What I Learned This Week – 4/27/14

This week I learned that Avril Lavigne had a new music video debut for her song “Hello Kitty.”

I also learned that the media has nothing good to say about it.

You might be wondering why I like songs by a young girl.  But she will actually turn 30 this year.

Then you will wonder why I like songs by a chick who can’t dress her age.  Maybe because I also tend to dress strangely on occasion.

Her music keeps me feeling young.  I have all her albums.

It is a wonderful, candy-coated cupcake-land to make my senses dance!
Still from “Hello Kitty” video

First, the media was saying that the song was racist.  I’m not sure why.  I read in one article that it was because the Asian women behind her were expressionless as they danced, perpetuating some sort of ‘Asian women are submissive’ stereotype.  I’m not sure what that says about the white women behind Robert Palmer or African-American backup dancers in a rap video.

Then Entertainment Weekly (who I usually love), came out with this article:

A serious attempt to explain Avril Lavigne’s ‘Hello Kitty’ music video  http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/04/22/avril-lavigne-hello-kitty-music-video/

NOTE:  The guy who got assigned to the article didn’t even know that he was supposed to find the video racist.

The article angered me for many reasons.  It compares Avril to every other female artist in the last 20 years. Why?  She has to compete with Katy Perry shooting whip cream out of her tits.  Everyone thought that was a stroke of genius.  Avril is herself. That is who she has always been, even when she was being dissed for her skater girl clothes and pop-punk songs.  The writer also decides to go take advantage of his page space to “go off” on pop-punk.  Guess what?  She is still punk-y and pop-py and wearing her raccoon eyeliner and still selling tons of albums and getting radio airplay.  She must be doing something right.

The article spends more time talking about Gwen Stephanie’s “Hollaback Girl” than it does Avril’s video.  And I rewatched Gwen’s video, and find no similarities.  Gwen’s Harajuku girls are dressed up as gangstas.  What the hell is THAT about?

When the writer runs out of other nonsensical things to criticize Avril about, he start on the grammar of her song.  Really?  Since when are song lyrics held up to the same standards as that of high school English students.

Here is Avril’s response to the racist allegations, complete with more put-downs from EW:

Avril Lavigne responds to criticism that her ‘Hello Kitty’ video is racist  http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/04/24/avril-lavigne-hello-kitty-video-racist-response/

I am mad that the video has poor directing, but part of that could be that Avril used a Japanese director.  They do things different there.

People should be offended that I am pretty sure this song is sooo dirty:

Come come Kitty Kitty
You’re so pretty pretty
Don’t go Kitty Kitty
Stay with me
Come come Kitty Kitty
You’re so silly silly
Don’t go Kitty Kitty
Play with me

Um, is “Kitty” what I think it is?

If anyone should be mad about the video, it should be diabetics!  The song includes the lyrics:

Let’s all slumber party
Like a fat kid on a pack of Smarties
Someone chuck a cupcake at me

If I was a fat kid, I would be offended by that!  And the video is enough to put anyone into a sugar coma.  But I can’t stop listening or watching it because it is so catchy & I find her cupcake skirt mesmerizing.

Here is Avril’s “Hello Kitty” video, so that you may judge for yourself.  It is near 3 million views.

My conclusion is that you should not be mad that the video is racist or cheesy.  You should be mad that it is dirty and sugary.  But hey, it worked for Def Leppard.  (Hey, their NAME isn’t even spelled properly!)