Music Video Analysis

Comment on the following aspects in relation to your music video choice. How will these techniques appeal to the target audience needs? Narrative Based:

Target Audience & Needs

Teenage dirtbag is a song by wheatus. The music video is used for two ways a trailer for the movie loser which is what this song is promoted on and for the music video itself. . The song and video could be a partly autobiographical account of the lead singer’s childhood because we can see in the video that he has a turned eye, making him stand out from his peers. The video has a strong narrative and connotes teen angst about being different and the idea of finding love. It has a comedy aspect to it as well since it’s for a comedy film. All these factors appeal to a teen audience 14-18 year olds male and female. The music video has sections to narrative with the setting being in high school with teenagers and being a high school in the early 2000’s there were a few shots of real life dangers such as drugs and guns that students bring in. But since in recent news of school shootings the word gun has been taken away from the music video and has been blurred up. They censored it because they know the target audience will be young kids and teens and having that word in will provoke people.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

Lyrically the song can relate to any teenager out in society. It states on how they are known as being popular or known. The main character the dirtbag likes a popular girl, but thinks she would never hang out with him, let alone even know who he is. Even worse she's dating a tough guy who has a gun and drives a muscle car. Now he's lonely at prom still longing for the girl. But then the twist happens at the end of the song when she approaches him and reveals that not only is she a teenage dirtbag as well, but has two tickets to go see Iron Maiden in concert. The lead singer in old

Music Video Analysis

interview said the song came from when he was a 10 year old rock fan and he was a teenage dirtbag. A big incident happen where a Satan worshiper teen was arrested for homicide while wearing an AC/DC t-shirt. The song is sung from the point of view of the teenager calling himself a dirtbag in this context saying that he is not one of the popular kids. In most high schools there were the group of kids that were the dirt bags or burnouts that had long hair, listened to heavy metal, and smoked in the park after school. The detail of listening to Iron Maiden a famous rock band really drives this point home. The lyics reflect the life of a teenager establing the mood of the song and its realisim.

Tempo Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus is in the key of E Major. It should be played at a tempo of 94 BPM. The song doesn’t have really fast paste and is very simple to follow with a catchy tune. Tempo means timing of music, or the speed at which a piece of music is played. Tempo of the music often dictates the rate of the editing and it does. The voice is enhanced more being more clearer and smoother o the tune and there are a few cut and different camera shots to present angles to see the scene.

Genre The theme of the teenage dirtbag is power pop, pop rock. The instruments being played by the band in the music video are typical pop instruments like electric guitars and drums. The whole song is filmed in high school which shows the narrative of the video and links in with the title of the song. There are symbolic codes to help define the narrative of the music video as well as the artist such as, the artist is always with his band performing with the musical instruments and that he always wears the glasses and hat, symbolise that he is the superior of the group. This video fits the typical narrative music video, this is because the lyrics

Music Video Analysis

correspond with the music video itself, for example when the artist says ‘her boyfriend is a dick’ the camera does a mid-shot of him, as well as slow motion for the audience to see who he is. Also the clothes the bands are wearing are very similar to the clothes of the teenagers in school which reflects the mood of the song. Also our main character in the music video is wearing unusual clothes compared to other students in the high school meaning he’s the outsider. We see a lot of things happening and we have common themes inside the music video such as young love with our main character with his crush. And in the style of performance by the band and characters like people bullying our main character by jesters and actions they do and the band were playing in different parts of high school with students cheering them on meaning teenagers can relate to the band as well.

Camera Technique Most of the cameras shots are dominated by close ups, mid shots and wide shots showing us the body and setting showing the singers and what expression they have on their face showing us. We see quick paced shots in the music video seeing different settings and scenes which keeps the audience interested. We see a lot face expression and body language during the music video showing us how he characters feel as they don’t speak properly. There are also a lot of low angle shots within the narrative when we see the bullies telling us that those guys are the bullies and they’re the superior to our main character. We also the band performing in the high school prom which is subtlety done telling that maybe they’re remembering their young lives.

Editing There wasn’t a lot of edits besides the fast cut but there were some. There was no CGI as the whole music video was filmed live. Like I said before we see fast paced cuts in the narrative and we more of the band then scenes in the music video mainly the core singer. Maybe telling us a story he knew maybe his story as it feels kind of personal to him. We also see a few edits to make the whole music video feel more vibrant and alive for example when he sings “he drives an IROC” we hear a fast car drive off as a sound effect. Telling us that the car he drives is very cool manly in that time saying how

Music Video Analysis

fast it is as we hear it drifts off. Also we sort if hear the car crash saying he is wild and not very intelligent if he crashes a car instantly. There was an edit to this song as it was republished scratching the word gun out as certain events happened called the Columbine High School massacre which see people bringing guns into a high school. It’s doesn’t take the whole word but just censors it so anyone still listening carefully knows what that word is in the whole sentence he sing it. At one point there’s was slow motion part of the song where the tune and tempo slowed downed as well showing us that she’s the love interest and emotion felt for the girl.

Use of Digital Effects There aren’t a lot of digital effects on this music video as the whole video is live action and mainly relies on its music and narrative story that’s live action. The digital effects are used to enhance the editing technique to give a better and stronger experience when watching it. There was digital edits visually making the colours pop out more by the brightness giving us these different colour from different people and objects. Showing us that each person is unique with their own colours inside like our main character.