Friday, May 11, 2007

Heather Lavigne

You can't really go wrong with a rip-off of Toni Basil's "Mickey" produced by Dr. Luke and bolstered by Bow Wow Wow–style drumming, so it's not a surprise that I quite like Avril Lavigne's current single, "Girlfriend." Its video, on the other hand, is messed-up.

As we all know, Avril started her career as a mall punkette, a wholesome rebel girl you could introduce to mom and dad. She sang about crushes on skaters and seemed to side with the underdog and the put-upon.

In the video for "Girlfriend", Avril plays the two main parts: the snotty über-insider in a pink sweater and the put-upon geek in black. At least that's what it looks like on the surface, because this time around, it's the former (ie, the Heather) who gets mocked throughout, until the final humiliation, while it's the latter (the Veronica) who does the taunting. The bespectacled, pretty-in-pink dork is on a date, only to get constantly harrassed by a Hot Topic harridan.

When did the punk character turn into the bullying enforcer of social codes?!? Did I miss an episode?

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