Teenage Crime - How are young people presented in contemporary media? #3

The song is about a woman who's trying to "relive" her teenage years.

• "We don't sleep when the sun goes down", This could show how young people live such an active lifestyle when they're going to parties, night clubs etc they never sleep.
• "We don't waste no precious time" This could represent two things, one being that young people just want to have fun and not waste their youth. The other being that as it's an older woman who's trying to "relive" her teenage years, shows she wasted her precious time and would do anything to be young again and be able to go out every night.
• From the music video you can see the people in it are doing nothing illegal, they're young adults (Probably around 18-20) apart from the woman. They're just drinking in a night club and having fun without causing "teenage crime". The line "Making up for teenage crime" could show how the group of friends are making up for teenage crime by not being part of it.
• The music video & song could also be seen another way. As it's an older woman who's the main character of the video she could be 'making up for lost time' as she wasted her precious time as a teenager as the things young people can do now (Drink alcohol, get drunk etc) was considered a 'crime' when she was younger. 
• The editing of the video overall is very fast paced, like teenagers lives. This links in with the line "we don't sleep when the sun goes down", as teenagers never sleep during the night as they're always busy. 
• The overall video is dark and leaves the viewer only being able to see certain parts of the video due to how the director did the lighting. This could represent how the woman feels sad and as though she's missed out as she missed out on having fun when she was a teenager as it was thought of as being a 'crime'.

Mean Girls - How are young people presented in contemporary media #2

• The start of the trailer (0:26) shows a quick tour of the "school's central nervous system", it's basically all of the school's cliques. This shows how young people judge people on their clique and how people don't speak to other people outside of their clique. 
• In the trailer two of the characters (Gretchen and Cady) at 1:16, they're talking about "cute boys", this could present that young people only care about boys and dating rather than things such as school etc.
• At 1:43 into the trailer you see Regina say "I want to lose 3lb", this presents the idea that all teenage girls/young people are obsessed with looking their best, and losing weight. Which is a negative representation of young people as this isn't true. 
• The fact that there's a clique called "The Plastics" portrays how people think young people can be fake. As plastic is obviously fake and the term "the plastics" is referring to a Barbie doll etc being fake. 
• The main story of the film is about a girl, Cady, who changes since she left Africa and came to an ordinary high school. Through her change and the way the film shows the other pupils at the school it presents the idea that young girls especially go to great extents to be the most popular. This can give the idea that young people are too caught up in their own lives to care about what's going on around them.

Last Friday Night - How are young people presented in contemporary media #1

• The main focus of the song/music video is that it's a party. When parties are shown in music videos/films etc they are always shown to be out of control. This has created a stereotype for young people that they themselves are out of control and have no respect. As this music video shows, it's about a teenage girl named Kathy who throws a house party. 
• The surroundings of the video (the house where the party is held) is a mess. Especially at the beginning of the video when Kathy is just waking up. This could present the idea that teenagers are messy, untidy and careless about their house. This is an image most of society has about all teenagers so this music video presents this well.
• The location is a house, house parties are common among young people and when shown in films/music videos give young people a bad reputation as they're always shown to have something gone wrong at the party.
• At 1:27 into the video there's a flashback to the night before the party, With Kathy sitting in her room. The flashback could represent how young people never forget the "wilder" times they had when they were younger.
• At 4:21 in the music video you see Kathy being sick as she's obviously consumed too much alcohol. This is a negative representation on young people as it gives the idea that young people have no self control over how much alcohol they consume etc. 
• At 4:29 in the video you see two guys fighting over Kathy, Giving the idea that young people are violent towards other people (especially under the influence of alcohol).
• The whole idea for the music video is about a girl (Kathy) who changes her looks etc in order to become 'cool' so she can go to the party and have friends. This could give the impression that young people are willing to change just so they can appear cooler and maybe more popular. This is negative as many people think you shouldn't change just to appear better and cooler, but instead be yourself.
• The editing of the video is very jumpy which could give the impression that young people too are jumpy, move quickly at parties or in general as they're young.

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