About the artist:

The Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne is one of the most influential pop-punk artists at the start of the millenia, some find her synonymous with online alternative spaces in the mid and late 2000's. Her music ranges from high energy punk anthems (Girlfriend, Best Damn Thing) to much slower ballads (I Miss You), it's no surprise she was able to captivate audiences around the world with relatable lyrics. While she fell out of popularity in recent years, she still has a very active fandom among Japanese fans, which influenced her to create a song that was a love letter to Japanese culture but unfortunately has received harsh criticism: Hello Kitty.

My connection to her music:

Being a frequent watcher of MTV in my youth, I got to see the rise of emo, punk & post-grunge right on my TV screen as it unraveled in the public eye, imprinting on my impressionable mind. It's ironic to say that such a commercial channel was what brought me to alternative music in the first place, the first push before I dove deeper via YouTube's old algorithm that actually recommended me music based off what I watched. And Avril was one of the first artists I found in the alt scene.

It started from the high energy of the song Girlfriend & rolled all the way that when I got my first MP4 player, the first thing I uploaded to it were all of her albums. I remember really fondly how listening to her songs made me feel better, even the ones that seemed ugly & depressing to my therapist at the time, but twelve year old me held on to her songs like to a lifeline (another artist at the time I have held on to this tightly was Simple Plan). She has some ups and downs with her music, but considering how long she's been making music for angsty teens despite entering her fourties it's hardly surprising - but I still end up enjoying some of her newer stuff!

One of my favourite songs that no one really seems to mind is Things I'll Never Say (it has a soft and sweet feeling to me, in the same way a flower field on a beautiful spring day is) and I think it's a missed opportunity that people don't use it for ship edits! Also if you ever wandered if someone's favourite Avril Lavigne song is Hello Kitty - that someone exists and it's my dad, who rarely listens to music for fun.