Music Video Analysis - Teenage Dirtbag

In the start of the music video 'Teenage Dirtbag', they make everyone's character clear on who they are and who the dirtbag is, as at the beginning he's falling asleep on the stairs, followed by a scene where he's riding a bike to school alone; also they try to make him look like the odd one out of the whole school, as the bike shed only has his and a little girls pink bike there.


Right after this the song starts with the lyrics 'Her name is Noelle', and as the artist sings those lyrics a girl gets out of the car which just ran his bike over, they make it obvious on how he likes her because as she walks past him he continues to stare at her. As well as picking out the two main characters, they state her current boyfriend who is a bully, who clearly picks on the 'dirtbag' as well as everybody else in the music video, they state him by saying how her boyfriend is a 'dick' and how he brings a gun to school, as they do a long shot showing him at the front of a group of boys, which states he must be a ring leader, walks past the dirtbag and states that basically the bully doesn't care about him and barges him to the floor.

In one of the scenes it lunch time and the dirtbag is sitting at 'the loser table', standing across from the table is Noelle, her boyfriend and his friends, the dirtbag is nice enough to wave back whereas they throw something at him, Noelle clearly feels sorry for him and leaves her current boyfriend.
The next night is prom night, and the lyrics state on how terrible and unwanted he feels by saying how he feels like 'mould', then out of the blue he notices that Noelle is walking over to him, the lyrics state how it must be fake, as he thought something like this would never happen; then she comes out with taking him to see Iron Maiden with her, which is in the main chorus where he wants to take her, and she also states how shes just like him.

Throughout the chorus they state that she doesn't know what she's missing, which may be inferring he can give her all she wants, yet, it is all spoiled as it's all just a dream, when the artist says 'this must be fake', it was.



By Danniella Chapman