Avril Lavigne is just Britney Spears with eyeliner and a tie.
Though many teen girls disenchanted with blonde popstars are heralding Lavigne as the saviour of music, her easy-to-stomach catchy tunes and boyfriend-musing lyrics are the same fluff that fueled pop tarts like Britney and Christina.
Like Lavigne, several other young pop acts seem to have more credibility than their manufactured pop predecessors. Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch can actually play intruments and write songs. Wow. Let's see Brit try and play the guitar like a true artist.
But if we are to consider Lavigne, Carlton, and Branch as the next generation of women in rock music, we quickly realize that they fail to live up to their foremothers.
Branch is just a warmed-over Jewel. Carlton is a poor man's Sarah MacLachalan. Lavigne is a giddy Alanis Morrisette.
Where are the women with gusto? With hip-swaggering bravado? Where are the women who would go down on their boyfriends in a theater? Or hump piano benches when playing live? Or bark like an Icelandic banshee? Or the ones who have been careless with delicate men?
The new gals are so wimpy and cutesy. They play with Harry Potter owls perched on their piano. They sing songs that could be used for emotionally resonant moments on "Dawson's Creek."
Lavigne projects an image of a rocker chick, hanging with the boys, wearing clothes that aren't constricting and aren't typically feminine. You'd think she has something more interesting to say than gushing over her cute "Skater Boy" boyfriend. But I've yet to see an interview with her where she demonstrates any intelligence. She is just like the stoner chicks from when I went to middle school. She's just the hollow shell of a girl with no guts to back up the image she adopted.
I can seriously think of no new women artists this year that excite me and that scares me.
Where are the progeny of Sheryl Crow and Shirley Manson? Where are the new madwomen like Courtney Love who, for all their annoying tendancies, will scare the shit out of you with their powerful personas.
The new class of women in rock should take a cue from the alumni.