Amy Studt & The Teen Avrils

[drbastard]

I actually quite liked Amy's first single, not loved it but liked it. Then I heard Misfit and I just realised how rubbish and useless Amy was, All I Wanna Do nearly killed me too. Her album was crap and she was probably manufactured anyway by the fools at 19 who detected a gap in the market and sought to exploit it, failing horribly.

What really scares me though is the massive influx of angsty trash. Avril being the biggest I suppose. They're all so boring and probably drink Horlicks at night. They're the female equivalent of 'punk' bands like Busted and Simple Plan. All crap!

The only two I really liked were Katy Rose, whose album has great moments. Not that anyone knows because I'm the only person that bought it...FACT. Also Siobhan Sugababe, whose album was one of the best I've heard in years. All these crap tweens that now get their producers to add soft rock to their album should die. Hilary Duff, Avril, Maria Willson, Amy Studt. They all did it and with the exceptions of Willson and Studt, make money and get away with musical murder.

[JJ]

I don't think Siobhan Donaghy is anything like Avril. She's 'deeper' if that makes any sense. Avril seems incredibly false to me, however.

But I do agree with you on Lindsay, Hilary etc. making their music sound like Avril. I think it's just to disguise their lack of vocal talent.

[Lovebomb]

JJ said:

But I do agree with you on Lindsay, Hilary etc. making their music sound like Avril. I think it's just to disguise their lack of vocal talent.

Except Hilary and Lindsey are nothing like Avril.

Hilary has always been the anti-Avril. She doesn't and never has portrayed an image of teen angst, her image has always been the total opposite, one of just because you're a teen doesn't mean you have to be miserable and depressed. About being positive. She might get attacked for being a goody goody by people who still believe 'badass' is somehow more important and not an adolescent notion to make their own pretty normal and nice lives more interesting, but she doesn't care. She's nice and sweet and happy and that's the way she is.

And Lindsay is more J-Lo than Avril.

[allanc]

Thank god for Ashlee Simspon.

And Lindsay Lohan like J.Lo? Entertain me...

[Lovebomb]

allanc said:

Thank god for Ashlee Simspon.

Ashlee Simpson is infact the closest thing to Avril when it comes to phony teen angst.

And Lindsay Lohan like J.Lo? Entertain me...

The promising film career. The fact she's going down the more hip-hop influenced pop route. The fact she's supposed to be a bit of a self obsessed diva and all round bitch in general while singing a song to try and disprove the image and reputation she's garnered. The fact she's under the wing of Tommy Mottola and has earned the nickname L-Lo. The fact she can't sing for toffee.

Far more J-Lo than Avril.

[Electrobix]

Isn't Avril the teen Avril?

[allanc]

Lovebomb said:

Ashlee Simpson is infact the closest thing to Avril when it comes to phony teen angst.


The promising film career. The fact she's going down the more hip-hop influenced pop route. The fact she's supposed to be a bit of a self obsessed diva and all round bitch in general while singing a song to try and disprove the image and reputation she's garnered. The fact she's under the wing of Tommy Mottola and has earned the nickname L-Lo. The fact she can't sing for toffee.

Far more J-Lo than Avril.

Okay okay I was wrong, but is she not doing a more mixed route of music? I Decide, Ultimate and That Girl arent very hip-hoppy. I agree she cant sing to save herself though.

[Lovebomb]

allanc said:

Okay okay I was wrong, but is she not doing a more mixed route of music? I Decide, Ultimate and That Girl arent very hip-hoppy.

But those were just tracks she did for soundtracks before her pop career really started and before any decisions had been made of the direction they were gonna take her when she did actually launch as Lindsay Lohan, popstar. Rumors is really her first proper track in her career in pop and seems to be the route they're going down with her.

[drbastard]

Lovebomb said:

Except Hilary and Lindsey are nothing like Avril.

Fuck! Don't piss off Lovebomb, he has a thing for Hilary.

[undisco_me]

JJ said:

But I do agree with you on Lindsay, Hilary etc. making their music sound like Avril. I think it's just to disguise their lack of vocal talent.

Liz Phair even had a go. Her Liz Phair album was a lot better however. 'Why Can't I' & 'HWC' could not have came from anyone else anyway. I even think Paris Hilton's 'Screwed' is similar, but more in a Clueless sort of way. I love the line, something about being "hotter than him". And Ashley Simpson is way better than Avril.

[Twixy]

Yes, but Avril was the next Alanis Morisette when she first started.

Everyone is likened to someone when they first start out, but as they grow as artists, and release more songs, get a name for themselves, they loose the "next whoever" tag, and just become "Ashlee Simpson" or whatever. It's just unfortunate that the artists choose around the same style as another artist.

[drbastard]

Have you see Avril's new video? Is that not the most unpleasant promo you've ever seen? Avril pretends to be homeless when we know she's a millionaire. Honestly, she takes ineptitude to a level unknown in pop videos before or since.

It left me cold.

[undisco_me]

Twixy said:

Yes, but Avril was the next Alanis Morisette when she first started.

Everyone is likened to someone when they first start out, but as they grow as artists, and release more songs, get a name for themselves, they loose the "next whoever" tag, and just become "Ashlee Simpson" or whatever. It's just unfortunate that the artists choose around the same style as another artist.

I'm sure there's a point somewhere in being called one of the "Teen Avrils". Lavine was touted as the next Alanis, but has proven she doesn't have a ounce of what it takes. Alanis herself is compared to people like Sheryl Crow, or even Tori Amos. These three artists are very different. But "The Teen Avrils" do sound all the same - they're simply not old enough to have developed any unique stlyes, turn of phrases, or hooks of their own. 'Sk8r Boi' is Avril's best track, the rest are very dissappointingly formulaic. And the rest are just doing the same. I'm interested in Paris's track, as I think it's a bit diofferent. Though I've now realised she doesn't sing something about a girl being "hotter than him", but has fallen "harder than him" (it almost ruined it for me). Her determination to be a star - an image I thought she'd managed to finally move away from - is almost parodied in the new Eminem video.

[JJ]

Dr said:

Also Siobhan Sugababe, whose album was one of the best I've heard in years.

I don't really think that Siobhan is like Avril at all. She is more of an artist and doesn't have a manufactured air around her like Avril has, despite the fact that she was the manufactured part of the Sugababes (Keisha and Mutya knew each other from school, remember). You would never get the current Avril doing a song as ambitious as Iodine, or one as different as Faces.

Avril just seems like a cash in to me (as did Amy Studt), despite how "real" she thinks she is. Ditto for Ashlee Simpson, and the story of her storming off stage when her vocals were played early indicates. She's also a pop star sibling, and I do not like these.

[Shezz]

Lovebomb said:

Except Hilary and Lindsey are nothing like Avril.

Hilary has always been the anti-Avril. She doesn't and never has portrayed an image of teen angst, her image has always been the total opposite, one of just because you're a teen doesn't mean you have to be miserable and depressed. About being positive. She might get attacked for being a goody goody by people who still believe 'badass' is somehow more important and not an adolescent notion to make their own pretty normal and nice lives more interesting, but she doesn't care. She's nice and sweet and happy and that's the way she is.

And Lindsay is more J-Lo than Avril.

Yeah i love Hilary. leave her alone.

[daftbat]

like amy, did like avril untill i heard her sing live, went off her completly then, still think her song writtin skill are good.

[coveredinpunk]

i dont hate avril but i dont love her either,
ashlee simpson on the other hand i HATE her.

[drbastard]

Avril Latrine is almost a parody of a punk. All she does is wear skull and crossbones and tell boring stories about how she beat up a girl for claiming she wasn't punk.

Well, I have seen Avril's school photos and trust me, she was a Shania Twain fan before the record label got their claws into her.

[JennyVABS]

Siobhan is just as manufactured as the rest of them. You're talking about the POP industry remember; it revolves around making charts and making cash, not artistic freedom. If she wasn't as manufactured as the other current teen queens she'd be on an indie, which she clearly wasn't.

Admittedly her songs weren't as grating as Lavigne's or Studt's, but just because she sold less records doesn't mean she was less manufactured, or indeed less 'pop'.

[drbastard]

True, but her voice made Overload for me and that is one of the best pop songs of the last ten years and will be remembered in the next ten years.

She was perhaps helped by Cameron Mcvey but I'd be willing to bet that Siobhan is more talented that Avril.

[JennyVABS]

Er... Who isn't?


No, I do agree with you... It's a shame her album bombed, I liked her.

[hmmmmm]

Just because there aren't or weren't that many teenage girls doing rock influenced music doesn't mean their all copying each other. Try looking at the other half the teen population these days — the half that aren't classed under the person-less-rich-and-brilliant-than-me category.

Maria Willson was and will always be awesome (she's coming back next year, you know). Amy Studt's album is amazing (Ladder In My Tights is an undiscovered genius and Polydor are absolutely crazy for releasing All I Wanna Do instead). I think the reason Avril succeeded so well was because there wasn't much competition for her at the time, and so when the other girls came along they were all compared with her. Maria, Amy … they all got the Avril comparison.

Avril has come along way since her first album, sure they were great songs but she got stick because she wrote hardly any of them. She wrote a lot of the songs on Under My Skin solely by herself (including Nobody's Home which is ace).

And you are wrong Dr Bastard, I also bought Katy's album.

[drbastard]

Oh it's wonderful isn't it? When track three melts into track four it's brilliant, something I can listen to all the time even if I can't relate to being a depressing addict of fine prozac.

[JennyVABS]

Nye said:

Polydor are absolutely crazy for releasing All I Wanna Do instead

I thought they'd already released it, and it flopped. It's a joke either way.

Nobody's Home is appalling in almost every way. I'd stretch to giving it catchiness but I'd be willing to bet she only wrote the lyrics, which are pretty dire.
Rhyming 'home' with 'home' for a start - she's a lyrical genius!

[Josh]

Nye said:

I think the reason Avril succeeded so well was because there wasn't much competition for her at the time, and so when the other girls came along they were all compared with her.

I agree completey with that. Although P!nk is the only other major pop-rock influenced artist I remember of 2002 - and her album was actually quite a mixed bag, so I guess she wasn't a pop-rock artist as such, but more of a versatile one that delved into that genre with a few songs on her album.

Although, didn't Amy Study have a single out BEFORE Avril? Although, waiting a year between single one and two did seem to be a huge mistake though...

... as for her cover of "All I Wanna Do" - I always got the impression that she was used (whether they realised it or not) to promote Sheryl Crow's "Best Of" album? Wasn't there some story about Sheryl Crow asking her to do it...?

[drbastard]

I'll never forget Amy being interviewed on CBBC (just before Blue Peter came on) and the presenter saying she was 'the saviour of pop'. I screamed when he said that, I just couldn't believe he uttered that lie aloud. And she looked so smug and irritating. A bit like the lead singer of McFly at his worst.

Then on Blue Peter I had to endure Amy miming (badly) whilst gurning and attempting to look all 'riot grrly' on me. So when she flopped, along with that bint Maria Willson, I laughed.

Of course Avril shut me up.

[Molly]

I just bought the Under The Thumb single for 50p, purely for the bit where it goes
'but I didn't see.
I.
Didn't even realise.'
Other than that she's bum. As are Average Latrine, Maria Willson and Summer Matthews.

[drbastard]

Oh God! I almost forgot about Summer Matthews. Or Fefe Dobson! I had a good laugh at her, she was rank.

[hmmmmm]

Fefe is actually popular in Canada and America. I love her album. Her latest offering (Don't Go Boys And Girls) is so fucking bad though.

And I'll never forget the moment I walked into Asda Price and saw 'Summer Matthews [AKA Emma From Byker Grove]' on the sleeve. I waited four fucking months for that day.

[Pipo]

Fe Fe Dobson's Girls and Boys is actually good