The document analyzes the 2000 music video for the song "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus. It summarizes the narrative of the music video, which tells the story of a boy who likes a girl who has a boyfriend. It also discusses how the video represents the band's performance and builds emotion throughout the song. The ideology portrayed in the video is that stereotypes are not always true and unexpected things can happen.

1. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
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2. Teenage Dirtbag –Wheatus
There is a mixture of narrative and performance in
this music video to show a story for the song, but
also give the fans the aspect of live performance they
will want to see the band. It’s popular within music
videos to do this and I think this style is one that I
would like to use when creating my own music video.
Although abstract does appeal to me, my song has
words that would fit a narrative well.
There are two main characters in the video, a
boy who likes a girl who has got a boyfriend.
Trying to represent modern day stereotypes of a
geek and a pretty girl. We would usually expect
them to not get on, because of the roles that are
set out in society. In schools different groups of
people wouldn't’t mix with each other .

3. Language
• The lyrics of this song appeal to teenagers, they are trying to
tell the story of a boy who thinks he hasn’t been noticed by the
girl he likes, this is a situation that teenagers will be able to
relate too. Wheatus have a high teenage fan base, so they
want to appeal to their target audience. I think if a deeper
understanding of the song can be made by the audience, they
are more likely to listen to the song and enjoy it. Wanting to
listen to the band more and discover their new music.
Throughout the music video the singing starts off soft and
builds up to more powerful singing and guitar and drums. I
think this is representing the way someone may feel something
and at first ignore it, let it built up inside without letting it out
which causes them to have an outburst. The performance in
the video shows this too, as they go from doing a causal
performance in front of a few people to doing one on stage in
front of a live audience who are reacting to the song.

4. Ideology
• The ideology of the music video is showing that things are not always
going to turn out how you expect. I think the music video will give
people inspiration that people might surprise them if they took a
chance of talking to them, in the video we see the boy who thinks he
could get the girl is surprised when she approaches him and invites
him to a gig. It is breaking from the stereotypical roles played by
people in high school.
• The narrative fits well with the life performance building up the emotion
in their performance the more the two characters speak. It helps to
deepen the understanding of what the two will be feeling.
• An idea that this video puts across which I don’t think they meant to do,
could be putting a negative view of high school to younger viewers
who cant see the intended humor in it. We see the boy getting pushed
over by the ‘jocks’ of the school. Which might upset younger viewers if
they don’t feel they fit into this group, so might get bullied in school
when they move up.
• I think the ending of this video ruins the image they create, the main
male character wakes up from a dream, implying that the story that
had been told what unachievable and unrealistic which is disappointing
to a viewer who may have got a positive side from the video.

5. Institution
• Wheatus were signed to to the record label Sony BMG
Entertainment at the time of the music video and formed in
1995 and this song/video were their most successful. The
music video includes clips from the movie ‘Loser’ which was
released the same year (2000) as the music video. I think that
the use of mixing both together will have impacted on the
success on both the film and the song. Wheatus fans may be
more inclined to watch the film after seeing the music video. It
works well for both products. In 2005 Sony BMG Entertainment
that was at the time a 50/50 joint venture between Sony
Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. after

6. Audience
• The audience for the video is mainly the fans of Wheatus, but it
could also attraction other people who are interested in the film that
the video features clips of. The stereo type of high school life could
be seen as humorous to an older audience, looking back and
thinking about the similarities and differences of their own time at
school.
• The music video is mainly aimed at teenagers and fans though, so
the live performance keeps them interested as they will be bothered
about seeing the artist they enjoy seeing. This will keep the target
audience coming back and wanting to watch future video releases if
they know its something they are fond of.
• By including the clips of the film it widens the audience for this
video, which might bring new fans to hear of Wheatus which may
not have otherwise found out about the band.

7. Representation
• The band represents themselves as real for the audience, they are
performing on the same level as them with the fans dancing behind
them, at one point. I think it appeals to the audience because they're
aiming it at a teenage audience- so if they were showing off and doing
things that were unrelated to them, even if the song was good the
video may put people off, unless it was done in a mocking way. It
shows the audience that Wheatus are representing themselves as
wanting to create good music for their target audience and are not
overly fussed about fancy things that may come along with fame.
• The video also has aspects of comedy which puts the bands across
well, the song is not overly serious in its subject so the video matches
the song, showing off their style and ideas about being a teenager.