Case Study three – Representation of Youth

Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag

The artist background Wheatus is an American rock band, who formed in New

York in 1995. The band was formed by front man Brendan B. Brown. Other members include Brendan’s brother, Peter, who plays drums, Phillip Jimenez on keyboard, percussion instruments and Rich Liegey on Bass. The band played small gigs around New York, until in 1999 they hired Ray Maiello to shop their self-produced debut album to major record companies. Consequently, they were hired by Colombia records. Since then Wheatus has had six studio albums, and many line change ups, so the only original member left now is Brendan.

Song Background Teenage Dirtbag was the bands first single, and it came

from their self-titled album. The song was very successful outside of America, as it was number one in Australia, and stayed that way for four weeks, in addition it also reached number two in the charts in England and Germany. A reviewer for The Billboard said the song was good because it shows the perspective of the Underdog and it is such a catchy song, that it is sure to become an anthem. I think this reviewer was right because from my own personal experience I know that if this song is played on a night out, everyone knows the words, and really gets into it, so I think it is a very popular song, that everyone knows.

Links to Loser This song was also written to feature in the film Loser. Which stared Jason Biggs

and Mena Suvari, who also star in the music video for Teenage Dirtbag. The plot of Loser is that Paul (Biggs) moves to New York form the Midwest, and at College there he gets into many humorous mishaps, which get him branded as a Loser, and kicked out of his room, but at the end he falls in love with the beautiful and popular Dora (Suvari). It is a classic American romantic-comedy film, with the typical stereotypical American high school characters. This is significant because as Teenage Dirtbag is promoting this film the two need to link, and this link is created through the lyrics and the video, therefore the video shows these same stereotypes as the film. In addition the film is represented in this music video through the Loser sign being branded at Biggs. This is clever advertising as it subtly links the music video to the movie. This also shows that the fim and music is aimed at a teenage audience, as an adult audience would perhaps not understand what this gesture means.

Genre The genre of this song is pop-punk. The definition of pop-punk is

a type of music that has a radio-friendly sheen to their music, but still maintaining much of the speed and attitude of punk-rock, or ‘bubblegum punk'. The genre conventions for pop-punk are:

• Bright colours featured within the scenes • Fast cuts that synchronise with the speed of the music.• More mainstream form of punk so this is shown through comical

scenes, like the band acting childish• Usually performance scenes, where the band can be seen rocking out.• Nearly always a band.

Genre Conventions Met There are many conventions which are met in this music video to place it into the pop punk

genre. Firstly, is the fact that this video includes many shots of the band performing. The effect of this shot is that the audience are going to want to join in head banging and moshing like the people in the background, and this will therefore make the audience feel more involved in the music. In addition, another genre convention which is met in this video is the comical moments. For example, the shot below where Biggs is pushed on the floor. This is just one of many amusing moments that happens in this video with this character. The effect of this is that it links to the storyline of his character from the film, as he the typical nerd, who is bullied at school. Therefore these moments are very important as they are suggesting to the audience that the film Loser is a comedy, so it is therefore a way of advertising the film. Also, this comedy can be seen as being used to make the video more friendly, and less of a rock genre. This is because Pop Punk needs accessible to a more mainstream audience, which this comedy does.

Genre conventions challengedOne way in which this video has challenged the genre conventions is the fact that the lyrics include swear words. I feel this is a big challenge because it therefore makes the song less mainstream, and this song is therefore not going to be able to be played on the radio. This suggests a rock genre rather than a pop punk one, as it shows the band being rebellious, and does not fit with the mainstream audience. Another rebellious moment would be the line ‘he brings a gun to school’ this was censored out of the song later after the Columbine High School massacre, when the song received many complaints suggesting it glorified gun control. This shows that the song challenges the convention of being listened to by all, in a mainstream audience as parents would perhaps not want their children to listening to this song, after the massacre and the debate it brought about gun crime.

Links between lyrics and visualsOne link between the lyrics and visuals is the line ‘I have a dream about her’ this works well with the video because it shows the protagonist falling asleep at the start of the video, so the video is the dream that he had about her. Another link would be the line ‘Listen to Iron Maiden baby with me’ this is because there are many links to the band, such as the t-short that Biggs wears and the tickets he receives at the end of the video. The effect of including this band is that it links to the audience, as it shows that to include this band, the audience that they are aiming for must link them as well. This therefore makes the audience feel closer to the song, as they agree with what they are singing and also helps create more sympathy for Biggs’s character because the he is representing the audience, so they are therefore going to feel bad when these embarrassing things happen to him.

Narrative structureThe narrative structure of this video is very interesting because it is non linear, because it is the dream of the protagonist character, and like a dream, the plot jumps around, for example in every new verse he is in a different place with new clothes so it doesn’t flow naturally, it jumps around and this is because it is a dream , so it shows how the character is thinking of different things. In addition this narrative structure is also circular because it starts and ends at the same place, him asleep on the stairs, The effect of this is that it helps the audience realize that what they saw didn’t actually happen, it was just a dream. Another way in which this is done is through the editing technique of fading into the dream, in a circular motion. This also the audience to know that what they are seeing is not real. In addition another editing technique which is used is a fast cut at the end, as he gets hit by the disco ball in his dream, and this fast cut mimics the jump he has when he wakes up.

Representation of youthOne way in which youth is represented in this video is the stereotype of the characters. For example, the typical popular jock guy, as shown in the image below. You can tell he is this type of character from the way he looks, as he has an American football jacket on, and he is tanned and his hair looks like it has been styled correctly and this is stereotypically how popular people are meant to act. In addition the rule of thirds has not been used in this shot which is interesting because the formation which they are standing in makes them look menacing, so by not using the rule of thirds, it makes it look like there are more members of the group than their really is and makes them look more violent. This stereotype shows a direct contrast to the Biggs’s character who is representing the kids in high school who are not part of the popular crowd, this therefore makes this character more popualr, as most of the people watching this video will empathise with his character’s situation.

These shots are important because they help set the location of the video, it is then therefore clear to the audience that the location is based at a high school. The image on the left negatively represents youth because they are not letting him through the crowds, which suggests that youth are not polite and do not have any respect for each other. Also, the shot in the middle also does not represent youth well because the popular kids can be seen throwing rubbish at Biggs. This represents them as being bullies, and all of these factors contribute to this music video supporting the stereotypical ideas of high school kids, mainly because of the different cliques that are inside the school. The shot on the right from the end of the video also supports this idea, because it looks like the ‘nerd’ table because the people are sitting down by themselves, suggesting that they don’t have a date and they are also wearing clothes which are not typically cool, such as the suits. I feel the director has made the mise en scene like this so the audience can easily tell what type of people they are, and done it to this much degree for comic value.

How it fits with my workOverall there are many ways in which this music video links in with my video. But I feel the main way in which it is similar is the narrative structure, as my video is also set around a dream. Some of the techniques which were in this video which I really liked and may include in my video is how you can tell how the shots are joined together that he is in a dream, as it looks like the circles you get in water which suggest what the audience are watching isn’t real. I also felt that the fast cuts of shots will also work well in my video as my video never stays in one location, and this technique will be one way in which to achieve this. Also, this video included many hints to the film, Loser and also the band Iron Maiden. I liked this because I am including lots of inter-textual references in my video to other films, and I like how this film subtly got this message across, so when I do my video I need to make sure the audience know what I am referencing to.