Tag: Avril Lavigne

Has a Music Video Ever Ruined a Song for You?

This plight makes me admit a few things I don’t know if I really want to out here on the internet. First off I’m a fan of girl pop music. Yes, I’ve been a Deborah Gibson fan back when she was Debbie, like me some Avril Lavigne, and yes, you can catch me singing some Miley Cyrus every now and then. Miley Cyrus’ latest “in the spotlight” escapades aside, I’m usually able to separate the crazy from the music, and for whatever reason I’ve been liking her song “Wrecking Ball” that has been hitting the airwaves, not to be confused with the Bruce Springsteen anthem, “Wrecking Ball.” The Miley song is catchy, in that girl pop kind of way, and then there was talk about the video, how Miley gets naked, and this, that, and the other thing. Not really caring that much, and with MTV not airing videos anymore, I didn’t really try to search it out.

Then the other morning I was up early, popped the Vevo (The go-to place for music videos now) on, and decided I would catch up with some music video watching while I was doing some writing. There on the menu was the Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball” video. Deciding I should see what all of the hubbub was about I decided to watch it, and I have to say I don’t know if I can listen to the song anymore as I think the video ruined the song for me.

Sure, Miley was in her short hair (which I don’t like), in underwear, and sometimes naked, in a video with a wrecking ball and a sledge hammer, and she’s slithering around, which is fine. Then she starts that creepy “tongue sticking out” thing that had grossed everyone out when she was on the VMA’s, and this weird sneer thing is going on as well. I know I’m an older dude now, and maybe I’m slowly losing touch with the youngins, but the entire video just creeped me out, and her prancing around in her underwear just didn’t come off sexy at all. That and the fact that it’s just a crappy music video for a song that actually had some potential to make a decent music video.

The bummer part now is that whenever the song comes on the radio all I’m going to think of is Miley, with that tongue, licking the wrecking ball. Sure, she needs to grow up and out of her Hannah Montana persona, but hopefully she’ll get over this phase quickly, or stop making videos, or else I’m going to have to turn to radio station so the image doesn’t make me want to throw up a little bit in my mouth. I’m also worried that she has the potential to now ruin Saturday Night Live for me, as she’s hosting and singing, and if there is a lot of tongue wagging I have a feeling I won’t be able to watch. Miley, please stop with the tongue!

With the song “Wrecking Ball” now ruined by a slithering Miley and her tongue (an hopefully not Saturday Night Live this weekend), I’m plighting: Has a music video ever ruined a song for you?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Let Go

Artist: Avril Lavigne
Listenability Scale: 95%
Released by: Arista Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

I’m a fan of teen girl pop music. There. I said it. I’m secure enough in my manhood to say it. I’m a fan of teen girl pop music. There. I said it again. It should be of no surprise, then, that Avril Lavigne’s “Let Go” is part of my music library, and that, yes, I can actually listen to it again and again and no the words to the songs. I still remember the first time I popped the CD in my player, already familiar with “Complicated,” but then enjoying the “Sk8er Boi” story, the “I’m With You” ballad, and almost being shocked and/or astounded at the innuendo of the lines “I’d say I want to blow you (pause) away” and “I want to see you go down (pause) on one knee” during “Things I’ll never say.” I learned she grew up in a 5000 population town called Napanee in the poppy “My World” and am pretty sure that if I were 18 I wouldn’t choose weed over her like in “Too Much to Ask.”

“Let Go” is one of those CD’s that if you are fan of teen girl pop music, well, you’d probably like it. For me it’s 95% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale.

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

The Best Damn Thing

Artist: Avril Lavigne
Listenability Scale: 92%
Released by: Arista Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

When I got Avril Lavigne’s latest CD, um, download, um, I don’t even know what to really call things anymore, but in any case I downloaded all of the songs off of “The Best Damn Thing” from iTunes, and for whatever reason, the songs were what I found myself listening to when I would take my weekend walks. “Girlfriend” was the quick pop tune to filter into the airwaves, and I found myself singing along. I had planned on doing a review of the CD soon after I got it, but I got too wrapped up in getting the web site redesigned so, well, I didn’t. But as her next single, “When You’re Gone,” is now being released, and The Rubinoos are claiming she ripped off their single “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” I figured now might as well be as good a time as any to review the CD. Here we go…

First I have to admit to the fact that I am a fan of teen, girl, pop music, and always have been, and yes, because I’m older now, I will also admit I even own some Debbie Gibson CD’s (look her up if you don’t know who she is). There is usually just something bouncing about the music, sometimes sad about love lost, sometimes happy about being in love, and as I was listening to “The Best Damn Thing” I couldn’t help but wonder where all of Avril’s anger and sadness was coming from, her being a newlywed and all. There she is during “Girlfriend” looking to have a dude break up with his then girlfriend and become Avril’s; she hates someone now and wants them gone in “I Can Do Better”; “Runaway” sounds like sort of sort of sad song because it starts as one of those kind of days, where the blue skies are there but the sun isn’t coming out, but Avril feels so alive, so maybe I don’t know how she feels (such are women sometimes). “The Best Damn Thing” comes around, and she’s not happy because here dude isn’t paying the tab, doesn’t understand that time of the month, and doesn’t open up the door for her, and as the CD was pumping along for the first few tracks, here comes the ballad, “When You’re Gone” where strings punctuate the music and I can’t figure out if the dude left her and she’s sad, or if she’s just sad because her man had to go away for a while, even knowing he’s coming back soon.

So much sadness, so much angst, and it’s pure Avril, and I’m liking every song so far.

But then asshole guys come back in the rollicking “Everything Back But You.” The song simply starts “Today was the worst day, I went through hell. I wish I could remove it from my mind.” It seems her man went away, sent her a postcard, which would have been a nice note if it said, “I wish you were here.” Sadly the dumb-shit, as Avril puts it, left off the “e.” (I nominate this for the third single because this song has every bit of anger any jilted girlfriend could feel, with the musical, rocking influence of her husband, Deryck Whibley from Sum 41).

Happily, though, things seem to got better for the girl during “Hot,” slow back down for another ballad, “Innocence,” that had it been released in early spring could have been a nice Prom song for the girls to drag their boyfriends on to the dance floor.

But Avril is a sassy girl, as we have also found out from some tabloid stories, and in “I Don’t Have to Try” we find out she’s the one who wears the pants and to get ready because she’s happenin’.

Alright, I’ve been simply tracking through the CD, and I think why I have liked the CD so much is, as I have been doing my self-prescribed walking, because it is a great mix of rocking, dudette pop, mixed with a decent ballad just about when I need a catch my breath a bit. The music is sassy, sad, with the part of pop music that I like because usually there seems to be a light at the end of tunnel for the girl to fall in love again.

Of “The Best Damn Thing” about the only song I really don’t care for is “Contagious,” and I guess I can’t give a great reason for my dislike of the song other than the rest of the CD is so strong in balancing girl, teen pop, with the ballads it needs, that I tend to fast forward through it to get to “Keep Holding On.” Maybe I’m just a sucker for the ballad.

I’m a fan of Avril’s, have been since her first release of “Let Go,” and since “The Best Damn Thing” has twelve songs, of which I never skip past eleven of them, the CD simply gets a 92% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale. As far as that lawsuit from “The Rubinoos,” hell, I don’t know. Sure, the lines “I wanna be your boyfriend” and “I can be your girlfriend” are close, even with the “Hey Hey Hey’s,” I just wonder where in the hell Avril would have ever heard that song to lift it. I guess some judge will decide, but I don’t care because I like “Girlfriend” a lot more than that boyfriend song anyway.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Do you find the engagement of Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger an odd pairing?

In the entertainment world in the past couple of days there was no bigger story than the engagement of Avril Lavigne to Chad Kroeger. Fine, there were probably bigger stories, but for a couple of days on Google Trends Avril Lavigne was way up there in the trending race, and it turns out this was the reason why. As a fan of teen, girl pop music, I’ve always liked the musical stylings of Avril, and I’ll also admit that you can catch me singing along to a Nickelback song, but I must say that I find this a little bit of an odd pairing, although who am I to judge their being ten years apart in age, but I guess since they are both Canadian they have that going for them and hopefully a lifetime of wedded bliss.

That leads me to this daily plight: Do you find the engagement of Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger an odd pairing?

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!