get you when he acts like he?s somebody else? Frustrated!" is not funny. Saying "What?s having a life like when someone falls and takes what he gets? It?s shitty and meaningless, isn?t it?" is
NOT funny either; rather, it needs to be taken as seriously as possible. It?s nothing to joke about. This isn?t entirely the worst song ever, but it?s so annoying, immature and unfunny as much as it?s whiny. The key to enjoying the soccer mom-pandering "Complicated" is to just laugh at it. Laugh at the crappy melody and guitar riffs. Go on! Just laugh at how crappy they are! No edge or grit, no raw musical approaches, no experimentation, no stripped-back instrumentation, no angular sounds and no poetic or cryptic lyricism whatsoever! 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 (which I hope never happens), especially if this single or any of this bitch?s other singles and albums keep being bought. That's most definitely what's gonna happen. Avril sings terribly, given that Let Go is as horrendously synthesized of an album as pop music could get back then. What a way to go and make things so complicated for all the listeners out there, huh, Avril? Vocal harmonizers were everywhere in 2002, but they weren't very advanced.
also If they needed you to sing and you wanted to sound good-or better than usual, at the very least, too bad. I know for a fact that Britney Spears couldn?t sing and relied on them. Well, neither can Avril. Britney will often lip-sync in
her live performances; if not, she?ll sound like a choking cow! She really does sing that badly! Not only can?t she sing, but she can no longer act, doesn?t know anything about music and is completely talentless. She used to be able to sing like an angel back in the ?90s, but she was trained by her team to sing in her trademark baby voice. They did so because they thought she would be radio-friendlier and more marketable if she sang in that voice, so she did. As for Avril, she sounds and has always sounded horrible like Britney has. She?s such a tone-deaf, off-key, breathy poser; this song and the album that spawned it really show how much work on her voice needed to be done. That?s how badly she sings and has always sung, even after Under My Skin, when her production became much more sophisticated and greatly improved. On her first two albums (Let Go and Under My Skin), her voice was just so robotic
and mechanical, especially when she switched to her chest voice. Even hitting just a few low or high notes could totally screw up and ruin her singing. Avril?s live voice back then was even worse, as she was off-key through all the songs in her live performances and could sound out-of-breath at times. I can?t imagine who accepted her as a singer. Metallica is one of the greatest bands the world has ever seen; they made four great albums, and that?s just about enough to call them great. Such artists today cannot record anything without software, and unfortunately, Avril just sounds awful. Yes, even in that recorded music. I must say that she doesn?t even know she?s a bad singer. Her live voice since 2007 also sucks, but at least she sings way better than she did from 2002 to 2006. To the youngsters, you better stop listening to such artists and bands so that they don?t destroy the musical peace of this world.
Even if Avril can sound happy when she sings, or IS happy, she makes you imagine how huge the smile on her face must be. At the same time, though, this kind of music is completely soulless and way too safe. This is music for teeny boppers. It?s for girls ages 6-19. It?s for angry little "emo" kids who keep asking for non-emo songs that they want to relate to. It?s for soccer moms whose daughters worship Avril the fucking pussy-ass, pop rock, shitty wannabe who qualifies more as a trendie than an artist all day and night.
Avril has such a toxic state of mind and she?s just a toxic person in general. She is the most pretentious image in pop culture ever, and one of the most pretentious in modern culture too. I know how much more pretentious Billie Eilish is, but still. Avril should be all about disregarding the angry emotions that may be stirred up, not being in the music industry?s
shadow or anyone else?s. It?s not uncommon to make fun of her, since all she and Alanis Morrissette do is try to sell an image with no true love for the music. They don?t have anything that would excuse this, nor anything that would justify them supposedly getting there or "working hard" in as little time as possible- before they were popularized by MTV and the radio. They promoted pre-made images ready to be sold to teenagers and pre-teens; they were the people who had never heard of The Ramones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan or The Sex Pistols but shopped at Hot Topic. For six years (2002 to 2008), this worked and made Avril part of an entire culture referred to as "mall-core". Feel free to laugh at Avril and her fans, because most people who know what quality or genuine music is do. Many like to characterize punk as only power chords and simple drum beats, which makes them complete and utter idiots who
should be regarded as imbeciles. They more than likely have known nothing about music in the first place, or are just that type of idiot with no understanding. Punk has had its fair share of complicated guitar solos and insane drumming performances, all while keeping a melody-which most "jam bands?? sorely lack-along with talent and lyrical prowess. Many of the early punk bands did utilize simple chords and beats, but like all types of music, punk branched out and has many styles-from simple to complex, traditional to exotic-it all has to do with where you?re looking. I find it hard to describe Avril?s backing band?s playing on "Complicated" other than that it sucks, and Corky James can only play three to four guitar chords. Can he even play a solo? No, absolutely not! He can?t play a single one! Then again, no one in her backing band can, and they?ve always sucked at playing. Avril?s music is pop-pop
punk or emo pop (mixed with post-grunge) at the most-and is just shitty, simple power chords and beats; thus, it?s not genuine or quality music and it never will be. Beyond that, Avril sounds like she?s trying too hard to sound "country", "rootsy", "soulful", "bluesy" or "urban", the lyrics are particularly uninspired and the subject matter is way too common. No matter how many times I say that Avril is a poser and a hypocrite, can?t be herself or both, she won?t change anything. Yeah, I saw her make this quote: "I won?t change anything, because I think the most important thing is being yourself and that?s what I?m going to continue to do." Oh, so you think the most important thing is "being yourself" and you want to "continue doing that". Sorry, Avril! "Complicated" is just a squeaky-voiced strumpet belting out an obnoxious tune made as a shoe-in for heavy rotation on mix radio as her backing band
tickles those generic power chords! That?s all it is! The people who say that she never stated what her music category was are probably braindead and clueless. I know Avril did, and I know she labeled herself when she asked, "Do you see Britney walking around wearing ties and singing punk? Hell no. That?s what I do. I created punk for this day and age." She really did, people! This is what pisses me off about Avril, plus she?s contradictory in her interviews!
Just when you think the lyrical content of modern pop music can?t get any more degrading or juvenile, out comes "Complicated". Nowadays, no matter how thought-provoking your lyrics are or what greater meanings your songs have, crap like this and "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas (which is about taking pride in your body) will get you a gold record. You know, countries are important. The people in them are important too, and they always will be, yet the music industry defines a system of beliefs. It dictates how all music is made, used and distributed. Those who aren?t in line with this system are suppressed in some way for their inability to conform to the values laid out in those beliefs; that's exactly what Avril did, plus this abominable pseudo-punk outfit successfully took more from the fucking world than she gave with her five top 10 singles, thanks to the music industry. Fucking sad. Very fucking sad. She is a spoiled little drama queen, whining about a guy who acts differently in front of her and dad joking about it. She watches as he changes his actions in order to portray himself as someone different. "You're a jerk! You really are," says Avril. "You don't love yourself for who you are and think that someone else is better than you! You're hardly yourself! Why must you complain that you?re not like someone who's better than you? You won't be able to enjoy yourself and I can already tell because you're pretending! My life and mind are so complicated! Just stop! Stop it, I say!" If Avril's a rich person in real life and doesn't have any problems with that, then how the fuck can she have any problems? Having problems is not something to be proud of, and if Avril doesn't have any, she should know better than to brag about how "complicated" her life is. Some people who actually have problems have a really hard time dealing with it while she just boasts in her songs about how she gets more problems each day. Even when she doesn't, she still manages to suck and her music manages to do the same. To add insult to injury, she wears raccoon eyeliner and listed bands like System of a Down as her tastes in music. I guess she likes bragging about her problems in songs like "My Happy Ending" and "Complicated" for the whole world to hear, but if she?s not emo, why
should she? She's not emo because she was part of the early 2000s pop rock culture-the pop punk part of which was considered "emo"-but had more of a skater kind of look going on. That doesn't even mean she isn?t whiny or an attention whore, because she is in "Complicated", and it?s not the only song in which she?s both either. Even she can be just as much of an attention whore as a fake, generic "emo", a person who thinks the only way to be emo is by simply wearing black clothes or pink eyeshadow. They think they're emo, they like to be "emo" and the ones who pretend to be emo think that?s good.
