ABSTRACT
From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, teen pop was one of the most pervasive of popular music genres. Following the groundbreaking success of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the industry welcomed a wave of young female artists, ranging from the R&B pop sounds of Pink and Nelly Furtado to the more rock-oriented styles of Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne. In his 2002 article “My Week on the Avril Lavigne E-Team,” music critic Chris Dahlen examines the rapid rise up the charts of the 17-year-old Lavigne, whose debut Let Go would finish as the third best-selling album of the year. Joining the Avril Lavigne “E-Team” under an assumed identity, Chris Dahlen offers a revealing glimpse into what it means to be a pop music fan in an era of message boards, chat rooms, online communities, and interactive television programs like MTV’s video countdown show Total Request Live, which aired between 1998 and 2008.
