The music video portrays two versions of the singer - a reserved version and a punk rock alter ego. Throughout the dates with a boy, the alter ego interrupts and catches his attention with her more outgoing personality and provocative style. By the end, the singer asserts herself as the better girlfriend option through her rocker version. The video uses costume, makeup, camera angles and sets to clearly distinguish the two characters and their personalities.

1. Music video narrative analysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg59q4puhmg
The overall narrative of the music video concludes of a series of dates with the two
different characters both participate in, each date with the original girl is fine to
begin with however interrupted by the alter ego the boy begins to enjoy her
presence more.
Start: Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne begins with her walking into a restaurant with
her date. She sees another version of herself, which is a punk rocker kind of girl the
opposite of what she is now. She runs over and confronts the geek version of herself
followed by the lyrics ‘hey, hey, you, you I don’t like your girlfriend’ then she
presents herself as another girlfriend option for him with the lyrics ‘I think you
need a new one’.
The director has blatantly thought clear of the star image the new alternative
girlfriend has as it suits the male interest in the video more. She comes across more
provocative around the boy than the geek version of her and he appears to like it as
she drags him closer with the lyrics ‘I could be your girlfriend’

2. The mise en scene throughout the video is full of the essential props, costume,
makeup and setting. For instance the confident flirt type of girl has more
revealing clothes on, in the picture she is wearing black fish net tights, high
baseball socks, a small blue tartan skirt with braces, a tight top and rings and
sweat bands etc., all used to portray her in a completely different way to the
original girl we see who has the glasses, the long ginger hair, pink cardigan and
pink top and a long skirt, form that we infer a more reserved girl maybe with a
bit more respect, also I would connote that the pink represents femininity and
more of a color suited to a typical lady, on the other hand the dark colors like the
black and dark blue on the alter ego represent a grunge rock and maybe
aggressive character. Primarily, it just gives the audience an overview of the two
juxtaposed characters presented to us in the video. The director has thought of
camera angels to show off certain assets, on the picture above it’s a low angel
shot that shows the whole of the female body obviously for a reason.

3. There are various scenes created to make their dates look fun, enjoyable and
entertaining, here we see a shot of the two go karting before interrupted by the
alter ego who always seems to be presented as the more fun out going girl which
catches the males attention.
After a date we always see a confident better Avril lavigne because she has
accomplished her task of gaining the boys attention, ‘I can tell you like me too
and you know I’m right’ sung shortly after this just supports the fact she’s a girl
who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. I feel throughout the whole
music video the rock version of her is shown to be a strong overpowering girl in
which is made omnipresent throughout the duration of the video. The narration
is made substantially clear to the audience that there is a long triangle within the
adolescents, which causes the rivalry between he geek, innocent and pure girl
and the grunge, rock chick out to seek what she wants.
We see the makeup that has been
used to signify a different social
culture in this sense it would be
punk rock and the back makeup,
dark eyes and bright pink
highlights support this effectively.
Also the close up shot is primarily
used to show her bold makeup,
hair and also shows her jewelry,
i.e. the earrings and necklace, this
finishes off her look and helps the
audience understand what type of character she is, what things she likes and
how she decided to present herself for the male eye.

4. Followed by the lyrics, ‘I
could be your girlfriend’ is
a birds eye view of the less
provocative girl falling in
the water, my
interpretation of this was
that the rocker version of
her is always going to be
above her in the sense of
what men like or for this
particular video what the
boy in this video likes.
Again here we have a low angle shot which shows the whole choreographed
dance which is quite unusual for a pop rock song but still works well, giving the
audience a full long body shot emphasizes everything in the setting i.e. the
costume the background colors, the drums and electric guitars and just gives the
whole video a rock entertaining era about it which fits in with the genre so the
audience know what they are watching.
She used the phrase
‘whens it gonna sink in’
and the dance has been
done to represent
sinking which shows
significance and fits in
well with the
production and
entertainment of the
routine.

5. This is the album cover in which
the song girlfriend comes from; we
can see the vibrant pinks and also
the dark colors, i.e. the black, this
portrays an image to the audience
of what type of person she is and
what style/genre the music is. The
grim and serious look on her face
to me symbolizes a depressed kind
of teenager, moody and adolescent.
The love heart with the cross
bones coming out also implies a
rock chick or punk rock kind of girl
in which we know she is.
Here we get a different view of her,
with a provocative smile, this suits
the song as she singing about going
into a relationship with someone
who already has a girlfriend; so a
cheeky kind of naughty
representation of her is shown and
we infer from this that the lyrics
and video may come across quite
taboo for a certain audience. The
vibrant red could suggest danger
in which having seen the video we
know she tries to steal someone’s
date. The black and white spots
you could say is a theme because it
makes an appearance on both
covers, it could be a signature style