What exactly was the “Jesse Camp” fiasco. I never watched enough MTV to know much about him, except that Dan Savage insinuated that he was on heroin in one column.
IIRC, Jesse Camp won some contest at MTV called like “Who wants to be a pop star?” or something like that. I think it wasn’t that different from American Idol. Anyhow, he wins this contest and part of the prize is MTV records him an album and he gets to be on TRL and stuff like that. And the album is just awful. I mean, awful. It bombs commercially, and we all have a good laugh at MTV once again.
I could be wrong on some of the exact details, but I think that’s how it shook out.
I have a 13 yo daughter who just loves Avril so I have heard most of the songs. Last night we were watching Dateline and Jane Pauley is doing an interview with her. Jane asked her something along the lines of, so how does it feel getting famous so fast? Her exact answer was “It feels like I’m getting more famouser every day” while she twiddled incessantly with shoelaces, chains, those little wristbands that tennis players used to wear in the 70’s. The whole thing just cracked me up. Although I don’t hate her, I actually like some of the songs too.
I can’t stand her because she’s Canadian. 
Blame Canada!
Actually, Jesse Camp was the who wants to be a VJ thing.
I took a survey today of my 9th graders, and out of 50 of them, 7 of them had any idea who David Bowie was, and only 1 of them could name any song he wrote. All the rest thought his name was pronounced Bowie as in bow wow.
One kid asked me if he invented the hunting knife.
Avril is a typical kid. Maybe that’s why so many other kids like her.
Ehh. In the end, I’d rather have twelve year olds listening to sucky clothed teen pop than sucky skank teen pop.
With that out of the way, has anyone actually listened to the lyrics of “Complicated”? It’s so self-centered. It’s basically saying, “I don’t like the kind of person you’re becoming. Because my reaction is the only thing that matters in this situation, you’d better go back to your old self, quick.” :rolleyes:
And I can sympathise with the punkers. It sucks to have a musical form totally stupid-ized (smooth jazz, anyone shudder). I don’t even know why they’re marketing her as punk.
ElwoodCuse has most of the details right.
Jesse Camp did win the first “Who Wants To Be A VJ?” contest on MTV. He was briefly popular on TRL as a co-host/oddball on the street. Carson Daly usually looked like he wanted to slap him everytime they were on camera together or had to chat (now Carson knows how many people feel about him). MTV also hired the runner-up, Dave Holmes, who has actually maintained a career as a VJ and TV show host.
Jesse tended to talk about bringing back “real rock ‘n’ roll” during his ramblings. He did record an album, Jesse Camp and the 8th Street Kids. A single and video for a song called “See You Around” were released, but by that time people were burned out from Jesse overkill and the album bombed. Apparently, Jesse’s idea of “real rock ‘n’ roll” was sounding like Slade.
Plus once you heard his music you realized that the most interesting thing about Jesse was his wardrobe. Remind you of anybody?
I’ve heard some of Avril’s music, because all radio stations in the area have decided to play pop music no matter what the genre they boast, like METALPUNKSTUFF 99.9, etc (Made up radio station name for overemphasis; that and i can’t remember the radio station names) The music is not my type by far, being as i am a devoted fan of the symphony and or the instrumental selections, but it is enjoyable.
And you know what, it is all about image in the great states of America. Britney sells her records because of a sexual image she portrays that some people warm towards, and same with Christina. Avril is not in the same boat category-wise and some teens relate to that more.
Music is more powerful than many will realize, and through it one can experience many feelings. That’s what i love about music. It’s an art form and its a mode of expression. And i say this because i have the oddest taste in music ever. I can’t be classified by what music i listen to because i listen to almost everything.
So perhaps we should give the gal on stage a break, and her fifteen minutes of fame so to speak, and get on with our lives. Its funny how tolerance and acceptance gradually eat away at your inner self. I used to hate Avril, and I used to hate the britneys and the christ’ies…i just enjoy them now as a type of sex symbol…
Sorry to hijack this, but when/how did teenagers first begin to identify themselves by the music they listen to?
I’ve been rethinking my position towards Lavigne.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I know nothing about her as a person, so I’d be an idiot to draw conclusions based on that. I dislike her music, but that’s just my personal taste and not grounds for saying that it’s “bad” per se. I think the criticism she received over her pronunciation of “Bowie” was unduly harsh; while it’s sad that she’s not more familiar with a great artist, I’m not sure why should has to know the pronunciation rather than exercising her own preferences.
I dislike intensely the fact that her image is so obviously manufactured, and that she appears so keen to play up to this image. A phrase I’ve heard recently is “Tetris pop”: the cynical exercise of manufacturing and marketing particular acts and images to fill niches in the market. Lavigne is the embodiment of “Tetris pop” in this sense.
Actually, I always interpreted the song to be about a guy who acts different around his friends than he does when he’s alone with his girlfriend - a problem I remember from high school quite well. “…you become somebody else 'round everyone else…” In other words, she’s telling him to stop acting like something he’s not and just be himself. She likes him the way he is.
And to those who say she can’t possibly write her stuff - all the articles and interviews I’ve seen about her say she does write her own songs. I don’t see why it’s so difficult to believe that an 18 year old (then 17, 16, whatever) writes music.
And IMHO, this is just another step in teeny-bopper bashing. Boy bands were bashed, Britney/Christina were bashed, teen idols have been bashed for as long as I can remember, all the way back to the days of Rick Springfield and Leif Garrett. And personally, I’d rather have my daughter look up to someone like Avril, who has creative ability of her own, and enough self-confidence to not give in to what’s popular at the time, than to have her looking up to Britney, who sings about being someone’s slave (love slave) and can’t cover a decent amount of her body. Yes, that matters to me, because THESE are the people that my daughter will be idolizing, and I’ll be dead in my grave before I let her go out half dressed wearing Tammy Faye Baker makeup, on her way to be some guy’s slave…
Just my 2 cents worth.
okielady, I think when she says she writes the songs, she’s really referring to the lyrics. I’ve seen a lot of artists do this. These days, writing lyrics is somehow magically being considered the same thing as song writing. I’ve seen her play guitar. She can hardly play simple chords. She’s not a song writer - she’s a lyric writer.
Hey, she may very well write some music, but it’s sure not what you’re hearing on her CD.
But I’m not bashing her. I have her CD and enjoy some of the songs on it. I think she can sing and she has good energy. I think she’s cute as hell too. But she’s been marketed very successfully. Kudos to all those that have been involved in producing this “product.” The “tie over her t-shirt” thing, the anger, the attitude, the skater stuff - it’s called “branding.”
Ratty, I was a teenager in the 80s and we ALL defined ourselves by the music we listened to. There were the rockers (classic rock), metalheads, the guidos (who liked dance music and Top 40s), the punks (Sex Pistols, obscure angry bandds), the skaters (Chili Peppers, Dead Milkmen), the preps (who liked The Smiths and The Cure) and the goths (who liked Ministry and Siouxie Sioux).
When did this start? I don’t know. When did music itself get so stratified? It’s even more egregious now, with the rift b/w rock fans and hip hop fans. There’s a lot of scorn on both sides.
As for “branding”: is it really totally impossible that she started wearing that tie all on her own? I wore ties in high school-- didn’t catch on, but I digress). The anger is probably genuine too-- she gets in fights at clubs, so I hear. Is it so impossible that she is what she seems to be, and people just really like it?
While her contribution to the songs is probably limited to her lyrics, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did have a hand in writing the music. Complicated isn’t a complicated song. There’s four chords in there, and had she come up with those, a producer/co-writer could easily flesh that out into what you hear on the radio.
Given the fact that up until a few years ago she was performing COUNTRY music, that seems likely.
However, she’s provided Home Hardware with a lot of free advertising.
THANK YOU RickJay!
After the record execs got her, the song writers wrote her an albums worth of “Faith Hill” type songs (actually, I’m sure all the songs were writen long before Avril even got into the picture). Avril heard the songs and said, “No way! I don’t want to sing country anymore. I wanna do something different. More guitars. More rock.”
Of course I’m paraphrasing, but the point is - she is not some child genius. She’s a manufactured product.
OK, I just realized that this is my 3rd post on her. I’m starting to scare myself. I’m not that big of a fan. Seriously, I’m not. I could care less about her… OK, I just have her pretty, pretty head in a bowling ball bag in the back of my closet.
The “bashing” comment wasn’t necessarily directed at you, Lenny & Carl. I was just pointing out that it’s common for teen idols to get bashed. I’m not sure why bashing teen idols is more common than bashing adult artists, but it seems to be true.
Most teens go through several different faces, or personalities, before they find one that fits. Their clothes, their music, their friends, their hangout spots…all those things define teens to other teens. And everything is 1000 times more dramatic to them than it usually is to an adult. Avril is your typical “rebellious” teen in the fact that she’s trying to be different than her peers (Britney, Christina, etc) by dressing in a different way, having a different attitude, a different persona, etc.
Whether success will stay with her as long as it has with Britney or she’ll end up with 15 minutes of fame like the Spice Girls remains to be seen. I say let the girl live her dream, and maybe she can sort out who she is in the process. Whether she was marketed that way or was already that way, who cares? Let her have her fun and hope that it doesn’t ruin her. According to the general trend of teen idols, she’ll eventually fall out of sight anyway, so she may as well make the best of it while she can.
And you’re right. The music and the appearance and the attitude…it’s all a product, and it <b>has</b> been marketed well. But the consumers must’ve been ready for it or it wouldn’t have gone over. Oh, and I don’t necessarily think she’s a genius. I just happen to like her better than the last trend we saw with teen idols, that’s all.
:smack: preview preview preview :smack: D’OH!