The following year she teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim to record a cover of La Belle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’ which was included on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. The song hit number one in the USA and Britian and took out two MTV awards and a Grammy.
for a time Pink kept a gun in her apartment just in case of unwanted attention
A massive fan of extreme sports, in 2001 Pink met motorcross rider Carey Hart at the X Games in Philadelphia shortly before he tried a jump that resulted in two broken arms. Horrified, Pink recalled telling a friend that there was no way she could ever fall for someone like that. Famous last words. Three months later they were a couple. In the coming months, Pink and Hart would discover the difficulties of conducting a long-distance love affair.
Not wanting to lose the momentum around their new star, in 2001 LaFace sent Pink back into the studio to record her second album.
Refusing to be lumped in with other pop divas, Pink, a self-confirmed control freak, took advantage of being in the executive producer’s seat (along with LA Reid) and set about making a rock album.
Pink wanted to work with Linda Perry, who had enjoyed brief success as lead singer with 4 Non Blondes, which had been one of Pink’s favourite bands as a child. The pair embarked on an intensive songwriting session that lasted three months, Pink camping out at Perry’s home in LA for the duration.
The end result was M!ssundazstood, which undeniably rocked. It positioned Pink in a category all her own and delivered her a slew of hits—and new fans who had previously dismissed her as fluff. The album also featured rockers Steve Tyler of Aerosmith and Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora, giving it further rock cred. In 2002 Pink was named the number one top Billboard album female artist and M!ssundazstood came in at number four for the year.
Pink took advantage of being in the executive producer’s seat and set about recording a rock album
Pink undertook her first headlining tour of the US in May 2002—the Party tour. Those expecting the R&B artist of Can’t Take Me Home were in for a shock. Flexing her new rock chick muscles, Pink introduced songs from her new album and performed covers of hits by Aerosmith and Guns’n’Roses and songs by Janis Joplin and 4 Non Blondes. The thirty-five date tour was a roaring success.
That summer she also toured with Lenny Kravitz as his support act, getting her name on the bill after calling him directly. But after headlining her own show, it seemed a step down. Exhausted from the gruelling schedule, missing her boy Carey and suffering from chronic insomnia, Pink became sullen and un-cooperative.
Pink did much of her growing up in the pages of the music press and tabloids
As her fame grew so it seemed did her ego. Pink did much of her growing up in the pages of the musical press and tabloids. One moment she was giving up alcohol because of stomach ulcers, the next she was recovering from a tequila bender. She pledged her dislike of firearms, then was seen firing rounds at a pin-up of Saddam Hussein while swigging beer. There were so many stories of her downing Corona that it was reminiscent of Janis Joplin’s affair with Southern Comfort.
The multi-platinum success of M!ssundazstood—sixteen million and counting—was putting enormous pressure on her to deliver again.
Reinventing herself once more, Pink took a new stance on her third studio album Try This, introducing a more punk-oriented style. It drew comments that perhaps Pink was the natural successor to the queen of reinvention, Madonna.
On Try This, Pink teamed with Tim Armstrong, lead singer of punk band Rancid, who co-wrote eight of the thirteen songs. Perry also appeared on the album as did bad-girl rapper Peaches. Many of the tracks Armstrong produced were recorded on his tour bus while on the road with his side project the Transplants. Pink enjoyed hanging with the boys and the experience of recording in a non-traditional studio environment.
Try This wasn’t as commercially successful in the States as her previous album, but the single ‘Trouble’ won Pink her second Grammy. The album was released at a time when Arista was in free-fall, causing many to speculate that it would have had a better run had the label been able to support it. By the time Pink came to record her next album, Arista had folded, LA Reid had been given the bullet and Pink was part of the Zomba Music Group through Sony/BMG.
By 2004 Pink had moved out of her Venice Beach digs and was living in LA with her dogs Nanny and Bailey in a house formerly owned by ex-Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen. She had also broken up with Hart.
Rumours abounded that she was locking lips with the likes of Tommy Lee. Others suggested she was a lesbian after smooching with Kristanna Loken of Terminator 3 at the World Music Awards. The media had long tried to drop the lesbian label on Pink because of her tough attitude. But as she has said several times, she likes the male physique too much.
After her responsibilities for promoting Try This were over, Pink took time off. Over the next year she busied herself writing songs. She consumed books of all genres and read film scripts in her search for the right acting role. She had been living life at a manic pace. Now at the age of twenty-six she had time to reflect on her life and determine what was important to her. Hart appeared on the top of the list and during her hiatus the two reconciled.
Pink took a more punk-oriented style for Try This. It led some to comment that perhaps she was the natural successor to the queen of reinvention, Madonna
By the time her next album was released, Pink was a married woman. She had popped the question while Hart had been racing, holding up a sign as he’d zoomed past. Sporting matching tattoos saying ‘tru luv’, they married in Costa Rica in a barefoot beach ceremony in January 2006 and spent their honeymoon snowboarding. Now retired from freestyle racing, Hart owns a tattoo parlour and is also a regular reality TV star.
Pink’s next release hit the market in April 2006. I’m Not Dead was her most political record to date, expressing her opinion on a range of issues from the entertainment industry’s manipulation of women (‘Stupid Girls’) to the serial failures of the Bush administration (‘Dear Mr. President’). On the album Pink teamed with Billy Mann, who had previously worked with her on Try This and is credited with cowriting ‘God is DJ’. Her father contributed a song, ‘I Have Seen the Rain’, which he had written when he was in Vietnam during the war. He also sings on the song.
‘Stupid Girls’, a fantastic send-up of the world of celebrity and its obsession with painfully thin, compliant dolly girls, became a massive hit worldwide. The sentiment behind the song was brilliantly executed in the video, with Pink parodying various dumb female celebrity stereotypes—carrying the latest fashion accessory, a tiny dog, in her handbag, squirming semi-naked in foam and water atop a car, and in an hilarious bulimic moment featuring a toothbrush. The song moved talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey to dedicate an entire show to the topic.
I’m Not Dead entered the US charts at number six and sent an unequivocal message to critics and fans alike that this rock chick wasn’t anyone’s patsy. Pink began her I’m Not Dead tour in mid-2006, playing twenty shows in the USA before heading to Europe where she wowed crowds with her aerial acrobatics and highly choreographed performance.
In 2007 she was on the road again with Justin Timberlake, whom she’d come to know on her first tour supporting ’N Sync. As the opening act for Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Show tour, Pink performed in front of massive audiences at American stadiums. Suspended from scaffolding and twisting herself into head-spinning routines while belting out her hits, it was an impressive performance. Many wondered if Pink had been a circus performer in another life.
Focusing on her celluloid ambitions, Pink co-starred in the horror flick Catacombs with Shannyn Sossamon. She had been suggested for the role of Janis Joplin in The Gospel According to Janis, but she lost out to Zooey Deschanel.
‘Stupid Girls’, a fantastic send-up of the world of celebrity and
its obsession with painfully thin, compliant, dolly
When Pink took a break from Carey Hart in the year following their marriage, she said she knew he was the man she wanted to have babies with. It just wasn’t the right time. In 2009 the pair had reconciled and Hart joined Pink on the Funhouse Tour. But there is no patter of tiny ‘pink feet yet’.
Funhouse, released in 2008, was Pink’s break-up album. She described its songs as about ‘fun’, ‘drunkenness’, ‘debauchery’, ‘silliness’ and ‘heartbreak’. She said originally she wanted to name it Heartbreak is a Motherfucker, because it was about love gone wrong. But ‘Walmart wouldn’t take it’. The album rocketed into the Billboard Top 200 charts at number two and topped the charts around the world. The single ‘So What’ took out the top spot in the USA, her first number one single on the Billboard Top 100. On the Funhouse Tour, Pink showed off her acrobatic skills twirling high above the audience without missing a beat, her voice clear and strong. The tour played Britain and Europe with USA dates added later as the album gained traction. By 2010, Pink’s worldwide records sales had passed the thirty million mark.
AVRIL LAVIGNE
The best bratty thing
Canadian Avril Lavigne was discovered by Arista Records boss LA Reid when she was sixteen. A year later she skyrocketed to international stardom. Her tomboy attitude was hailed as a breath of fresh air among the scantily clad teenagers led by Britney Spears.
Born in 1984 in the tiny Ontario town of Napanee, Avril was raised in a strict Christian environment. Her mother kept a close eye on what her offspring listened to—Avril grew up with a steady diet of gospel and country music. Her early influences included artists like Faith Hill.
Avril sang with the church choir from a young age. In her early teens she performed at shopping malls and fairs. She learned guitar and began writing songs. At fourteen she won a competition to sing a Shania Twain song at that artist’s concert in Ottawa. Five years later she sold out the same stadium as headliner.
Signed to Arista Records in 2000, Avril moved to New York with her older brother as chaperon and began working on songs for her debut album. Progress was slow until the record company moved her to LA. There she was assigned to the songwriting team known as the Matrix, who took her raw material and turned it into chart-topping hits.
Avril’s first album Let Go was released in 2002. She instantly became the darling of MTV’s tweeny-bopper hour TRL, her skater-chic outfits and bratty attitude resonating with thousands of young fans. The album, a mix of rock numbers and catchy pop tunes, was an international hit spawning three number one singles—‘Complicated’, ‘Sk8er Boi’ and ‘I’m with You’.
Avril hit the road to promote Let Go and surprised many reviewers with her assured stage presence and captivating, if slightly thin, voice. Avril loved performing for her fans, but she didn’t enjoy the promotional grind. In interview the petite teen didn’t bother concealing her boredom and contempt for the whole process.
When it was time to record her second album she chose to take more control over the songwriting process, wielding her multi-platinum selling power. Under My Skin, released in 2004, had a slightly edgier tone and its songs were more concerned with the anguish of teenage love gone wrong and navel-gazing. It prompted reviewers to compare her to Alanis Morissette, although Avril’s material wasn’t as angst-ridden and contemplative.
In 2004 Avril started dating Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley. She moved out of her apartment in Toronto and the pair bought a house in LA. They tied the knot in 2006 in a traditional white wedding.
Her third album, The Best Damn Thing, was released in 2007 and topped the charts. Its first single ‘Girlfriend’, a classic pop song with catchy hooks and a chorus that gets stuck in your head, put Avril firmly back in the number one position for weeks. The Best Damn Thing is Avril at her bratty best. Even though she’s now in her early twenties, her slight frame and girlie voice let her get away with material that is pitched directly to the tween-age market. On this album she uses profanity with gay abandon. It’s classic bubblegum anarchy that lacks any substance, but would be great to sing along to if you’re nine.
KAREN O
Fever Pitch
Karen O is the dynamic, charismatic and eccentric lead singer of the New York punk/avant-garde/pop/rock trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Formed in 2000, the band crashed onto the New York club scene. It was a time when garage rock was enjoying a resurgence led by the Strokes, who were at their peak. Just three years later, the tables would turn with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs leading the pack and the Strokes claiming them as their ‘favourite band of the moment’.
Karen’s onstage antics and idiosyncratic fashion style have almost eclipsed her musical abilities. Almost. During performances she douses herself and her adoring fans in beer, stomps, shouts, throws gear (sometimes hitting audience members), shoves microphones down her throat and frequently grabs her crotch.
Her fashion sense is courtesy of best friend, fashion designer Christian Joy. It involves lots of torn clothing—ripped fishnets, T-shirts with holes, tatty mini skirts and spandex. With a mop of black hair and a Chrissie Hynde fringe, a porcelain complexion, red lips and kohl-rimmed dark eyes, Karen is a fashion icon for hoards of pre-pubescent girls.
But Karen O is much more than a caricature. An accomplished songwriter for both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and for film soundtracks, Karen O has become a rock icon of the new millennium, with one journalist calling her the first woman of rock for the twenty-first century. She’s been likened to everyone from Pat Benatar to Patti Smith and been called the female Iggy Pop. She has a magnetic appeal on stage and a voice that ranges from an orgasmic yowl to melodic tones, and everything in between. She is a performance artist and uses the stage—and the audience—as her canvas.
Karen O’s creator Karen Orzolek said the ‘Karen O persona’ was designed to be outrageous, to see what ‘I could get away with ... manipulative, deceptive’. And designed to dance. Karen O, she said, was born on the dance floor. In fact, Karen Orzolek was born in South Korea in 1978, to a Korean mother and Polish father. She grew up in a middle-class town of Englewood in Bergen County, New Jersey, with her parents and younger brother.
In her teens her musical tastes were broad. She loved dancing to Michael Jackson and listening to the melodies of Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens. She also got into artists like Neil Young in her ‘hippie phase’, a period when she clashed frequently with her mother, once a fashion designer, who couldn’t understand her daughter’s tattered clothing choices.
After graduating from high school Karen attended Oberlin College in Ohio for two years before transferring to New York to complete her studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. At Oberlin she met Brian Chase, who would later become the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ drummer.
Karen hadn’t been in New York long before she met guitarist Nick Zinner in a seedy East Village bar one night. Too drunk to recall the meeting in any great detail, Karen ran into Nick again shortly after and the pair decided to form a band.
In 2000, under the name Unitard, the pair wrote a number of acoustic folk songs. But Karen quickly grew bored. She wanted to amp it up. Inspired by Ohio’s avant-garde punk scene, they added electric guitar and microphones to their musical compositions. At first Zinner was skeptical about forming a rock band, but Karen’s enthusiasm was infectious. Chase came in on drums and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was born.
Their early gigs included supporting the Strokes and the White Stripes, bands they had been influenced by. They played underground clubs, bars and galleries to small crowds. And they played random illegal venues in Brooklyn at shows put on by promoters the Twisted Ones. They were ‘exciting ... crazy times ... it was madness,’ said Karen. Except the night they played their first gig at CBGBs. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were fillers between the metal bands. Karen said it was the most ‘depressing’ show, with the audience all but ignorin
g them. But their live performances got tongues wagging and the excitement around the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Karen’s exuberant and at times totally outlandish onstage actions, attracted a groundswell of support.
Prolific songwriters, Zinner and Karen soon had enough material to put down their first EP and by early 2001 their debut recording was on the streets. The EP was produced independently on their own label, Shifty, with Jerry Teel of punk blues band Boss Hog. The eponymous EP drew attention to the trio and in 2002 NME awarded the song ‘Bang!’ the number two position on its annual Tracks of the Year list. ‘Bang!’ was the band’s attempt to ‘emulate the sassafrass and aloof cool of ESGs leading ladies’. The band is on record saying ESG’s album A South Bronx Story (2000) was the ‘single most influential record for us at the very start, even though we had no bass player!’ Zinner plays through two amps, supplanting the need for a bass guitar.
Perversion, sex and violence are the three things Karen has said she wanted to get out of her system through music. Chorus lyrics to ‘Bang!’—‘As a fuck son, you sucked’—escaped the notice of the censors in Britain, where the song was given airplay and introduced the band to a new audience.
Rock Chicks Page 25