#A Song for Europe 2002

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2002 - Number 5 - Jessica Garlick - "Come Back"

You would think that a singer who, until 2022, had achieved the UK's best result as Eurovision in the 21st Century would be better known and remembered in her home country - yet Jessica Garlick has almost been forgotten. In fact, she appeared only four years after her Eurovision performance in a line up on the panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks for the guests to try and identify. Within four years, no one in the UK knew who she was or recognised her. What the hell happened?

She as first spotted on Pop Idol, making the final 10 contestants before being eliminated, and then found herself on a Song for Europe because the BBC had finally come up with the bright idea of recruiting proven young singers with ambition and some TV recognition to try out for Eurovision. In the national final she was by far the quality of the competition, with her main rival being disqualified prior to the final when her song was found to have been released before the cut-off date for entries.

Yes, Jess could sing. The Eurovision final performance of Come Back contains one of those long held massive notes that spontaneously makes audiences applaud and votes to come in. It's a stately, sad ballad of loss, nothing out of the ordinary. What makes it work is Jessica Garlick and her astonishing soulful voice. The BBC still seem to have contrived to sabotage things with the choices for her stage costume, but she pulled through to bring the UK up what the country was accustomed to at that time - a good finish in 3rd place.

So what happened? Why did she disappear? Well it would appear Eurovision's reputation in the UK played a part. There was no record deal off the back of this. At this point in Eurovision history, the UK music industry saw it as completely irrelevant to them and actually led to acts tanking their careers. Jessica didn't have one of those and after this never really had the option. She was almost a sacrificial talent demanded by the EBU of the BBC and in turn of the UK music industry.

Also Jessica is a Mormon. I don't know if that played a role or whether there were community expectations on her. Lastly there was what happened to the UK in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, which the UK press had so much more fun with. With others to ridicule and mock outrage to be spluttered in tawdry headlines, Jessica and her success were out of favour.

She did attempt on further go at a music career with a single in 2009 that failed to make any impression on the charts. Given the strength of this performance it's such a disappointment that she's not celebrated in the UK to the extent she should be.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Tenacious D - Tribute 2002

"Tribute" is a song by American comedy rock duo Tenacious D, and the second single from their self-titled debut album (2001). The song is a tribute to what Kyle Gass and Jack Black refer to as "The Greatest Song in the World" (often confused as the song's title). Upon its release, "Tribute" failed to make a commercial impact in the US, but it became a hit in Australia and New Zealand, peaking at number four on the Australian Singles Chart and number nine on the New Zealand Singles Chart. In Europe, the single reached number 25 on the Dutch Top 40, and number 84 in the UK. The single was re-released in 2021 as part of the band's "Super Power Party Pack", commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the band's debut album.

"Tribute" was the first song Black and Gass played live as Tenacious D. The song, like many other songs that were recorded on Tenacious D, was originally performed on their short-lived HBO TV series. During earlier performances of this song Kyle Gass played the opening to "Stairway to Heaven". In the 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, it is implied that the climax of the movie, a rock-off challenge between Satan and Tenacious D told through the song "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)", is the incident chronicled in "Tribute", and that the portion of "Beelzeboss" performed by Tenacious D is the song receiving tribute.

The music video shows Black and Gass walking down the "long, lonesome road" and their encounter with the demon, played by Dave Grohl, who also plays drums and rhythm guitar on the song. Passersby include cameos from Ben Stiller and video director Liam Lynch. The policeman is played by JR Reed, who played "Lee" in the band's television series. "Tribute" was nominated for two Music Video Production Association Awards: "Alternative Video of the Year" and "Directorial Debut of the Year". In addition, it was a nominee for best video in the 2002 Kerrang! Awards.

"Tribute" received a total of 77,7% yes votes!

[deedala]

☀️ weekly 🌴 tag 🌴 wednesday 🌊

hello it is thursday!! not wednesday, alas, we persist. big thanks to a one lil miss ✨🌟🌙 @celestialmickey ✨🌟🌙 !!!! for writing this weeks game and for tagging me!! + @gallapiech @blue-disco-lights @heymrspatel @jrooc @mmmichyyy @too-schoolforcool @lingy910y @crossmydna @energievie @palepinkgoat 💖💖💖

name: deanna 🌱

pronouns: she/her

what year did you graduate high school? lets play a game actually, what do you think? did i graduate in 1998, 2002, or 2006?

tell me where you live without *telling* me where you live: woody harrelson and i know the same amusement park like the back of our respective hands

tell me what you do for work: digital coloring book

caffeine source of choice: brew my own hot coffee in which i pour oatmilk and french vanilla dairy-free creamer

do you have a skincare routine? super sensitive skin, had to do accutane in my 20s *and* back in 2019. dermatologist has me on a very strict routine of gentle salicylic acid facewash and oil-free fragrance-free sensitive-skin formulated facial moisturizer. nothing else allowed!!

how often do you do laundry? every single fucking day of life and if i dont i will be overcome and i will suffer

favorite flower: poppies!! (iykyk) but dandelions are a close second

your go-to karaoke song: i've never gotten to do karaoake for reals but i think it would be an absolute blast (and hysterically cringey) to sing wuthering heights by kate bush!!

what kind of phone do you have? mint green iphone 12

do you wear contacts/glasses? i wear a single contact lens because i had to have a bunch of surgery in my left eye in my 20s and one of them involved replacing my lens with an implant (hi im bionic, i have a serial number) that is a corrective lens giving me 20/20 vision (apart from the blind spots where my retina is destroyed) SOOOO i literally can only wear that one contact lens in my right eye to fix my (extremely bad) vision on that side. glasses dont work when you've got 20/20 in one eyeball and -7.25 in the other.

what color is your hair right now? its a 10

you’ve just been handed $10,000 cash, what are you spending it on? theres a lot of shit in my house that needs to be fixed. or maybe we can use it as a down payment for buying a new house? (probably not the market is so insane in my city because of the university and the landlords) but i guess...in fantasy world where this happens...yeah we use it to help ourselves buy a new house lol.

how many pets do you have? none

have you ever been on a train? many many trains! some in america, most of them in europe

and finally, tell me something about yourself people might be surprised to know: god im so uninteresting... i love olives and pickles and cilantro and mint but not garlic and i cannot taste spicy things (i deeply wish i could, ive tried so many times and all i get is like bitter charcoal numb tongue)

and now i'll tag some folks under the cut who maybe?? havent played yet?? maybe want to play????? if not consider this me handing you a dandelion + poppy 💐 under the cut!!

@darlingian @spookygingerr @mybrainismelted @creepkinginc @suzy-queued

@sleepyheadgallavich @thepupperino @iansw0rld @gardenerian @ardent-fox

@catgrassplantdad @whatwouldmickeydo @gallawitchxx @wehangout @captainjowl

@the-rat-wins @loftec @spoonfulstar @callivich @sam-loves-seb

@howlinchickhowl @rereadanon @softmick @burninface @sickness-health-all-that-shit

@sleepyfacetoughguy @transmickey @lee-ow @themarchg1rl @vintagelacerosette

@xninetiestrendx @michellemisfit @steorie @samantitheos

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

[synkseren]

Seren (셀엔) is a member of the South Korean girl group æspa under SM Entertainment. The group consists of Karina, Giselle, Winter, Seren and NingNing. They debuted on November 17, 2020, with the digital single, Black Mamba.

Stage Name: Seren (셀엔) Korean Name: Ran Cheonsa (란천사) Birthday: October 22, 2002 Zodiac Sign: Libra Chinese Zodiac Sign: Horse Height: 1.68 cm (5’6″) Blood Type: O Nationality: French-Korean Instagram: @ arealseren

SEREN Facts:

Seren's positions in aespa are MAIN DANCER, LEAD VOCAL, visual and rapper.

Representative emoji: ✨ (sparkle)

Representative animal: Cougar 🐱

Representative number: 06

Born in Paris, France.

She is a 3rd generation Korean. Both of her parents were born in Europe.

She is an only child.

Winter (INTJ) and Seren (INTP) are the only introverts of aespa.

She trained for 4 years in SM Ent.

In 2020, she was one of the female dancers in Baekhyun's music video Candy and had the opportunity to promote the songs with the sunbae.

Seren wants to be an idol that recharges the fans' energy through her performances.

The idols she looks up to the most are Sunmi, Twice, Lee Hyori and Red Velvet's Seulgi.

Started taking dance classes when she was 4 years old, and formal singing lessons as a 7 yo.

Was a musical theater kid and starred at a bunch of theater productions in France, but gave up on this path to follow her dream to be a kpop idol.

See more Seren fun facts...

[blacknwhitemood]

I'm still buying DM stuff, I think over it more or less. I bought a 40 years old American collection LP (up here) that I already have in CD (40 years old and American). Is it logical? Of course.

I bought my second Construction Time Again (down here, Made in Sweden) and sold my first one for 12€ (in the middle , Made in West Germany, bye-bye...), because it hasn't got this black sleeve with the lyrics and the paper cover is in really bad condition, though the record is perfect. My 1st selling! Rocks.

I bought an interesting double CD from Taboo Records, seems Hungarian but it is written "Made in Pangea", like the 100 million years old, ancient continent. This is Dream On Budapest!, the Exciter Tour concert in Hungary, 12th of September, 2001. Fans made a short video on the day of the gig about Dave while he's speaking on his cellphone next to the hotel they stayed (it would've been a hard day after the 9/11 attack, leaving his family or friends back home in NYC).

Booklet has beauties, I put one here:

Another Videos 86>98+ DVD (2002) which is double DVD compared to the first edition and the 2nd record has treasures including Condemnation (Paris Mix) official video that was made in Hungary and But Not Tonight's video which song I love somehow, that's why I bought Black Celebration's U.S. edition LP. I have the DVD's 1998 version (scroll down), now could sell it but I need this for the full story: Corbijn finally agreed to put this beauty to the official selection.

First I ordered this double DVD from Antal, I've found it on his shop's website. He went on holiday for whole July and August, so I had to wait until 2nd of September. He was much friendly this time although I didn't buy anything, because he talked me out of it! In fact the DVD has the European bar code on his website, but he has the US version, that I couldnt' have played at home in his opinion. Weird, but I believed him and went home empty-handed.

Than I was searching for it for hours, 22 years old stuff, does it exists in Hungary at all? I found it only at French Amazon. You can bet, after 1,5 months the DVD lost somewhere in Europe, luckily I got back my money after 4-5 e-mails. Without any hope I visited an infamous online used stuff market and I found a piece that was sold already. I didn't know why, but I called the seller by phone, he answered "actually I still have the DVD because I haven't sold it last weekend at the blablabla festival". Wow. On the same day I got it <3

Short report: I have 38 vinyls so far - including a Soulsavers album, 12"-7" together, 5 more singles is coming in couple of weeks. After that I'll sell 3 of mine which are the same pieces but other editions, I prefer British copies if I find somewhere. Also have 14 CDs (with Paper Monsters), it's funny, because I promised earlier that I don't buy one, and actually I need 2 more (Precious and an other edition of Only When I Lose Myself because of its lovely B-side songs: Free and Surrender). 5 DVDs and a cassette and 6 books/magazines (one more is coming by my "dealer"), some pins, shirts, jewelleries and other clothing. Like a teen, OMG. Bizarre. Laugh, I do the same. Happily.

Details (occasionally mixed): #vinyl collection; #non-vinyl collection

And a little fun at the end from @cultureconnoisseurs.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday to Eddi Reader.

Eddi, born born Sadenia Reader on August 29th in 1959, has been around several blocks, musically speaking. A native of Glasgow, she has been well known and loved here for years. Oddly enough, Reader jumped right into her performing career in the early ‘80s by travelling throughout Europe with a circus troupe. Shortly after, she decided to settle in London and become a session vocalist.

Her choice proved fruitful as her book soon filled up and she landed work with the Eurythmics, the Waterboys, and Gang of Four. None seemed like the right setting for Reader. Then she found her place in the spotlight with Fairground Attraction. The band’s debut, First of a Million Kisses, hit the British charts in 1988, along with the single “Perfect.” Reader gained a good bit of recognition, both critical and popular, and was able to launch her solo career from that platform, although it did not happen immediately.

Her solo debut, Mirmama, saw daylight in 1992 and found Reader’s lovely pipes wrapped around some fine tunes. Although it was a limited release, it caught the ear of the folks at Warner Brothers, who followed it in 1994 with her self-titled album. This second effort included more Reader originals amid the slick production.

Despite touring in its support, she still managed to contribute to recordings by Thomas Dolby, Liberty Horses, and others. When things didn’t pan out with her major label, Reader returned to her independent roots and issued Candyfloss and Medicine in 1996 and Angels & Electricity in 1999, all the while perfecting her brand of smooth acoustic folk-pop.

Finding herself with yet another musical home, Compass Records re-released both Mirmama and Angels & Electricity in the United States and allowed Reader the chance to put forth her most organic offering to date with Simple Soul in 2001. Seventeen Stories: The Best of Eddi Reader and the all-new Driftwood arrived in 2002, followed by Eddi Reader and my personal favourite, Sings the Songs of Robert Burns in 2003 and Peacetime in 2007.

2008 sawEddi make a foray into film with an appearance in Me and Orson Wells, the following year she commemorated the 250th anniversary of Burn’s birth with a deluxe version of his songs with additional songs to add to the original. That same year she also put out new music in the form of her ninth studio album, Love is the Way.

Save for a live record, which appeared in 2010 Eddi took a long break from the recording studios, returning in 2014 with Vagabond. There was only a slightly lesser gap between albums with her 12th studio record appearing in 2018, Cavalier, which was recorded in Glasgow.

In 2020 Eddi celebrated 40 years in the music business with a UK wide tour that included 10 Scottish shows, that was before the Covid virus came calling, the shows had been rescheduled twice. The album Light Is in the Horizon followed, her 12th studio piece.

In 2024, the band's original line-up announced a Japan and UK tour, and reunited for an album titled "Beautiful Happening", set for release on September 20th 2024. A first single, "What's Wrong With The World ?", was released in February, followed by the album's title track in June.

Eddi is back to touring with her solo band and has a gig on Hayling Island off the south coast of England, in December a seven date tour of Ireland follows in 2025, then ten gigs in England.

Don't worry she hasn't forgotten her homeland, look out for Phil Cunningham’s Christmas Songbook, where Eddi will join the former Silly Wizard musician in ten Festive concerts around Scotland between December 12th and 22nd.

I've chosen a gaelic song that Eddi performed, it's called Buain Ná Rainich (Fairy Love Song) and is from her 11th album Vagabond.

The other well-known title, Tha mi Sgìthh, there are many variations of the story relating to this song, but one version says that the song was originally sung by a fairy who caught sight of a beautiful girl when he was cutting bracken. They fell in love, but alas there was no fairytale ending. When her family learned of the love, they stopped the girl from seeing the fairy and they locked her away. His song mourns the situation. The tune of this song is very old and it is often used as a lullaby. In Cape Breton though, it is often used as a Puirt à beul!

[bacusdraculacape]

I was discussing with @misskattylashes about what our big ideas about what people in the AM-verse seem to be teasing about or whatever. Then I got a Brianstorm of Big Ideas admist it...

First things first. Some relevant history; Arctic Monkeys first formed in 2002. They’re first live gig was 13th June 2003 at The Grapes, an Irish pub in Sheffield, UK (where AM are iconally from and formed). In 2004, some other icon stuff happened:

> 14th of August 2004; marks the first known live performances of: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor / Bigger Boys Stolen Sweethearts / Choo Choo! / Dancing Shoes.

> 8th of October 2004; marks the first known live performance of: Fake Tales of San Francisco.

> 3rd of November 2004; Marks the first known performances of: When The Sun Goes Down / A Certain Romance.

> 12th of December 2004; Marks the first known performances of: Stickin’ To The Floor / Settle For A Draw.

AM’s demo album: Beneath The Boardwalk first surfaced in 2004 also.

As well 17th of October 2004 marks the official debut date of Am’s first ep / single: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.

Moving onto the next iconic year of 2005:

AM’s first ever global tour started and happened in 2005. Introducing them to stages all over: UK / Ireland / Europe / and a couple stages in US.

23 October 2005; AM’s debut single IBYLGOTDF went straight to No.1 on the charts.

In 2005 more live debuts to Am singles were:

> 7 (22 Jan ‘05) /

> The View From The Afternoon / Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But.. / Mardy Bum / From The Ritz To The Rubble (4th Mar ‘05)

> Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured (5th Apr ‘05)

> an unknown new song (23rd April ‘05)

> You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me (26th Jul ‘05)

> Wavin’ Bye to the Train tr the Bus (23rd Aug ‘05)

> Still Take You Home (11th Oct ‘05)

> When The Sun Goes Down (21st Oct ‘05)

> Leave Before The Lights Come On (22nd Oct ‘05)

> Riot Van (3rd Nov ‘05)

> Fake Tales Of San Francisco (15th Nov ‘05)

Onto the most iconic year for AM: 2006

Their first world tour continued in 2006

Other songs saw their live debuts such as:

> AM’s cover of Love Machine by Girls Aloud (19th Jan ‘06)

> Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? (27th Jan ‘06)

> Cigarette Smoker Fiona (1st March ‘06)

> Despair In The Departure Lounge (13th March ‘06)

> No Buses (24th Mar ‘06)

As well as the debuts of:

> their debut album: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (21st Feb ‘06)

> When The Sun Goes Down SINGLE ALBUM (17th Jan ‘06)

> I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor SINGLE ALBUM (14th March ‘06)

> Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? SINGLE ALBUM (25th April ‘06)

> Leave Before The Lights Come On SINGLE ALBUM (14th August ‘06)

Music Videos:

> Leave Before The Lights Come On (4th August ‘06)

> Fake Tales Of San Francisco (14th August ‘06)

(info above sourced from setlist.fm)

As i’m penning this it’s currently the year is 2024, next year is 2025, and the year after that is 2026. Currently, AM have been a band for 22 years. They started playing at giggs live 21 years ago. They began performing their original songs practically 20 years ago. I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR is gonna be 20 years old 17th October 2024. So this ongoing train of thought starting thus metaphorical ball running in my mind:

What if the AM are working on an AM 20th anniversary thing? To celebrate 20 years of still being a band and to celebrate two decades worth of fans, and remarkable once in AM-verse lifetime memories, and everything fabulous that came about because of AM forming 22 years ago? Maybe that’s the mysterious thing that they have been planning at?

If it is an AM anniversary thingy here’s a list of theories of what it could be if that ever is in the cards for our beloved Arctic Monkeys:

> An AM greatest hits album. With B-sides from TBHC & The Car. Sorta similar to AM Live at Royal Albert Hall album that dropped in 2020. Cause sure if it was a new album it would likely be reported already. Also during The Car Tour Alex would have wacky beautiful moments playing random stuff on the piano and making Alex sounds sometimes before playing: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?

> An AM documentary. - AM photographer: Zachary Michael I think it is, has been seen tagging Alex Turner around in a number of Alex Turner recents post the finale of The Car Tour. What if that’s to get shots for the AM documentary?

> An AM book / photo album. Think Alexa Chung’s IT, but if it were AM recounting their career with lots of snapshots and stills of them over their career being fabulous? Also, I can so imagine physical photo album books are still Alex Turner’s thing. I say still because Alex Turner was born in 1986, so he probably grew up with the likes of physical photo albums years before digital camera roles came into place.

> Also for either of my documentary or photo album thing; what if the AM recents with Nick, Jamie, Alex etc have been teases to them visiting iconic AM hotspots / venues etc that AM became and are famous for and that they’ve lots of gratitude towards those locations for giving them that boost in their career/ E.g. Mojave Desert & New York City & Los Angeles where AM recorded Humbug / Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield UK where AM recorded some of their first ever songs at. / Vox Studios LA, La Frette Paris France where AM recorded Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino / The Grapes & Leadmill where they played they’re first ever gigs? -Jamie was spotted attending a concert in Yellow Arch Studios the other week for a Sheffield originating band.

> Strings added to AM songs. Think Glastonbury 2013 where’d AM had a whole orchestra add strings to Cornerstone and Mardy Bum. Exactly. Also, think back to the last four The Car Tour gigs. AM played in Ireland all 4 days with James Ford and an orchestra doing strings on a few songs. What if those four last gigs were the foreshadowing / prelude of Alex’s and AM’s big ideas of what's to come?

Also, Alex isn't seen much public-wise these days at all. If he’s working on an Anniversary thingy it would make so much perfect sense for his ‘hibernation’ / disappearance. Whatever you wanna call it. What if he’s just hardcore hyper focused on getting that right if that is what him and the band are working on?

Another wild thought I have: What if AM bring back songs in the Anniversary thing from Beneath The Boardwalk etc like songs that we’ve never heard the light of day of yet??!!

Thanks @misskattylashes your help and contribution 😘

[dustedmagazine]

Listening Post: Stereolab

In 1993, Stereolab co-founder Tim Gane told MTV Europe that he wanted to make records like the ones he liked listening to. Not an unusual sentiment but a useful reference point to begin with this 85-track, six-and-a-half hour exhumation of his band’s back catalog.

Formed in 1990 with Laetitia Sadier, the only other consistent member, Stereolab are themselves archivists. Beginning in 1992, the five Switched On releases have gathered rarities, singles, EPs and demos between albums for fans who couldn’t keep up with their occasionally prolific output. So nothing here is new. They also released remastered and expanded versions of their first seven albums in 2019.  Which begs the first question, do we need this all together and all at once?

At every point in Stereolab’s career, critics and fans have struggled to discuss Stereolab without referencing their influences. From their early guitar and organ driven garage drone to Neu! style Krautrock, the lounge sounds of Esquivel, Denny and Meek, Ye-Ye, bossa nova, tropicalia, Reichian minimalism and spacey noodling, Stereolab have wandered into many of the byways of pop music history often combining disparate elements in surprising ways. And it seems one’s attitude to them can depend largely on how you react to this magpie approach. I know people who swear by one particular Stereolab LP or sound but have no interest or regard for the rest. And this notion that they are pretentious dilettantes or somehow phony seems to linger. But for me at least there are constant threads that define them even as you move through the diversity on this compilation. 

Sadier’s voice is a deceptively dulcet instrument for her lyrics, sung in French and English and steeped in Marxist dialectic and Situationalist social critique. Her harmonizing with multi-instrumentalist Mary Hansen (from 1992 until her untimely death in 2002) was a key to some of Stereolab’s best moments. The densely layered guitars, analogue keyboards and motorik rhythms of well-known songs like ‘“French Disko,” “La Boob Oscillator” and “John Cage Bubblegum” still sound great. The keen melodic sense that mitigates the whimsy of some of their more outre space lounge moments like “One Note Samba/Surfboard” and “Outer Bongolia.” The groove jams and esoterica of their Can referencing collaborations with Nurse With Wound “Trippin’ with the Birds” and “Simple Headphone Mind.”  These are all highlights for me. Having seen them live at various junctures in their career I can say that when they hit their groove they can be a mesmerizingly heady experience. 

Intro by Andrew Forell

Andrew Forell: I know that this collection is an exhausting proposition especially if you haven’t listened to much or any of their music but I’m interested to hear what you all have to say about the band and which elements of their music particularly strike you positively or otherwise.

[Before we got into the main discussion, there was some preliminary kvetching about the six-hour length of the compilation.]

Bill Meyer: Stereolab is a bit like cake and ice cream, you only need so much at a time. 

I finally took the plunge and have made it through 26 songs — I am on 27 as I type it. I think I’m already pushing past the point where I recognize any of it, since I only heard Switched On 1 and 2 upon original release. Some of the songs hold up pretty well —  “French Disko” is a crowd pleaser for a reason, and if I was in the crowd, I’d be pleased to hear it, too. But a lot of their music relies upon the appropriation of familiar elements  — the Neu groove, the Modern Lovers riff, the “sounds like something I heard in an old French movie” interludes. Even though they didn’t use samplers much, at least not during the years that I was listening, they bring a sampling-age approach that flexes the recognizability of their mostly 1970s-vintage influences. This is not a new observation, of course, but since I have barely listened to them for 10-15 years, I think I’m being reminded of why I haven’t felt like I needed to go back. I’m certainly more likely to put on a Neu record than a Stereolab record these days. 

Jonathan Shaw: I don't have one Stereolab record with which I have that sort of relationship, but it's relevant here that Refried Ectoplasm, the second Switched On volume, was the first Stereolab release I spent any serious time with. I loved it, still do, and soon came to love the first Switched On comp even more. By the time The First of the Microbe Hunters appeared, I had tuned out. The lounge jazz and fizzy Tropicalia reminded me too much of Pizzicato Five — not quite as irritating, but just as blithe. No thanks. It's the guitar-forward version of the band that I like best. I know I am not taking a bold position by saying that "Lo Boob Oscillator" is a surpassingly great song; it's still my favorite thing on Refried Ectoplasm.

It might be less of a common opinion that "Doubt" is a quintessential Stereolab song. Ebullient and anxious in equal measure, it prompts you to get up and boogie even as it saws away at your Achilles tendons. You collapse, pull yourself into a chair, and start sit-dancing, because the song just won't stop being itself.

Jennifer Kelly: Yes, I also was surprised at how muscular some of the early material was.  I'm listening to "Brittle" right now, and sure it has the boppy, cheery vocals, but there's a good bit of bass and guitar churn at the foundation of it.  It's a lot rougher and more visceral than I envisioned Stereolab to be.  I sort of picture a spaceship lifting off during a 1960s French rom.com, you know?

I have a nodding familiarity with Stereolab — pretty sure I saw them in 2006, interviewed Laeititia one time on a solo record, had one or two records at one point — but never really latched on in any committed way.  Gotta say, though, while I was listening to this stuff, I kept hearing other bands and thinking, damn, that's from Stereolab.  Winged Wheel, a whole bunch of Trouble in Mind bands (Dummy, En Attendant Ana) etc.  Their influence is undeniable. 

Jonathan Shaw: Funny, "churn" is a verb I also had in mind this morning, listening to "Contact" and getting lost, for like the zillionth time, in its drony flow.

Alex Johnson: Churn indeed, and I'd throw in "grind," too, for a track like "ABC" — although not so much the outro, which is cool in and of itself and, for me, a different sort of departure in a lo-fi singer-songwriter way. I'm most familiar with Mars Audiac Quintet, so hearing the grittier side of the band here is really expanding my sense of them.

Jonathan Shaw: Mars... is the last Stereolab record I really liked. Pretty great that one of the tunes there is named (sorta) after an Alfred Bester novel. Their pop cultural references are always spot-on, but when the band started getting more clever about working pop forms into their own music ("Outer Bongolia," for example, or "Jump Drive Shut-out"), for some reason it fell flat for me. I think I like the relative spareness and rigor of the early music, which created an interesting tension with the attentions to pop's consumerist, superficial pleasures. 

Bryon Hayes: Interesting, Jonathan, that Mars was the last album you liked.  It was actually my introduction to the band; my friend played me the album when I was a junior in high school and it instantly struck a chord, as it was anathema to the bratty, aggressively punk-influenced, indie rock that I was listening to at the time.  One thing that stood out at the time was that the comparatively softer-sounding nature of music (as opposed to what I was into before I heard this), and the sing-song vocal harmonies, belied the powerful ideology behind the lyrics.  Take the chorus of "Three-Dee Melodie," for example: "The meaning of existence / Can't be supplied by religion or ideology" repeated over and over again.  Such a powerful statement, and it raised a lot of questions in this Catholic schoolboy's mind.  

Over the years, I paid far more attention to the full-length LPs, so I'm pretty much hearing the songs from the Switched On series for the first time.  Right away, I definitely hear the "churn" and "grind" that Jenny and Alex refer to.  I hear it in the rapid-fire, almost motorik drumming and that thick, buzzy synth on "Super-Electric," from Switched On Volume 1.  The band knew how to balance propulsion, spaciness, and bounciness across their music. 

<Hours go by> 

OK, when you get to Aluminum Tunes, the songs seem to be more intricate, informed by French pop, exotica, and electronic weirdness.  I think this material came after the period in which Sean O'Hagan was a member, so I wonder if his influence has rubbed off on the band.  I like this phase of Stereolab equally, so it's neat to hear their evolution as the Switched On series progresses.

Christian Carey: I'll fess up to being the one geeking out to the whole boxed set. Sure, mileage varies, but I don't think there will ever be another Stereolab album. With the passing of Mary, there is no more band. So this is a chance to savor the band without any expectations. I am interested in their work in other contexts, much of it different from Stereolab.

Ian Mathers: "I know people who swear by one particular Stereolab LP or sound but have no interest or regard for the rest."

Hi, it's me! When I first got to university in 2000 there were these huge periodic used-CD sales that filled the courtyard of the student center for a few days at a time, and right after I moved into residence I picked up a battered CD copy of Emperor Tomato Ketchup for $4 (along with my first Fall album, Code: Selfish, but that's another story). I don't know how often others have the experience of falling hard for an album in a way that leaves you with virtually no desire to investigate further (which feels especially odd when it's a band who already has many other records out there), but despite my immediate and now long-lasting love for ETK it took me years to move beyond it. Well, I mean, I listened to Sound-Dust a few times when it came out but found it impenetrable and lacking most of what I loved about the earlier album, and that probably cooled my interest a fair bit. So far of the other records I've tried the only one I've also liked is Peng! Respect to Gane, Sadier, et al for following their muse, and I certainly know plenty who love more of what they do, but I've been pretty content to love a couple of Stereolab LPs and not the band as a whole.

So when Andrew asks "do we need this all together and all at once?" for me, at least, the answer on the face of it is definitely "no and no." But there is a reason the band have also put together Little Pieces of Stereolab (A Switched On Sampler), and I am definitely part of the target audience for it. I have read in the past how the first two Switched Ons, especially, are worth investigating for someone who likes Stereolab in the way that I do, and even if it's nearly 75 minutes long that still qualifies as just dipping your toe in when compared to the breadth (chronologically, sonically, and temporally) of the whole series.

The approach is as basic as you could expect, three tracks from volume. The "sampler" description is more than incidental; if this was any sort of potted "best of" you might expect the three tracks from Refried Ectoplasm to be "Lo Boob Oscillator," "French Disko," and "John Cage Bubblegum" instead of only the latter making the cut. It's paired with "Tone Burst (Country)" (clearly a bit of an outlier) and the wonderful "Tempter," which does make me think looking more closely into these early volumes might be worth my while. So does the whole selection from the original Switched On, "The Light That Will Cease to Fail," "Changer," and especially "Doubt" reminds me that my feelings of polite admiration rather than love for a lot of the Stereolab I've heard has as much to do with them moving away from a sound I really love as it does with the things (genres, sounds, structures, etc) they moved to being ones I'm not necessarily interested in.

And while I definitely tried to keep my mind and ears open for the rest of the sampler, I have to admit my visceral enjoyment of the proceedings fell off more than a bit when I hit the material from Aluminum Tunes and onwards. One big (in a couple of senses) exception is the 21-minute "Trippin' With the Birds," with Nurse With Wound, and I did go back and listen to the 13-minute "Animal or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason...)" on the full Refried Ectoplasm, which also features Steven Stapleton doing whatever the hell he wants with their music. Both great, but the former especially feels out of step with its surroundings.

Hearing this condensed version of Stereolab's progression over the years does make me think that their increasing interest in and use of referents and sounds I find less immediately compelling has gone along with a change in their songwriting. Even back on Peng! you had tracks that seemed content to just bask in the beauty of the sound the band makes, but more recently it feels to me like there's an increasing emphasis on texture and atmosphere as opposed to, you know... song-ness. There's nothing at all wrong with that approach, and it's not that I think Stereolab started making bad music, it's just that there are a bunch of melodies, riffs, and choruses on their earlier work that I get stuck in my head, and the later stuff (at this point, most of their career) doesn't do that for me.

So I'm glad for the reason to dive back into Stereolab and see what I've been missing/how my reaction to their work might have changed, but I find I'm in roughly the spot I might have guessed I would be; I think I should check out the first two volumes of Switched On, and can probably pass on the rest (well, maybe give them a listen or two to cherry pick some of the stronger examples of their later work out of there...).’’

Jonathan Shaw: Ian, you may be happy to hear that when I saw the band in 2019 "Percolator" and especially "Metronomic Underground" were among the hottest songs in a hugely engaging set (tho "Miss Modular" left me cold, like the rest of Dots and Loops); hard to do "...Underground" without Mary Hansen, but they made it work. Sadier seemed to be having a great time playing, and while Gane and Co. looked like a group of Cinema Studies profs who'd just wandered out of an especially esoteric conference panel, the band cooked.

Agreed that the collabs with Stapleton are always interesting. "Simple Headphone Mind" is excellent comedown music, even for those of us that no longer actively eat psychedelics. The odd flashback, on the other hand...

Bill Meyer: Ian, I’m with you on the merits of Emperor Tomato Ketchup. While I was aware of Stereolab from 1992 on, to me that record was their peak. It was warm, punchy, and consistently catchy with some great stand-out tunes. Before that, they had great tunes stirred into too-long records. I checked my collection and it ends with a promo cdr of Sound Dust whose ability to still play I have not yet confirmed, but which I recall finding opaque and uncompelling at the time it was released. 

For me, Stereolab is a band that would have benefitted from something I suspect they would never have submitted to, which is a hard-nosed producer with veto power. It’s not that I only like the catchy hits; they made some great side-long tunes, too. But there’s a lot of Stereolab music that never quite comes into focus the way that Emperor Tomato Ketchup did, and as I have waded into the later Switched On material that is new to me, I don’t hear much that’s changing my mind. I also remember finding them uneven as a live band back in the day; Sometimes they could take me places, sometimes they were kind of dull. Thus when they reunited, I did not return to the well.

Ian Mathers: Funnily enough, Jonathan, I was actually thinking while listening to all this that despite my relatively lukewarm feelings towards most Stereolab LPs, I bet they hit pretty hard live. "Metronomic Underground" is easily my favorite song of theirs, and while modern ticket pricing suggests I'd be hasty to pay just for the chance to see that one, I am tempted. (Although I am taking on the other report, of live inconsistency, as well!)

Bill, "stirred into too-long records" is absolutely touching on one of my biggest roadblocks with most of the other pre-ETK albums. Peng! coming in at just under 48 minutes is secondary to how much I like "Super Falling Star," "The Seeming and the Meaning," etc. in my affection for it, but... it's a surprisingly close second. There are plenty of artists where I adore a good hour-plus album, or doubles or triples (or box sets), but Stereolab isn't one of theirs. I had the chance to review Chemical Chords, their last pre-hiatus LP, for the Village Voice at the time and although I don't think my piece was very good I did note approvingly at the time that they seem to have discovered concision in a way that worked for them. 14 tracks, sure, but an average length of just under three and a half minutes (and no epics)! That record is self produced, like everything after Sound-Dust. And on earlier records Stereolab is almost always listed as a co-producer, which isn't surprising; they feel like a band both capable of and willing to exert a certain level of control over that production. Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops had John McEntire working with them (Mouse on Mars' Andi Toma too, on the latter), and then Jim O'Rourke joined McEntire for the next couple. But even on the few ones where Stereolab isn't listed as co-producing, "The Groop" is usually down as mixing. So more than a lot of bands, it seems they're pretty hands-on with the post-performance stuff.

I agree that Stereolab working with a strong producer would be interesting. The question is, who do we think would be a good fit and/or introduce some interesting tensions into their work? I think between his work with Mogwai, Low, and Mercury Rev it might be interesting to see what Dave Fridmann would be like.

Bill Meyer: I suspect that ship has passed. The band might get back together to play the old songs, which makes sense since people love ‘em and Stereolab is a much bigger and more compensatory draw than anything that Gane or Sadier do on their own. But the couple has been divorced for quite a while, and if they’ve been able to make anything together since reuniting in 2019, I don’t know about it. I doubt that the rapport and creative chemistry they once had still exists. I think that what they needed was not someone with a particular sound, but someone who could have combined an ability to facilitate their sound production and respect for their intentions with a readiness to say, “that song needs to be better before you put it on a record.” 

Ian Mathers: That's a much harder quality to spot from the outside, I guess. Also, I apparently forgot they were divorced (or, quite frankly, that they were married)!

Jonathan Shaw: Old songs and the reunion tour — those are always an anxious coupling. One wonders about intentions. But the old songs that crop up on the later editions of Switched On are a treat. I really like the Low Fi EP, which was Hansen's first record with the band and appeared on Pulse of the Early Brain, the most recent Switched On. "(Varoom!)" feels a bit like a demo version of "Revox," a great track from Refried Ectoplasm. But I like the stretched out and distended quality of "(Varoom!)." It's too long, a little unwieldy, not a trance-inducing drone or a dance marathon. Just a groove the band couldn't seem to let go of, which then bottoms out into an extended, abrasive slurry. I don't know if that functions as a sort of metaphor for this collection, but there are similarities with qualities we have already marked: too long; unwieldy. For all that, and even with my own lack of clarity for why these records have been bundled in this collected set (left-handed career retrospective? cash generator? vanity project?), it's been deeply pleasurable to revisit some of these songs. 

Ian Mathers: Interestingly enough, "(Varoom)" is from one of two early EPs not included in the Bandcamp version of these compilations, due to "digital licensing restrictions." I think it's because they were on Too Pure instead of the band's own Duophonic imprint; so were their first two LPs and the original Switched On comp (which you can order from but not stream on BC) but the rest of Switched On presumably made it in because Too Pure were just licensing those tracks themselves. Regardless "(Varoom)" is great (both halves; if anything I find that more aimless second part a bit more compelling, weirdly) and exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't have listened through all of these to get to without some signposting from others.

Christian Carey: What's interesting to me in listening to Stereolab is that the evolution of their work, at least in some ways, mirrors the technical resources available to contemporaneous artists, particularly other electronica. Their palette morphs. Does anyone else notice that?

Bryon Hayes: I definitely notice it on Dots and Loops, where John McEntire introduced the band to ProTools and Andi Toma added electronic wizardry to their already eclectic sound world.

Jonathan Shaw: "(Varoom!)" is a fun title, but also gets at something I have been thinking about as I have been listening. Varoom! It's like 1980s kids quoting from The Jetsons, an ironized imitation of the sound of propulsion that hasn't lost its grip on the fact that ironies can be fun. I like the Stereolab songs from that early-1990s period: pre-Internet, pre-file sharing, crate-diggers grooving on French vinyl and bossa nova sides, Farfisa organs and mid-1960s aesthetics linked to the analog tech that was the material real. I listen and I think about this from Fredric Jameson, from his long essay on Adorno in Marxism and Form: "as in the larger world of business and industry, we find a tiny history of inventions and machines, what might be called the engineering dimension of musical history: that of the instruments themselves, which stand in the same ambiguous relationship of cause and effect to the development of the works and forms as do their technological equivalents (the steam engine) in the world of history at large (the industrial revolution). They arrive on the scene with a kind of symbolic fitness."

Flash forward ten years. The dot-com bubble had burst. Napster was suddenly a thing. A song like "Dimension M2" sounds like an mp3, brittle and crystalline, the chiptune-ish freakout at the song's midpoint emptying into digital groove that's so slick you can't even feel it passing. It has a symbolic fitness, sounding very much like 2005. But there's no resistance in it, no ironies either buoyant or bitter. It's interesting (if a bit of a bummer, for this listener) to tune into the historical dimension. So much changed in music as Stereolab moved from Duophonic to Elektra. So did their sound.

Andrew Forell: Going back to Ian’s post, I’ve been thinking of Stereolab as a kind of Venn diagram of musical influences that I either like, have been momentarily interested in or I’ve been led to explore more deeply. My first real engagement was with Refried Ectoplasm (Vol 2) when the combination of VU garage & Neu! adjacent (or let’s be honest — idolatry— “Jenny Odioline “ which is great but basically “Fur Immer”) crossed with non-English pop was very interesting to me. Having been a fan of Gane’s band McCarthy & and an old leftie, the addition of the Situationalist lyrics was great.  And yes to Jonathan, that pre-internet time when you discovered stuff through a serendipitous combination of other band’s liner notes, mags, record store peeps  friends & whatever unexplained oddities you found at the back of your parent’s record collection (hello Herb Alpert, Gainsbourg, an early 1960s album of “cocktail party” music & some early 70s Moog music) that led you down weird byways. All of that is to say that for all their musical cul de sacs, they’ve always appealed; although I haven’t loved everything, they have always been a band felt an affinity with.  

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2002 - Number 16 - Zee - "Never In A Million Years"

Technicalities suck. You're happily submitting a self-written song for the UKs national final, and manage to come a clear second in the voting for the radio-only semi-final. There's going to be TV exposure and even the possibility of going to Tallinn and getting the whole country behind you. Then you find out that someone jumped the gun, and released your song in Hungary in 2001 (according to Wikipedia) or in the UK even earlier (according to Discogs) and by the rules, you get eliminated.

This is what happened to Zee Asha aka Zee Cowling in 2002. Whether or not she would have beaten Jess Garlick we never found out. Never in a Million Years is a fast, fun bit of house with Zee's stunning vocals shining over the top of it. She surely has the pipes to pull this off live and would have made what ended up a very lopsided national final into something more interesting at least.

Zee herself is one of those names the UK music industry love and had loved for several years prior to 2002. She's that voice you hear on all the EDM tracks that get into the charts and especially in the clubs, often without an up-front credit. She'd already started working with Boy George as well as other DJs and remixers. Her vocal talent was much in demand. A Song for Europe was her big opportunity to get her own name in lights, before someone at some record company blew it.

This song itself, possibly, holds the records up to this point for how many remixes and dubs were released and could be heard in clubs. I'm not even sure which remix is the official one as the single release is made up entirely of four different mixes, each with its own title. Which ever it is, it would have probably been the UKs most played Eurovision entry in clubland ever.

Zee did get an album released to go with this, but otherwise, she's now credited on 56 different single releases in the UK, she's been seen on almost every UK TV music programme singing backing vocals and has worked with everyone from Dolly Parton to Adam Ant to David Hasselhoff. Intriguingly last.fm claims she's credited as not only performing, but also writing some of the songs to have appeared on "The Wire", although I can't currently verify this. An extraordinary musical career even if you don't know her name.

[alienelvisobsession]

The Italian Connection (part 1) - It’s Now or Never

Welcome to the first post of a series I'll call The Italian Connection. From an idea hooked-on-elvis gave me some time ago, I'll write a few posts about Elvis connections to Italy, because I'm an Italian fan who lives in the Elvis wasteland (aka Europe) and it gives me joy to write about this. You’re welcome to suggest some topics for my next Italian connections.

I first heard Elvis' "It's Now or Never" on the car radio about 3 years ago, before becoming an Elvis fan. I'm sure I had heard it before, but I wasn't conscious of it, if that makes sense. I remember thinking: "Oh, it's 'O sole mio' with English lyrics. Who sang this?". I swear I thought the car radio was broken when I saw "It's Now or Never - Elvis Presley" appearing on the screen, but then I listened better and I recognized his voice. Even as a non fan, he had the most recognizable voice of all singers. I just didn't know that he sang this kind of songs, as I mostly knew him for the rock 'n roll classics and a few ballads.

It's kind of surprising to me that “It’s Now or Never”, recorded in April 1960, is actually Elvis' best-selling song and it's among the top ten best-selling physical singles of all time, with 20 million copies sold. It's ranked at #7, together with Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" and the charity single "We Are the World", written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie.

It is based on the classic Neapolitan song “‘O Sole Mio”, written in 1898, and to this day performed in Italy and in the rest of the world by opera singers, gondoliers and everything in between. The lyrics of the song were written by Giovanni Capurro, but the music was composed by Eduardo di Capua, perhaps while he was on tour in Odessa, a city on the Black Sea. It's a hymn to the sunshine of Naples and a love song at the same time, in the melodramatic style characteristic of traditional Neapolitan music.

"O' sole mio" is ubiquitous in Italy, it's almost like a national anthem, especially in Naples. In October of 1960, Elvis' version made it to #3 in Italy in the weekly charts, which was overwhelmingly made of Italian musica leggera (pop music). It also reached #17 in the annual chart of 1960, which is not bad at all for an American artist. I wouldn't say that Elvis' is the most famous version of the song, though, merely because "O' Sole Mio" is a favorite among opera singers, including Luciano Pavarotti, who used to sing a great version of it.

Elvis most likely knew the famous version by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, recorded in 1916 (it was said to be a favorite record of his mother) and the version recorded by Mario Lanza, an Italian American tenor who was popular in the 1950s. Elvis shared his love for Lanza's operatic singing, displayed in successful movies like “The Great Caruso”, with a young Priscilla Beaulieu. When Elvis met her in the autumn of 1959, they must have talked about him, because he had just died, at the tender age of 38, after years of bad health and a controversial sleep diet (!). It’s possible that Elvis decided to record "It's Now or Never" in 1960 as a homage to him.

When Elvis recorded this song he was fresh out of the army and had filmed the Sinatra special the month before, in March 1960. I think it’s important to note that in 1957, Sinatra was rather skeptical about Elvis' vocal abilities. He said: "Elvis has no training at all. When he goes into something serious, a bigger kind of singing, we’ll find out if he is a singer". As we all know, Elvis had a lot of time to work on his singing while he was in the army, with the help of Charlie Hodge.

That’s probably why in 1960, eager to show off his extended vocal range with a "bigger kind of singing", Elvis decided to tackle this song. There was already a version with English lyrics, called “There’s No Tomorrow”, recorded by Tony Martin in 1949. He had dabbled with it a little bit in Germany, as proven by the home recordings that have surfaced. Nevertheless, he decided to have new lyrics written for him, as the song was in the public domain in the US.

With this choice in a way he was signaling that he intended to explore different genres, branching out from rock 'n roll in other words. As Shane Brown wrote in “Reconsider Baby” about his new vocal abilities, “the often out-of-control vibrato was successfully controlled, Elvis switched from singing with full power to barely a whisper like flipping a switch”. The Jordanaires begin the song with their layered harmonies, while a guitar cleverly imitates the sound of an Italian mandolin. Elvis sings this the way it is done in Italy, easing into the song and then building it up to a roar in the chorus.

So why did Elvis like Neapolitan music so much? According to Mark Duffett, it “allowed [him] to dramatically express assertive and passionate masculinity”. As a matter of fact, I find the dichotomy of tenderness and assertiveness that Elvis manages to express in this song, so masterfully expressed in the lyrics (“tomorrow will be too late / it’s now or never / my love won’t wait”) , a perfect fit for Elvis’ voice and personality.

Needless to say, the song was challenging to record. It took Elvis a few takes to nail the long high note at the end, as well as the right tone for it. He must have been satisfied with the result, though, because more than 10 years later, in 1972, during the Madison Square Garden press conference, he said that it was his favorite record of his. Elvis included “It’s Now or Never” in his concerts immediately after recording it (he performed it during the Pearl Harbor concert in 1961) and then again in February 1970, at the end of that engagement. In that occasion, it must have been a surprise choice, because he uncharacteristically instructs the TCB band on how to finish the song. I love this soulful version, with its gospel-like ending.

I wish Elvis had taken the time to learn the words and sung some of the original lyrics like he did with “Santa Lucia”, also a Neapolitan classic. In the 1970s, Elvis sometimes allowed one of this backup singers, Sherrill Nielsen, to sing the first verse of the Italian version, although with approximate lyrics. Goofing around like he often did, but also maybe hinting at the fact that the song was really old, in December 1976 Elvis introduced the song by saying: “Sherrill Nielsen is going to do the Italian version and I’m going to do the ancient Hindu version”. In this recording from one of Elvis' last concerts, Nielsen's singing is overindulgent to say the least and I wonder what Elvis thought of it. Can you decipher his expressions and let me know?

Bonus: One my favorite versions of “O Sole Mio”

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World 1993

"The Man Who Sold the World" is the title track of David Bowie's third studio album, which was released in 1970 in the US and in 1971 in the UK. Although no singles were issued from the album, the song appeared as the B-side on the 1973 reissue US single release of "Space Oddity" and UK single release of "Life on Mars?".

In his journals, Kurt Cobain of the American grunge band Nirvana ranked the album The Man Who Sold the World at number 45 in his top 50 favourite albums. Nirvana subsequently recorded a live rendition of the song during their MTV Unplugged appearance at Sony Music Studios in New York City on 18 November 1993 and it was included on their MTV Unplugged in New York album released on November 1, 1994, nearly seven months following the death of Cobain. The song was also released as a promotional single for the album in 1995.

Nirvana's cover received considerable airplay on alternative rock radio stations and was also placed into heavy rotation on MTV, peaking at number 3 on MTV's most played videos on 18 February 1995; it also peaked for two weeks at number 7 on Canada's MuchMusic Countdown in March 1995. Nirvana regularly covered the song during live sets after their MTV Unplugged performance up until Cobain's death. In 2002, the song was re-released on Nirvana's self-titled "best of" compilation.

Bowie said of Nirvana's cover: "I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and have always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering 'The Man Who Sold the World'" and that "it was a good straight forward rendition and sounded somehow very honest." Bowie called Nirvana's cover "heartfelt", noting that "until this [cover], it hadn't occurred to me that I was part of America's musical landscape. I always felt my weight in Europe, but not [in the US]." In the wake of its release, Bowie bemoaned the fact that when he performed the number himself, he would encounter "kids that come up afterwards and say, 'It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song.' And I think, 'Fuck you, you little tosser!'"

At a pre–Grammy Awards party on 14 February 2016, Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear teamed up with Beck to perform "The Man Who Sold the World" in tribute to Bowie – who had died the month before — with Beck performing vocals.

"The Man Who Sold the World" received a total of 77,6% yes votes! Dave Grohl has previously been featured in the polls with Foo Fighter's "The Pretender" at #111 and as a drummer on Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" at #87, and David Bowie has been featured with "I'm Afraid of Americans" at #33.

[ims0scared]

t.A.T.u (Russian: Тату) — Russian music duo formed in 1999 that consist Julia Volkova and Lena Katina. Lena Katina first music steps were taken in children's music pop band Avenue, in 1997 she joined Neposedy, later on, Julia Volkova also joined the formation (They were part of the band along with members like Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Tapalov). In 1998 Julia got kicked out of the band for bad behaviour, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and getting in arguments with other band members, but Neposedy denied it and said that Julia left the band because of her age (Neposedy were children formation while Julia was 12 when joined the band) Lena left the band in 1999. Same year Ivan Shapovalov and his business partner Aleksander Voitinskiy planned to start a music project in Russia. They started organizing auditions in Moscow in early 1999 for teenage female vocalist. By the end of auditioning, the partners narrowed their search down to ten girls, including Lena and Julia that finally became the members of t.A.T.u. Lena and Julia knew each other before the auditions. Both girls stood out among the others because of their appearance and vocal experience, but the producers decided to start working with Lena. Katina began recording demos, including "Yugoslavia", a protest song about NATO boming of Yugoslavia, when the demos were cut, Shapovalov insisted that the project needs another girl, that will be a complete opposite of Lena. In late 1999 Julia Volkova was added to the project to complete the duo. Shapalov after adding Volkova to the project, noticed how close the girls are, he decided to use it and gave the band lesbian image, which made Voitinsky left the band because he said that the idea was immoral and he doesn't want to be part lf it.

"Ivan said, that we need second girl in a band, and that the band needs to be famous, He just said, that we need another girl, because if we will have two it will be happier and more interesting, we can take someone new, someone different, and then they will be singing together. Now i am working in a new project, not in Ivan project, he was a horrible collaborator (...)"

- Aleksander Voitinskiy for programme "Show-Business", 2000

According to Katina, Shapovalov was inspired to create the duo after the release of the Swedish film "Show me love" about romance between two school girls. After completing the duo producers decided to name the group word Тату (Tatu) It is a shortened version of russian phrase "Та любит Ту" (Ta lyubit tu — eng. This [girl] loves that [girl]) For the whole year girls were recording songs for their first album collaborating with Elena Kiper.

Debuted in 2000 with their single "Ya soshla s uma" The song describes the pain in a girl's soul because she is in love with another girl, but is afraid. It became a big hit in Central-Eastern Europe just like their next singles — "Nas ne dogoniat" and "30 minut". Their debut album "200 po Vstrechnoy" came out in May 2001, the english version of the album "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane" came out in 2002, the album was certified platinium by IFPI for over 1 milion copies sold in Europe and become the first foreign group to reach number 1 in Japan, it was also certified gold in United States. "All the thing she said" (english version of their song "Ya soshla s uma") have made it to first place of top songs in over 20 countries, and have been sold in 6 milion copies, it became one of the most succesful singles of XXI century. The controversial music video showing Julia Volkova and Lena Katina passionately kissing in rain infront of a crowd dressed in Catholic school uniforms was supposed to show — Created by their Manager Iwan Shapovalov — "love" between singers. Later on, t.A.T.u relased 3 english albums and 3 russian albums.

t.A.T.u scene image was controversial since beggining. They are most known from their first album, which was revolving around homosexual relations between Julia and Lena. During the promotion of second album they admitted that it all was just a marketing strategy, and they are not lesbians. Even after that they didn't give up on their homosexual characters. Lena Katina spoke up about it in one of their interviews in 2009

"Julia had some lesbian experiences before t.A.T.u, and i didn't, so it was obvious i was quite embarrased, it was foreign to me, but i agreed because i knew this topic is really important. I was on a meeting with fans in Los Angeles and alot of people are still greatful for us. One girl told me that t.A.T.u is the reason why she survived. It's a horrible feeling when you're a teenager and you know that you aren't like others. All your best friends are falling for boys, and you want a girl. You feel alone, and no one understands you, and then a band shows up and tells you that everything can happend in life and you shouldn't be afraid of who you are. When people are saying, we saved them from suicide, i feel like it wasn't pointless. (....) We are also actors somehow. We created a story of two girls in love, and we played it."

Their second album was about interpersonal problems, the russian title (Ludi Invalidy) itself was already controversial around organisations fighting for rights of disabled people. In their opinion the title was suggesting thath disables people don't live, they funcionate, and their only personality traits is stupidity, brutality and greed. Lena and Julia disagreed with organisations and said that they don't understans the point of singles name and the meaning behind it.

Their last pair of albums "Vesyolye Ubylki" and "Wasted Managment" was relased between 2008 and 2009. T.A.T.u oficially broke up in 2011, but they reunited to preform at special ocassions as The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

(It's my first longer post in here, sometimes inbetween of weird images i want to be posting some more productive stuff about topics that i find interesting, i will be posting more about my fav bands, i wanted to make more posts today but this one took me waaaayyy too much time. If u know anything else that you would like to add to this post, or correct me on my mistakes, feel free to comment :P)

[herrlindemann]

Metal Hammer - February 2002, part 2, interview with Paul and Schneider

Thanks to ramjohn for the scans!

Rammstein are without a doubt currently the biggest German rock band and at the same time the biggest export hit when it comes to hard music. 2001 was the year of the Berliners: release of the third album MUTTER, US, Germany and Europe tour and the publication of the 'Rammstein' book by Gert Hof. Before the Freiburg concert in December, there was a lot to discuss with guitarist Paul Landers and drummer Christoph Schneider.

The intensive tour, which took you through the USA, Australia and Japan to Russia and then all over Europe, is coming to an end. How did you cope with it?

Christoph Schneider: We've been to America twice, and one of the two tours was quite exhausting for us. It was long and just didn't want to end. In between we came home again, recovered, and now I have to say that the European tour is a lot of fun.

Why is Freiburg the only one Germany concert on your route?

Paul Landers: The promoter knew that we also want to play in Germany if the tour goes past it. In Freiburg, however, the fans see the 'Europe' version of our show - not what they are used to. It's a slimmed-down production because we can't be on the road with eight trucks and set up the entire structure due to the long distances. Think of it as a kind of special concert.

How difficult is it to remember the many concerts of this year's tour?

Christoph: I always remember the places when I go there a second time. Paul is different: He mostly remembers the food of the respective region. For me it's more the people or small experiences.

Paul: The concerts that you don't forget are important. Nobody manages to remember 150 concerts - it doesn't have to be. We always sound the alarm, and even when things get a little quieter in the band, the audience doesn't even notice.

Because you've played in many cities, you have the best opportunity for comparison in terms of the audience and their respective reactions. Can you name differences?

Paul: There are two different views. First: the evening performance. Second: the trappings. The environment is much more important than you think. In contrast to the US tour, the shows in Europe were a piece of cake. The concert tour through America seems more like a galley voyage to me. One city is like the other, only the big cities of New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles are the highlights. The rest is almost like an oversized Neubrandenburg - a snoring town without character. The whole thing then degenerates into hard work. The fans are usually as spirited as the climate, but the air burned at the concert. Moscow was also amazing - in general, things are always very hot in the Eastern bloc. Overall, however, I have to admit that certain character traits are the same among Rammstein audiences around the world.

What do you think when Russian or American fans sing along to the German lyrics?

Christoph: That's the coolest thing of all, because right at that second I feel validated for myself and my work. Transporting German beyond national borders and encouraging other people to sing in our mother tongue - that's a special feeling.

Are you worried about how the foreign fans will interpret the lyrics?

Paul: I don't know how good your English was as a kid - mine was lousy. That's why I was sorely disappointed when I found out what 'Smoke On The Water' really means. For me it had something to do with smoking and cigarettes. And that's how people feel about us. Fred Durst said that for 'Sehnsucht' he always understood 'Chainsaw'. Back then at Kraftwerk, instead of ‘driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn’, people understood ‘fun, fun, fun’. They knew ‘Autobahn’. There are funny mistranslations. A song like 'Links 2 3 4' is also difficult to translate, but the fans know that. The only thing that really matters is that the music and the lyrics go well together.

Were you welcomed with open arms everywhere on the US tour? Or were you met with a lack of understanding or did you even have trouble with the authorities?

Christoph: There were more restrictions on our pyro show. Also Christian demonstrators who - like Marilyn Manson - called us devils and blasphemers. Even in London there was such a rally car in front of the door, and the association propagated that one should not get involved with Satan - that is, us.

Paul: When we perform outside of Germany, the fans encourage us to keep singing in German and not start with the English language.

But you tried the two English versions of 'Engel' and 'Du hast'...

Paul: ...and failed miserably. That wasn't because of the English lyrics, but because the songs were written in German. If we were to write a song in English that wasn't German from the start, it could be good. We have nothing against globalization - at least not in the Rammstein context.

Christoph: It worked with 'Stripped' - it doesn't sound stupid when Till sings in English, but it has to be good English lyrics.

Paul: We're lucky that German is such a cool language for evil music. If I were English or Belgian, I would definitely sing in German. When it comes to bad, hard music, nothing beats the German language. English has too much soul, it sounds way too nice. They can turn on a eater or yell around... That leads to the problem that the English have with us in particular. When people hear German texts there, they immediately stand to attention and think that bombs are being thrown at them. We first had to explain that we don't want to start a war, we just want to sing in German. The English still associate the Germans with the bombs that fell on London in World War II - after that they heard nothing before us. Perhaps a Mercedes drives through London from time to time, but other than that, German has negative connotations. Rammstein try to transform the negative image of the Germans in the world into a positive one. The Reichstag also had a negative image. Since Christo covered it, you think differently about it - that's a new component. In a similar way we try to communicate that being German can also mean something good.

Do you see this as a challenge or as a tedious, tiring task?

Christoph: Even if that may sound pompous: I believe that we are pursuing foreign policy. Later, after our death, we will be written with honor in the history books. (Everybody is laughing)

Paul: We consistently get positive feedback on our band because the world is not used to something good in the musical field coming from Germany. That happens far too seldom.

Christoph: In Russia, the children learn German with our texts, and we were very happy about that.

So you had to grow into the task of being an ambassador, because you couldn't have known at the beginning of the band's career that it would take on such proportions, right?

Paul: No, no one could have guessed that we would sell even one record across national borders.

Christoph: In many areas, such as the American Midwest, people have heard nothing else about Germany than Rammstein...

Paul: … BMW also know a few…

What happens after the extended tour?

Christoph: We will take a four to six month break and do a lot with our friends and families during this break. In the summer of 2002, festival appearances are planned - the big European festivals.

Paul: Then money will be collected. Solid. The European tour and another tour of Germany will follow in autumn. Then we want to venture into the next record with a breath of fresh air. We hope that the whole thing will happen a little faster, but the work on MUTTER and the lengthy live activities showed us that we have grown together as a real band more than ever. We come to Stockholm and 12,000 people want to see us, it's unbelievable. It's just us...

Do you fight on tour?

Christopher: Very often! We never agree and that hampers the flow of the band. Democracy within the structure has also reached a limit where it no longer works. Everyone insists on their point of view...

Who then takes the initiative?

Paul: Democracy has not given way to a dictatorship. In the past seven years, we've learned to argue in ways that don't touch the substance. Schneider and I used to almost cut our throats. On the other hand, arguing makes you tired, and the consequence is that not everyone takes care of everything anymore. For example, I stayed completely out of the book. In the coming break we will recharge our batteries so that afterwards we can fight again with fun.

Aren't you afraid of falling into a deep black hole after the band's intensive life together at the end of the tour?

Christoph: Small children and women are waiting for us at home. It's pretty quick to get used to it again...

Paul: Wipe your ass and change your diaper, then you'll feel at home again. On tour you have a kind of royal life, it spoils the character. We're fighting to keep from going insane. But sometimes I enjoy not having to do the dishes or take out the garbage. The food is introduced to me orally, I hardly need to chew anymore...

How did you get along with Slipknot on the US tour?

Paul: In the beginning we had a lot of prejudices and thought they were stupid.

Christoph: It was very inspiring. I can understand that the kids love this band.

Paul: Slipknot stand for a certain quality. In the States, we've also been lumped into the category of bands that the kids listen to but the parents hate. In the beginning we felt like well-to-do old gentlemen and had a little Scorpions syndrome. Slipknot enjoy the same status in America that we had in Germany three or four years ago. The band polarizes strongly and is provocative. We have put our provocative phase behind us. Everyone knows who can expect what from Rammstein. I don't want to use the word 'solid', but you can't believably play the fright of the citizens for seven years.

You find out for yourself that the fans are getting used to Rammstein more and more and that events that would have caused a stir a few years ago are now part of the agenda. Is the consequence that you constantly question yourself and your actions so as not to stand still?

Paul: For as long as we have existed, we have tried not to repeat ourselves. Especially in Germany, we entered the show business at a high level, so that we had to spend enormous sums on the last Germany tour to always go one step further. The fans are also worth that to us.

Christoph: People don't come that often anymore, they keep a certain distance. When we go on tour again, we can set ourselves on fire - because that's what people want to see.

At some point, however, the show can no longer be improved.

Christoph: Yes, a lot is a question of ideas. Going new ways, incorporating new elements is better than multiplying what you are currently doing.

Paul: Ten flames are no better than one - we quickly realized that. A few simple lamps as stage decorations are enough for a good show.

Do you still enjoy performing live?

Paul (laughs): Yes, with 200 concerts a year, that's unavoidable. But we always try to put the unfunny concerts in places where nobody notices.

Christoph: I always tell myself it's an honor to play for so many people every night. I would envy any other band for this state of affairs.

Rammstein as an art form, as a phenomenon, is limited. What could a logical continuation of the band look like?

Paul: We want to dissolve the Goethe Institute and rename it the Rammstein Institute... (laughs)

Christoph: We are maybe just as limited as Kiss. I don't want to pat myself on the back, but we've already achieved a lot. In my opinion, success abroad is the greatest success.

Paul: We do what we want: 'our' music - not because we changed, but because we didn't change.

Could you ever go back to normal jobs? And if so, which ones would they be?

Christopher: No. Because you don't go in one direction to turn back. You go somewhere else.

Maybe someday you will be forced to do it?

Paul: We'd rather stop. We will not go back to the jobs we once learned and grow telephones for strangers. What job an aging rock star has, we don't think about it. All I know is that I won't start with any record company. That's disgusting. I don't want to have anything to do with music-related activities, because then I would always be chatted up on Rammstein. Maybe later I will compose music for films or advertising with Schneider...

So you're not worried when it comes to future issues?

Christoph: Life always takes care of you, you don't have to worry. The new signposts are coming, you just have to learn the ability to see them.

Paul: So far we've been great. The trouble only started when the money came in abundance. We had to learn to remain carefree despite this huge chunk, this lottery win. We then quickly put it on pointlessly, wasted everything, and now we can be more carefree again.

Christoph: You have more worries with money than without.

With Gert Hof's book, which was published in November 2001, you give an intimate insight into your private life for the first time, in that you have been photographed with friends and relatives, among other things. Why?

(Silence)

Christoph: The book should have a bit more colour, and we thought it would be nicer not just to use press photos. For one or the other, it may be interesting to see what Rammstein looks like privately.

Pau: But the amount of privacy is still very low.

The people with whom you can be seen in the pictures, are these the people who are closest to you?

Christoph: Yes, our mothers, our wives, girlfriends, children...

Paul: You can't see all of them, some are standing and even closer, but they'll be in the next book.

I can see you only want to sell books.

Christoph: It was very difficult to find a sensible concept for a Rammstein book. The result is a mix of photos, not too much text, a bit of band history, personal thoughts - I like that.

Paul: I would have liked some explanations about the photos, but I was pretty much alone with that opinion. With Oliver you think what kind of girlfriend he has, but it's his mother. The band wanted the photos to stand alone, leaving fans guessing who it is.

Can you still call yourself spontaneous? After all, the Rammstein entourage is a heavyweight, sluggish monster that, due to its marketing potential, cannot allow any wrong steps.

Christoph: You're right: the bigger, the more cumbersome. Rammstein is an oversized aircraft that needs a huge runway. Before a Rammstein concert can take place, a lot has to be prepared. We can't just take the bus and play.

Paul: Even if we want to add a new song to the program, it takes three to four shows. We submit an application to Schneider, which he ignores, then hesitates at first, but eventually changes it.

Which fans do you prefer? Those who like you because of the music, or those who just like Rammstein's image? Or don't you see any difference?

Paul: We can't choose who we like. As a band you have all the fans to find. this is your job. Anything else would be arrogant. The fans are allowed to say who they think is good and who is shit in the band, but we can't. We play for everyone.

Does it also cause problems that you as Rammstein always have to maintain the image of the tough, grim men and aren't allowed to cry?

Christoph: If we weren't having fun anymore, we would change it. The overly masculine is just a game, we live out a side that fits the music.

Paul: Before Rammstein I played in a fun punk band for ten years and it was a lot harder. Because as a fun punk - Die Ärzte can confirm that - you always have to be funny. The fans throw a beer over your head and you have to come across as nice. At Rammstein I can be 99 percent what I want. Being fierce is easy, it needs no pretense. Even when you're in a bad mood, it's totally awesome. If everything pisses me off, it promotes the show 100 percent. I can stand there like a pawn in a chess game throughout the concert and don't have to bat an eyelash - but the concert is still great.

Christoph: That's why the band is so successful. We convey what we do honestly. I'd like to talk to the doctors and see if they're starting to get sick of always acting funny.

Do you think honesty pays off?

Paul: We used to see it as a weakness that we were so normal in interviews and never tinkered with the image, but always said what we thought.

Christoph: There was a phase when we weren't washed up with the journalists. When the accusations came that we were politically right-wing, they unsettled us and we didn't react properly.

Paul: We even let ourselves be denied because we had no idea. We made up stories and didn't even know what we were talking about.

You must have broken something with that.

Christoph: No one wanted to talk about music, we were constantly being questioned about politics, which really annoyed us.

Can Till actually get carried away with interviews?

Paul: He never has, only in exceptional cases.

Christoph: Many people want to talk to Till because they expect to find out the truth about Rammstein. Actually, he doesn't want to talk, and it wouldn't be good at all because he doesn't have the experience to do so, because he always tries to give official answers...

Paul: He doesn't have the necessary routine.

I rather think that a lot of people have respect or even fear for Till because he embodies the uncouth, coarse block.

Christoph: That's a good thing, we're happy to leave the picture as it is. Till will definitely give interviews at some point, maybe after Rammstein, but we don't want to push him at the moment.

Do you think about solo projects?

Christoph: From time to time, but because we've been together for so long, I can't imagine starting in another band again.

Paul: If I made other music, it would be best if all Rammsteiners were involved. You see it with other bands: When the artists record solo records, the result is usually not nice.

Christoph: If you spend your whole life in a team, however, at some point it's time to make your own borderline experiences.

[fossil0000]

The following description was written by Sloane Angel Hilton, the creator of the facebook group for this aesthetic: Its rise and fall between the years 1996-2002 - a movement in pop culture that is spawned from the research of The Y2K Aesthetic Institute. A notable shift in the visual mood of pop culture happened during the turn of the millennium, but it wasn’t Y2K Aesthetic. One thing I have found is that it was en vogue to be between 25-35, the prime age of Gen X at this time. I think of the “Music First” era of Vh1 programming. Contrary to contemporaneous Y2K Aesthetic, and also McBling style of the early 2000s, Gen X Y/AC models in editorial fashion or artist marketing were much more "natural". You will see tons of nude lipstick, hair parted down the middle or natural textured hair, natural leathers, knee high boots, duster jackets, natural and muted colors - especially greens, beiges, tans, greys, and black. Design and fashion was moving from 60s revival into early 70s. Retro-futurism was Y2K Aesthetic, but Gen X YAC was more terrestrial. Its futurism was a mix of sterile and organic. McBling was a full blown disco revival, but here, we just see hints of the 70s. Depictions of city life through a colonialist lens. First wave gentrification. Urban life influenced graphic design, such as in the use of Helvetica as inspired by the NYC subway signs. The rise of a minimalist design revival. On the runway, the rise/peak of the modern supermodel - Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Linda Evangelista, who were all peaking at 25. In photography and film, prevalence of bleach bypass, cross processing, “Lomo effect”, and other color grading trends. Hit music in the US was heavily influenced or even imported from the UK and Europe. Notably, we saw a surge in french house/disco, big beat, electronic, trance, uk garage, and “easy listening”/adult contemporary marketed for Generation X. Less Pure Moods and more Cafe Del Mar. Pop artists were reinvented to fit, like Madonna (Ray of Light). "Soft Club" refers to club culture trickling down into mainstream culture. As the style shifts into McBling, club culture becomes so huge that only the rich can enjoy it in Ibiza. R&B + hip hop had a marked shift in production, due to producers like Soulshock and Karlin, Trackmasters, Darkchild/Rodney Jerkins, in addition to many more who formed top of the millennium sounds working with both these genres. Pop music was equally transformed by club music, R&B, and Latin pop. Rock, pop and poetry were put over trip/hip-hop & breakbeats. Songs that may not have been written for the dance floor were produced as club music. See: soft club. Get X young adults were into entrepreneurship, which supposedly fueled the 90s economic recovery, especially via tech industry. This is why they have been considered a generation which "sold out". Discussion is much deserved regarding the nature of media diversity, both genuine (largely POC in leading production roles across mediums) and as a marketing tool, and the start of gentrification as it would come to be known in post-industrial cities.

[carmenvicinanza]

Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne è la cantautrice canadese diventata una star internazionale all’inizio del millennio.

Icona del pop punk, ha venduto più di 50 milioni di album e oltre 50 milioni di singoli. 

Le sue canzoni hanno fatto parte di diverse colonne sonore, soprattutto per film d’animazione, ha prestato la voce a diversi personaggi dei cartoni e ispirato un’eroina dei videogiochi.

Si è esibita in quasi tutto il globo e vinto un’infinità di premi.

Ha ricevuto otto candidature ai Grammy Award, tre ai Brit Award e si è aggiudicata un Mtv Video Music Awards, due Mtv Europe Music Awards, sette Radio Disney Music Awards e nove Juno Award.

Nata a Belleville, in Ontario, il 27 settembre 1984 in una famiglia umile e molto religiosa, da bambina le è stato diagnosticata la sindrome da deficit di attenzione e iperattività.

A 11 anni ha ricevuto in regalo la sua prima chitarra con la quale, suonando da autodidatta ha iniziato a scrivere le sue canzoni e a esibirsi in festival e spettacoli locali.

A soli 16 anni ha lasciato la scuola e si è trasferita prima a New York e poi a Los Angeles dove, nel 2002, ha pubblicato il suo primo disco Let go, che ha venduto oltre venti milioni di copie nel mondo, le ha portato un’enormità di premi e nomination e l’ha fatta entrare nel Guinness dei Primati come la cantante più giovane ad arrivare al primo posto della classifica britannica con un album.

Il singolo di esordio Complicated, immediatamente diventato una hit internazionale, ha raggiunto la prima posizione nelle classifiche di diversi paesi e battuto ogni record di passaggi radiofonici, consacrandola una nuova icona delle giovani generazioni a cui ha dedicato anche una linea d’abbigliamento, la Abbey Dawn.

La sua reinterpretazione di Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, di Bob Dylan, è stata inclusa nella compilation Peace Song per contrastare il fenomeno dei bambini soldato.

Il suo secondo lavoro Under my skin uscito nel 2004, ha venduto più di 7 milioni di copie.

Nell’autunno 2005 ha realizzato una reinterpretazione di Imagine di John Lennon per un’iniziativa a favore di Amnesty International.

Nello stesso anno ha contribuito alla colonna sonora del film d’animazione Spongebob e dato la voce a Heather, un personaggio del film Over the Hedge.

Il terzo album, The Best Damn Thing, del 2007 primo in classifica in ben 12 paesi, ha venduto oltre 8 milioni di copie.

Nel 2010, mentre scriveva il suo terzo disco, ha sfornato il brano Alice per la colonna sonora del film Alice in Wonderland della Disney, collaborato alla canzone Wavin’ Flag for Haiti per raccogliere fondi da destinare alle persone terremotate di Haiti e fondato The Avril Lavigne Foundation a favore di giovani con disabilità e malattie gravi.

Goodbye Lullaby, messo in commercio nel marzo 2011 è stato seguito, due anni dopo, dall’omonimo Avril Lavigne.

Nel marzo 2015 ha parlato pubblicamente, attraverso la rivista People Magazine, della malattia di Lyme che l’ha costretta a un lungo periodo di riposo.

Nel 2019 ha sfornato Head Above Water e, nel 2022, ha visto la luce il settimo album in studio dal titolo Love Sux e ricevuto una stella sulla Walk of Fame per i suoi vent’anni di carriera.

La sua prima raccolta di successi Avril Lavigne: Greatest Hits è del 2024.

È partita con testi che contenevano messaggi d’autostima e di energia, parlato di argomenti personali, ha fatto ballare e emozionare la gioventù di mezzo pianeta.

È stata una ribelle, una bad girl e una delle prime artiste che ha mostrato come essere ragazze forti in abiti larghi.

Sebbene potesse sembrare un fenomeno passeggero, da oltre vent’anni continua a ispirazione le giovani generazioni col suo look, gli argomenti che tocca e la sua carica travolgente.