Back in 2002, evil Canadian Avril Lavigne invaded the US airwaves with "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi." Annoyingly catchy tunes and a pop punk persona with 'tude separated her from the bubble gum sweetness of Britney and Christina, and have kept her careering going, leading up to this:
Can I take a moment to address the video here? The blatant Sony branding and Avril Lavgine branded perfume? LAME! The blatant commercialism kind of invalidates her crass "I don't care" attitude and double middle finger salute towards the end of the video. She is too manufactured to pull of this message she's trying to convey.
Currently sitting at number 22 at the charts, this song peaked at 11.
"You say that I'm messing with your head (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
All 'cause I was making out with your friends (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Love hurts whether it's right or wrong (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
I can't stop 'cause I'm having too much fun (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)"
It's more than messing with his head when you make out with his friends. That's called cheating. Clearly love doesn't hurt you that much, since you're not going to stop your "fun."
"You're on your knees
Begging please
Stay with me
But honestly
I just need to be a little crazy"
Fellas, if your woman "just need[s] to be a little crazy," don't beg her to come back! Let her go far, far away! If she wants to go crazy, she'll end up driving you crazy. Avril's beau in this song is clearly a glutton for punishment.
"All my life I've been good but now, woah, I'm thinking what the hell
All I want is to mess around and I don't really care about
If you love me, if you hate me, you can't save me, baby, baby
All my life I've been good but now, whoa, what the hell"
If you've been good all this time, why go bad now? What caused the sudden flip into not caring?
"So what if I go out on a million dates (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
You never call or listen to me anyway (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
I rather rage than sit around and wait all day (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Don't get me wrong. I just need some time to play-ay (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)"
If you want time to play, then there's an easy solution. Break up!
"You say that I'm messing with your head
Boy, I like messing in your bed
Yeah, I am messing with your head
When I'm messing with you in bed"
Whoa, whoa whoa.... most of the song has been Avril seeming to want to get away from the relationship, but then we get to an out of place quartet of lines, where she admits she enjoys messing with his head (and she likes sex with him). Dude, she LIKES screwing with you. She's more than a little bit crazy, she's whole hog nuts!
Now, the song actually has an enjoyable retro-ish track to go along with it, but the lyrics are crap.
(Today's bad song brought to you by request of my sister and recommendation of my wife. Tomorrow will probably be Tity Boi ft. Yo Gotti with the track "Boo")
When I heard this song on my road trip (the *only* time I listen to Top 40 type stations) I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Like you pointed out, the track isn't too bad - the beat is appealing, and you've got that identifiable Avril Lavigne voice. But then when your ears realize what she's saying, it's just ridiculously horrifying.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that jumped out at me was the bland SAMENESS as all the other female-artist-songs you've been profiling over here. Why do women feel the need to sing about being bad, going crazy (and as a side note: we really shouldn't act like making stupid choices, which is what Avril is trying to justify in this song, is the same thing as actual mental illness. I wish the general public would take crazy out of the vernacular. ) and other such nonsense?
Wasn't there a crop of girl power, "I'm smart and strong and don't need no help" breed of crappy music that came out a few years ago? I sort of hated those too (because they came down too hard on the side of male-bashing) but at least that message is better than, "I'm an idiot female who wants to throw her life away by 'being bad' and sleeping around."
Possibly the only redeeming part of this song is that Avril ISN'T glorifying excessive alcohol use or drugs. That puts is slightly higher in my book than the rap "artists" you've covered. ;-)
Haven't heard this song yet, or maybe I did but wasn't paying attention. It looks like it's terrible though.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Michelle. The girl power songs really aren't about girl power. The ones that aren't male-bashing are female-bashing. A whole lot of 'I'm prettier than you' and 'You're not good enough for your boyfriend, but I am.'
Well, if you're so awesome then why don't you have your own boyfriend yet?
Interesting, I hear this song almost everyday on my way to work but never thought about the lyrics too much, I tend to blank this sort of cack out, but she really is singing about being a total arse to some guy by being the worse kind of slut. Awful
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