One of the perks of attending a top quality university such as
ours is the ample opportunity for thoughtful discussion with other
students. Whether about politics, science or the arts, you’ll
find no shortage of informed peers who are willing to share their
shrewd critical insights.
There are an abundance of heated, often intelligent opinions,
and I’ll be the first one out there with you putting on airs,
expounding philosophically (notice I’ve gone so far as to
institutionalize my artistic intellectualism in print). But what
about those times when you veer outside the margins? What are you
supposed to do when your opinion doubles for that of the
masses?
For example, following the publication of the Daily
Bruin’s Top Albums of 2002 feature, I heard students offering
a wide range of assessments. Yes, from “Avril Lavigne
sucks,” to “Avril Lavigne is hot,” everyone had
something to say about our favorite faux-punk pop star. But the
general outcry was “Why the hell did you guys put the Avril
record on your list?”
Well, after two weeks of carefully preserving my critical
detachment and my indie cred, I feel it’s finally time to
step up and tell you I helped make Avril’s our No. 4 record
of the year. You see, Avril Lavigne is, for me, a genuine pleasure.
I think “Complicated” is a great song. Likewise
“I’m With You” and “Things I’ll Never
Say,” (though a man I greatly admire rather astutely pointed
out that “Sk8r Boi” is crap). The point is that, sure,
Avril’s music is empty, hyper-commercial garbage, but its
also good fun pop that I like. That’s right. I like Avril
Lavigne.
Of course I wasn’t always so comfortable with my weakness
for certain songs that I knew were neither good nor acceptably
cool. I remember one night in high school. I was sitting in the car
with my then-girlfriend waiting for a friend and listening to a mix
I made. Screeching Weasel’s great punk love song,
“You’ll Be in My Dreams Today” came to and end
and the next song was an ironic (I swear!) selection, “Hey
Jealousy.”
Without thinking about it, as the song began I put my arm around
my girl. She turned, looked at me, and said: “Are you making
a move to the Gin Blossoms?” I was too flustered to say
anything and instead sort of awkwardly pulled back while stammering
something that might have been “no.”
The trauma of that night stayed with me for a long time. In the
following weeks I played the event over and over in my head. My
grades suffered, my girlfriend dumped me, and I began to think
about what had compelled me to put such a song on that mix in the
first place. One day I had an epiphany that shocked and shamed me:
it wasn’t pure irony that led me to include “Hey
Jealousy.” The truth was that I liked the song; I thought it
was sweet and catchy. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my id, it
felt like the right song to prompt my gesture of affection.
Eventually I got over the incident and moved on. In time, I even
learned to accept that indulging such guilty pleasures is not only
natural, but common. I’m still a rock geek and I still get
accused of musical obscurantism, but I’ve been able to come
to terms with the fact that I like to stick my lighter in the air
for Journey’s archetypal power ballad “Open
Arms.” I like to pump my fist out the window of my car for
Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.” Once in a while
I can even sing along with some Third-Eye Blind.
Ultimately it’s like Avril says: “You know
you’re not fooling anyone when you become somebody else
around everyone else.” So I implore you all, embrace your
guilty pleasures and live a freer life.
Dan’s top three obscure bands are The Fire Show, The New
Pornographers, and The Handsome Family. E-mail him at
dcrossen@media.ucla.edu.