Bared Feelings, Not Midriffs

It’s easy to miss how unusual singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne looks in the cover photo of her hit debut album, “Let Go.”

The 17-year-old Canadian stands in the middle of a busy street, her dirty-blond hair looking a bit stringy. She’s engulfed by an oversized black jacket and baggy pants that drape in rumples over black running shoes, a bit of a wide belt peeking out where the jacket has fallen slightly open. Her expression is nonchalant, perhaps even bored.

This is not your normal teen pop star. She looks way too normal. No cleavage, no provocative poses, no coiffed hair, no buffed-out bod squeezed into skintight duds.

“I’ve been in situations, working in the studio where somebody wanted my songs to be more pop-influenced,” says Lavigne (whose last name is pronounced Luh-VEEN). “Or at photo shoots where they wanted me to look all cute, because so many people have sold so many records that way.”

But Lavigne has sold an impressive 700,000-plus records her own way. In its seven weeks in stores, “Let Go” has been holding steady in the top five of the sales chart behind blockbusters from the Dave Matthews Band, Nelly and Eminem.

Some have suggested that her popularity, in tandem with that of Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, two other young women who write most of their own songs, signals that young listeners finally have outgrown the prefab teen sex kittens and are searching out music with more substance.

“There are only so many dance-oriented videos you can absorb without beginning to look very closely at the quality of the songs,” says Jeff Pollack, one of the nation’s leading radio consultants. “The truth is, all three of these young women have made really compelling pop records with songs you turn up the radio to hear when they come on. That says a lot more about the songs than it does about their age. They sound poised, sophisticated and they’re not lyrically silly.... These are just pop records without the ‘teen’ attached to it.”

A&M; Records President Ron Fair has been on both sides of the fence, having signed and produced Christina Aguilera and 21-year-old Carlton, whose debut album, “Be Not Nobody,” has sold more than 500,000 copies in four months.

“What happened in the teen pop wave is that a small group of producers and writers wrote the majority of the hits for ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney [Spears] and 98 Degrees, and there was a sameness to it,” Fair says. “With radio, once they feel a certain sound is working with listeners, they’ll really pound it. It’s a vicious circle. That sound becomes saturated, then one day, it is no more.

“Along come Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch, who are doing something different, something that’s coming from more of a rock place,” says Fair. “What that indicates to me is that the kids are open to a voice of someone who’s writing their own songs, expressing their own thoughts, and they express a different kind of vibe than, ‘Here I am dancing with my midriff showing.’ ”

That vibe wouldn’t fly with Lavigne’s skate-punk attitude.

“I don’t like taking crap from people, and I don’t like people bossing me around,” she snaps with pride. “I go with my gut, and I’ve had to do that a lot.”

Lavigne’s music certainly is a far cry from that of the Britneys, Cristinas and Mandys who in recent years have dominated radio, MTV and most media coverage of pop music made by young women.

Forget the choreography-ready production numbers composed by a staff of professional songwriters hired to concoct fantasy images of glamour to sell to young music fans.

In their place are down-to-earth songs written by Lavigne and several collaborators expressing her frustration at a boyfriend’s two-faced personality (her hit single, “Complicated”), her yearning to feel special (“Anything but Ordinary”) or a new spin on the old rich girl-poor boy theme (“Sk8er Boi”). Catchy pop-rock verses often explode into punk-tinged choruses lacerated by slashing electric guitars.

The speed at which “Let Go” has taken off has surprised even those who were anticipating good things from Lavigne.

“We really expected this to be a slow build, and I approached it that way,” says Arista Records President Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who signed the singer. “There was not a lot of hype or huge expectations out of the gate. I had confidence that she’d build over time, but to have an immediate explosion the way she has absolutely has been a surprise.”

One reason might be the welcome alternative Lavigne and her kindred spirits provide. They say they’re hearing expressions of relief from young fans, as well as from their parents.

“I get a lot of comments from younger people like ‘Thank you for just being yourself,’ ” says Branch, 21, whose album “The Spirit Room” has passed the 1-million sales mark and has been on the Top 200 chart for nearly a year. “They can tell when something has been polished and is trying to be marketed toward them. Kids are a lot smarter than people think.”

So far, Lavigne, whose own musical tastes run to the Goo Goo Dolls, System of a Down and Blink-182, has no problem with representing the voice of the “real” teenager.

“It doesn’t feel like a burden--I think it’s awesome,” she says. “I’m a normal teenager. I’ve been through being mad at my parents, mad at boys, and a lot of people can relate to that. I just write honest stuff, and a lot of people have been through the same stuff I have. Every teenager has.”