Is Avril Lavigne Really Real?

Marty Hughley of The Portland Oregonian weighed in on the controversy whether Avril Lavigne is “real” or not. “Realness, after all, has been one of her main selling points,” he pointed out. “Though she’s disavowed the phrase, she’s been marketed as the anti-Britney, a determinedly casual, guitar-wielding teen rocker who writes her own songs instead of just stamping her voice onto hit-factory ready-mades. Which is true, to a point. But a battle has been waged in magazine articles and on Internet message boards over the gaps and gray areas in this image. For starters, she co-writes her own songs with seasoned studio pros, and there’ve been differing accounts of how big her contributions actually were.” He says, “The reality probably is that ‘real,’ especially when it comes to a teenager’s identity, is a moving target.”