Avril Lavigne has always been exposed to music when she was growing up and then when creating her own. During research I have found that there are similarities between her and other song, artist, but she has some qualities that set her apart from the rest. This allows her to further her career in making music and be remembered for the music that she has created. Throughout Avril Lavigne’s music career, she has had her moments of popularity, struggle, success, and inspire through creating her music.
While a teen Avril became known as a pop-rock or punk-pop artist whose sound grew popular around the world especially those among those in her age group. According to AllMusic, “Punk-Pop is a post-grunge strand of alternative rock that combines power-pop melodies and chord changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars”. Due to the sound of her music there are controversial thoughts on what to label her music. The spunky pop/rock sound conflicted with the mainstream pop music that was playing.
Her music includes the fusion of rock, punk, and a rebellious style varying from song to song and album to album. This makes it difficult to label because there are different labels apparent in the music.
Avril brought a unique sound to the table intriguing and catching the attention of many people. She also was able to use different techniques that made her music appealing to her listeners and helped increase her popularity. By using emotion and word choice she was able to express and communicate through her songs to her audience.
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In a lot of her songs she used real people and events that had taken place in her personal life which is an additional reason that people were able to respond to her music on a relatable scale. Another thing that helped set her apart from other artists was the fact that she actually wrote a lot of her songs. In her beginning years she paired up and had help and then she branched out and you saw growth within her as she progressed to writing her own music to sing. As an artist Avril also was able to take into consideration and make adjustment to accommodate what her audience wanted to listen to, which is why we see the fluctuation from album to album while still being able to keep her unique technique with different sounds.
Avril Lavigne’s music shows a theme of self-empowerment through the lyrics and finding a deeper meaning of the lyrics she chooses for each song. She uses simple words as lyrics that can be understood, but infuses the song with profanity to further reach that level of emotional connection with her listeners. This allowed the meaning of the song to become more vibrant and powerful alongside her technique of narration of her own life’s events. Another reason that Avril was greatly looked upon as a teen idol was the fact that she was confident in herself and her music. The lyrics that she chose for each song helped support the idea of self-empowerment and having the strength through her own will. For teenage girls, her dreams came true and it inspired girls to have confidence in themselves and believe that they could accomplish their dreams.
In addition, Avril Lavigne had some very popular songs, including Sk8er boy, My Happy Ending, and Nobody’s Home. Her earliest song released, the song Complicated is included as one of her most popular pieces as well as one of her best pieces of work. Many of Avril’s songs during the beginning of her music career were primarily about real people and real situations in her life; however, this song stood out because it wasn’t based on a real person. This song did a great job of establishing a solid and a relatable fake persona that added to its popularity. Teenage girls were drawn to this song because they were able to relate to what the song was about and how having a boyfriend can be complicated. Complicated, her debut single went on to receive 2 Grammy nominations, one of them for Song of the Year.
Moving further into Lavigne’s music we find her most successful song in 2007, Girlfriend. While making the song, Avril was just randomly blowing into a bottle while working on the recording and ended up using it in the song. If you listen closely you can hear in the background towards the end of the song. This piece is also where we see a struggle in the music career for Avril. The song Girlfriend is about a girl who likes a guy that is already with another girl and she is trying to prove that she is better. Looking at the context of the song we find that it is similar to other songs expressing the same feelings and emotion. Some of the songs that it is found to be similar to include ‘I Want to Be Your Boyfriend’ by the Rubinoos and ‘Mickey’ by Toni Basil. ‘I Want to Be Your Boyfriend’ was so similar that the Rubinoos writers decided to sue Avril Lavigne.
After making an agreement, the writers realized that they are commonly used lyrics for songs trying to achieve this purpose. Even though there was a struggle that came with it, she was still able to have this song succeed. Girlfriend reached the number one pop hit around the world and also started being used in the soundtracks of TV episodes. Billboard magazine quotes Lavigne in saying “Sometimes I’ve found that the stuff I write really quickly and don’t really think about tends to be the magic”.
Furthermore, she has had much success with the music that she has written other than just the two songs previously mentioned. Her first album ‘Let Go’ was featured on the US Billboard 200 with a seat at number two. This album also won her the Juno Award for Album of the Year. She has been on two world tours, as well as had the opportunity to sing ‘Who Knows’ at the Torino Olympics. Her popularity has climbed to reach several other countries as well and reaching high on the world music charts. ‘Under My Skin’, her second album also went to win the Juno Award in her first few years.
A few more of her accomplishments include becoming platinum in Australia and gold in the US with the single ‘Smile’. One of her songs that competed well with being successful was ‘My Happy Ending’ from the second album. This song received the Imperio Music Award, Socan Award, and BMI Award. Throughout her early career as an artist she also received a lot of credit for the number of views she was getting on her music videos, number of downloaded tracks, and selling versions recorded in several different languages. Avril Lavigne was able to reach a large audience through the music that she has wrote leading to the amount of credit and success she has received.
Breaking the five-year gap in her career, she released a new single this year. After going through a personal fight of battling Lyme disease she has re-emerged into the music light this time changing the tempo by releasing a worship song. Through this new song ‘Head Above Water’ you are able to connect with her emotion and you have a sense of the struggle that she has been facing these past few years. Even though her music changed from previous years to this one, there is still a distinct vibe that she is able to express throughout her song that allows you as a listener to recognize that it is her singing.
During her battle with Lyme disease she found inspiration to continue writing while praying to God. According to People.com Lavigne stated “One night, I thought I was dying, and I had accepted that I was going to die. My mom laid with me in bed and held me. I felt like I was drowning. Under my breath, I prayed, ‘God, please help to keep my head above the water.’ In that moment, the songwriting of this album began.” After being in the near-death experience, Avril released the information that lead up to the how the song was written. She is now about two decades into her music career. The release of ‘Head Above Water’ gave her a spiritual experience, leaving her with the lyrics just beginning to flow through her.
‘Head Above Water’ is definitely different than that of her previous work that people have known her for. This song has a strong sense of narration throughout the lines of the song. The readers are drawn in by the emotion felt through the intensified emotion in her lyrics. Opening with a piano this piece starts off with a more gentle sound that gradually moves the listener along to the chorus. This ballad about her battling and struggling through this disease transitions in the chorus to a more defiant sound. With a slight increase and tempo and then the addition of the violin arising in the background and then some percussion expressing to the listeners a powerful feeling of emotion as she asks for help from God.
Overall, throughout the music career of Avril Lavigne she is well known for the punk styled music that boosted her career and popularity. She has been able to create a new sound for her songs that are unique and stand apart from other artists leading to her accomplishments over the years. With winning several awards and receiving high ratings on the music charts across the globe she has contributed to the world of music. No one knows what lies ahead of her as she continues pursuing a career as a music artist, but we do know where she started out and how far she has become. This would not have been possible without the inspiration she receives when writing a piece, the success that has lead her this far, the struggles that she has faced with her music, and the popularity that she has attained for her unique sound and emotion connection to her audience.
The Music of Avril Lavigne. (2022, Apr 27). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-music-of-avril-lavigne/
