They don’t have Hot Topic where we live currently but rest assured if they did (or Jesus help us when there is) we are going to burn that place, everything and everyone in it to the f#cking ground. As underground trends trickle into the mainstream world it’s only natural that they become watered down, it can’t be avoided really. But no one, [i]no one[/i] with all their trend forecasting experience and abilities could have predicted the dissolution and resulting adoption of the hollow shell the Punk Rock aesthetic became and is today by mainstream North American teenagers. We think it’s a safe assumption that whatever happened to be on the minds Vivienne Westwood Malcolm McLaren in the late 70’s, or what effect they thought their influence would have in the future (IF it would have any effect on the future), that the results by current days standards likely didn’t even cross their minds.
At the start of her career, Avril Lavigne was [i]the[/i] epitomy of everything Punk Rock rebelled against in the first place: safe for parents, common and accepted. The promotional team behind her would present her as the ‘anti-Britney’; a genuine and unmanufactured outsider and people ate it up. The s#it hit the fan in the media and with fans when the ska8ter grrrrl grew up and shed what was essentially her performance costume. They felt duped and like she had abandoned the rebellious disposition and look that legitimized her in the first place. Some say she ‘grew up’ but the fact of the matter is she never had that legitimacy in the first place, it was an illusion. That being said, we love the Avril Lavigne of the last few years if only because at least most of the smoke and mirrors behind her ‘Punk Rock’ image have been left behind to some extent and the attempt to cover the cookie cutter pop tart image, overall, is slim to none.
Though of course that still didn’t stop her from starting Abbey Dawn, just to make sure the mirage of her ‘hard core-ness’ gets squeezed for every penny it’s worth.
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