Complicated - Avril Lavigne

This week on 1001 Songs That Make You Want To Die, we put “Complicated” under the microscope and ask the question nobody wanted answered in 2002: was this actually pop punk, or were we all aggressively gaslit by a necktie and some eyeliner?

We dig into how Avril Lavigne was pitched as a skater-punk outsider while quietly being moulded in a boardroom, why Complicated sounds a lot more like country rock than Warped Tour, and how a song with zero pop-punk staples somehow became the face of the genre.

Along the way, we cover industry plants, the Matrix songwriting factory, the unhinged Avril replacement conspiracy, questionable skateboarding technique, violent crimes against a supermarket hot-dog mascot, and the all-important closer: could Gavin beat Avril Lavigne in a fight circa 2002?

It’s messy. It’s nostalgic. Several people’s piss is reportedly burning.