I must be getting older and wiser or the record companies in their greedy fervor towards world domination are getting more transparent. I'm talking about the new slew of really young artists that seem to be dominating MTV. In an attempt to dumb myself down a bit, i flipped on the "Devil's Channel" only to be bombarded with these 16-19 year old up and comming artists who's only response to the questions posed to them was, "yeah... this is really cool." The worst offender in this case was skater punk Avril Lavigne. She seems to be the most vacant puppet of the bunch.

Is it me or is it obvious that the record companies intentionally tried to spin her as a skater punk to capitolize on the Blink 182, Jack A$$ Jonny Knoxville crowd. Basically they wanted to snare anyone that Britney and Christina didn't. The only way to do that was to create a rebel puppet that was rough around the edges to appeal to the outcasts who didn't identify with the preppy pop crowd. Make no mistake that the fact that Avril and all these new artists are 16-19 is intentional and done to appeal to the demographic that buys the most music. Yup, you guessed it, the 12-25 year olds.

I'm a firm believer that great songs are a result of an artist's experience and the adversity they have had to face in life. So the question I have to ask is, "how much adversity could a sheltered little 17 year old have had to face on her way to the top of MTV?" She sings a song called complicated. How complicated could her life have been? Has she ever had to support herself? The reason her bio is so short is because she has yet to live and there's nothing to write about. Mind you there are exceptions such as Ani Difranco who at the age of 18 moved to New York all by herself and made it without the help of a record company. A distinct difference between the two is that Ani wrote her own songs, and she faced great adversity. Our little sheltered middle class brat Avril to her credit at least co-wrote her songs. I say BullSh!t to that as well. I remember a time when writing your own songs was the norm.

Make no mistake that Avril was a meticulously crafted package put together by the suits at Nettwerk to rob you of your money. I use the word "rob" because Avril is a fraud. They could have put anyone off of Ed McMahon's "Star Search" in her place to sing her songs and obtained similar results. This pisses me off because artists with real talent basically have to release a record themselves now a days to get picked up by a major label when all this airhead had to do was be born. Yup, don't be fooled. Avril is a package priced to sell at $12.99 in a store near you. The record companies sincerely believe that we are stupid enough to fall for it, and judging by how many records Avril has sold, they're right. This is why I hate Avril, and this is why i refuse to buy albums from new artists off major labels.

Sincerely with my utmost disgust,
Drew