Liiar analysis

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS1

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 .

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.

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.

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

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.

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.