Why We’re Still Listening to Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8ter Boi” Two Decades Later

“Sk8ter Boi” is so 2002. 

Avril Lavigne created the anthem in an era of totes cute abbrevs and MySpace memes. It was a tune for the 2000s and part of Lavigne’s successful introduction to the music world. But, as it can be difficult to do, “Sk8ter Boi” persisted past the ’00s. The song continues to remain a part of the cultural conversation today.

In part, we attribute this longevity to the genius of Lavigne’s no muss, no fuss lyricism. It’s a story song that describes two different archetypes of a young person: the outcast skater and the preppy popular. (He was a punk/ She did ballet, Lavigne sings.) Romanticized over and over again in music, novels, and movies, the stereotypes of the average high schooler have long been part of popular culture. From Grease to Riverdale, the drama of the young and restless are plastered over every medium possible to consume. And why shouldn’t they be? We all go through that period of angst-infused growing pains. It’s perhaps why coming-of-age stories are so popular; they’re relatable. 

But returning to the specifics of “Sk8ter Boi,” Lavigne set the stage with the insider knowledge that only a person that age would have. 

He was a boy
She was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a punk
She did ballet
What more can I say?
He wanted her
She’d never tell
Secretly she wanted him as well
But all of her friends
Stuck up their nose
They had a problem with his baggy clothes.

Lavigne was an insider of sorts. She was around 18 years old when “Sk8ter Boi” was released. Getting more into the nuts and bolts of the song, though, “Sk8er Boi” was written with the production team known as The Matrix, which includes songwriters ​​Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, and Graham Edwards. The songwriting squad also wrote “Complicated” together before they had written “Sk8er Boi.” 

But what else makes this punk rock song so surprisingly timeless? It could be the fact that the narrator in the song triumphs in the end or that punk is seeing a revival in the 2020s, but perhaps more than anything, it has to do with Lavigne herself.

When Lavigne was just starting out, she had to quickly learn how to fight for her vision. “I think making my first record was hard because I wanted to be a songwriter, and I was 15,” Lavigne told Kelly Clarkson when reflecting on her career.

“It was kind of like they were throwing their songs at me, and pitching their songs to me, which I really didn’t like. And so it was a fight. It was a fight to write my own music, and then it was a fight to get the sound I wanted,” she said. “And then I went to L.A., and then I finally met with some people, producers, and co-writers, that listened to me. At that point, I had tried so hard and I was developing into who I wanted to be [that] it worked.”

She fought for her story and her music. And she won. Maybe that’s why we keep putting on “Sk8ter Boi.”

Photo Credit: Ryan McFadden / Elektra Music Group