May 14 will mark 11 years since Avril Lavigne first burst onto the scene with her skateboard and thrift-shop tie, asking why you had to go and make things so "Complicated."
Much has changed for the 28-year-old singer in those 11 years, including the very adult milestones of getting married, divorced and engaged once again. Despite all this, Lavigne is dead set on pretending she's still too young to legally drink, and she celebrates it in the new video for "Here's To Never Growing Up."
In the clip, a raccoon-eyed Lavigne performs at a high school prom, singing about getting drunk, falling in love, and belting out Radiohead at the top of her lungs; all standard fare for any pop song. It's at the two-minute mark, though, where things take a rather depressing turn down memory lane.
Lavigne leads a pack of rowdy prom goers through the school's hallowed halls on a skateboard -- donning the same white tank top, baggy black shorts and neck tie that she wore back in the 2002 video for "Complicated."
She's like the prom queen who peaked in high school, looking back on her glory days. While other pop stars who hit it big in their teens have made efforts to be taken more seriously, Lavigne's music, like her attitude, hasn't matured in her more than decade-long career.
After attempts to embrace a sexier look failed, it feels like Lavigne is trying to reclaim the tomboy roots that initially separated her from the midriff-baring pop tarts of the early 2000s.
Though Lavigne's 2011 album "Goodbye Lullaby," debuted at no. 4 on the Billboard 200, it only sold 1.4 million copies worldwide -- making it her lowest selling album to date. Perhaps related to those diminished sales: "Goodbye Lullaby" was her best attempt at making music aimed at an audience who is old enough to drive.
There's no denying the music industry has undergone drastic changes in the past 11 years, but the Candian singer used to be a force to be reckoned with: Her debut album "Let Go" has sold a reported 17 million copies worldwide, and her followup album, "Under My Skin," sold a reported 10 million copies. Even her third studio album, "Best Damn Thing," sold 6 million copies globally.
With the relative failure of Lavigne's last record, it makes you wonder whether she's really so desperate to cling to her youth, or if she's simply not marketable as a grownup.
