Is Avril Lavigne dad rock?
The 鈥淣ow That鈥檚 What I Call鈥︹�� series of music compilations seems to think it is, putting the song Complicated in the mix with ZZ Top and Steppenwolf. The compilation is honestly kind of bizarre - it includes Natalie Imbruglia鈥檚 Torn, which is neither dad nor rock - but the question of Avril Lavigne has been one that has confused the most people since the compilation was unearthed.
Now my first real memory of Avril Lavigne came when I was at a leadership conference in Martensville during high school, when I overheard a teenage girl telling the billets staying at her house that she absolutely loved Avril Lavigne and her album was on constant rotation. While I was probably familiar with her music at that point, enough to recognize the name, it is what I think of when I hear about her.
Of course, music knows no gender, so it just 小蓝视频 a favorite of a teen girl doesn鈥檛 preclude it from 小蓝视频 dad rock. And, frankly, I鈥檓 far enough from 小蓝视频 a teenager that the music from my high school years could have entered the domain of dad rock. But when I hear the name 鈥淎vril Lavigne鈥�, I just think of teenagers, which are more likely to be the enemy of dads.
But then we have a much larger question, what exactly is dad rock? There is a wide depth and breadth of dads out there, all with different taste and music gravitating towards different songs. The existence of the genre, however, is not really about dads, but the concept of a dad, a collection of cliches that exists primarily in sitcoms. They have caves, they are bumbling, they like power tools, they like drinking beer in the garage, they like mowing the lawn, and their greatest joy is a 鈥渂ig game.鈥�
The most unifying feature of their life is the music they like isn鈥檛 cool. It鈥檚 not the latest and greatest, it鈥檚 not something the kids are listening to, but instead something from a bygone era that they insist is great, whether or not the kids agree. They used to have it all on vinyl, but as collecting vinyl became a hobby, they now have it on CD, because dads are not allowed to be cool. It鈥檚 a sitcom perception of a person, rather than an actual person.
Dad rock must be a sitcom of music. It has to meet all of the cliches that sitcom dads embody. The most important signifier is that it can鈥檛, under any circumstances, be cool. To avoid 小蓝视频 cool, it has to be in a genre that was popular about 20-30 years ago that doesn鈥檛 make it on the charts anymore. It also has to generally be rock music - it鈥檚 not called dad pop or dad rap. It has to sound good when played loud, but also good on a cheap stereo in a garage. You have to fit stereotypes after all.
This theory means that today鈥檚 dad rock is likely post-grunge, bands like Foo Fighters and Audioslave. It was popular in the 鈥�90s, but there are very few bands that really play it anymore, most of them 小蓝视频 those same bands from the genre鈥檚 heyday. It wasn鈥檛 long ago that it was hair metal, and before that it was the Eagles. I realize that the Eagles aren鈥檛 really a genre, but they were made fun of in The Big Lebowski and everyone got the joke.
Now none of those genres or bands are inherently bad - and I鈥檓 right in the middle of the 鈥榚njoys post-grunge鈥� demographic so I wouldn鈥檛 dare suggest they鈥檙e bad - but they do fit that list of requirements. And, what doesn鈥檛 fit those requirements is Avril Lavigne. She might have been popular at the right time, she might be in a genre that is fading from popularity, but can you see a sitcom dad playing her music at high volume in the garage? You cannot, thus it鈥檚 not dad rock.
The compilation in question just compiles a big list of songs from a few years ago, but it鈥檚 not a dad rock compilation. It鈥檚 just a bunch of stuff that somebody doesn鈥檛 think is cool.
