2B — Thursday, January 30, 2020
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Youth is everywhere in music. Everyone wants 
it, remembers it, aches to return to it. In music, 
youth is the time when life is the fullest and 
the most exciting — late nights, hijinks, drugs, 
sex, crying and dancing. The days are short; 
the nights long; the years even longer. In song, 
youth is the perfect storm of irresponsibility and 
impressionability. You can do everything and 
anything, and it all feels important. 
There are so many songs about youth, about 
both living it and remembering it. Youth is visual, 
like all memories are: the fashion, the people and 
the places. But, of all the songs surrounding the 
idea of youth, those with particularly interesting 
music videos stuck out to me while trying to 
compile a best-of list. Which songs had videos 
that seemed to accurately reflect on some aspect 
of teenagerhood in the era in which they were 
produced? I narrowed it down to five songs 
about youth, all of which have music videos that 
feel especially “of their era,” acting as a visual 
record of the song’s subject. 

1) John Mellencamp, “Cherry Bomb” (1988)

“That’s when a sport was a sport, “Mellencamp 
sings, “And groovin’ was groovin’ / And dancin’ 
meant everything / We were young and we were 
improvin’.’” Who doesn’t want to be improvin’? 
The song is everything you want: sentimental 
but upbeat, with lyrics begging to be karaoked. 
There’s the requisite melancholy for days gone 
by, but what’s most palpable is Mellencamp’s joy 
at remembering the wonder and excitement of 
his adolescence. 
The music video is a moving collage of 
absurdity and sincerity: Found footage of teens 
in the ‘50s and ‘60s, accompanied by shots of 
a suspender-clad Mellencamp singing next to 
a jukebox as a teenage couple dances and feels 
each other up. Sometimes, the camera even 
cuts to Mellencamp doing his best Neil Young 
impression on a beach, wearing a denim jacket 
with no shirt. 

2) Lauryn Hill, “Doo-Wop (That Thing)” 
(1998)

Is this song about being young? I think so. 
I think it’s about the competing interests of 
youth — dressing right, having fun, falling in 
love without getting your heart broken. She’s 
instructing youth on how to find self-worth 
within impossibly challenging conditions. The 
problem, of course, is that the hot desires of 
young adulthood often run in opposition to other 
longings. Can you be cool and true to yourself? 
Respected and silly? These are the questions 
Hill addresses. The song could be considered 
preachy, but instead it’s moving. “Now, Lauryn 
is only human,” she sings. “Don’t think I haven’t 
been through the same predicament.” 
And the music video! It’s something else — a 
split-screen extravaganza of the late ‘50s, early 
‘60s sock hop aesthetic on the left and ‘90s 
Afropunk on the right. The video’s concept 
drives home the central point of the song: The 
same struggles will follow men and women 
through every generation. Youth are prone to 
compromising their values in search of love 
or a cure for loneliness, and they always have 
been. “How you gonna win, when you ain’t right 
within?” she asks. “Come again, come again, 
come again, come again.” 

3) Wheatus, “Teenage Dirtbag” (2000)

BBB wants us to think he’s all about rebellion 
and angst, but this song is about something far 
more tender: a crush. Do you remember the 
innocent fantasies of high school infatuation? It 
was a secret thrill — hoping that special person 
would sit next to you at lunch, or that they’d 
come up to you at a party, or that you’d be put in 
the same homeroom class. This is that feeling — 
a delicate hope, mixed with fear and self-doubt 
— wrapped up in a gleefully screamy alt-rock 
package. 
The music video is a melding together of 
original footage from the 2000 movie “Loser,” 
starring none other than Jason Biggs of 
“American Pie” fame. In the movie, Jason’s 
character has a crush on a girl who’s having an 

affair with a terribly pretentious English teacher 
(played by Greg Kinnear, of course). Problematic 
source material aside, the music video is such 
an embodiment of the early 2000s that, when 
watching, it feels as if long-dormant memories 
are surfacing rather than being created. The 
plot of the video is a daydream in which a boy 
discovers his crush is also a teenage dirtbag who 
loves Iron Maiden. “She’s walkin’ over to me, 
this must be fake / My lip starts to shake,” sings 
Brown. Biggs wakes up and the fantasy ends, but 
the world of the song — being a teenager and an 
outcast, hoping that the person that you love will 
reveal themselves to be just like you — lingers. 

4) Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy” (1984)

One of the top comments on the music video 
for “Smalltown Boy” is “I forgot the name of the 
song, so i searched ‘Gay train song 80s’ and this 
was the first video.” Yes, this is the seminal gay 
train song of the ‘80s, and it’s earned its place 
in the canon of music surrounding the struggles 
and joys of LGBTQ+ identity. “Smalltown Boy” 
is the sad prequel to “Take Your Mama” by the 

Scissor Sisters, cataloguing the grief of a teenage 
boy who must seek his fortune outside the 
prejudices of his hometown. “Mother will never 
understand why you had to leave,” sings Jimmy 
Somerville. “But the answers you seek will never 
be found at home.” 

Somerville’s signature falsetto, supported 
by a synth-heavy beat, narrates the story in 
terms vague enough that the song’s meaning 
isn’t always obvious. The music video, however, 
makes it painfully clear what the song is about. 
Somerville plays a gay teenager, riding a train 
and reminscing about his emerging sexuality 
and the reactions of his peers and parents. The 
song’s subject was especially groundbreaking at 
the time of its release in 1984, when the AIDS 
crisis was in full swing. The video, a nosedive 
into mid-‘80s Britain, is a moving portrait that 
ends on an unexpectedly happy shot of the 
protagonist stepping off the train with his new 
friends. The scene freezes, Somerville grinning 
at last. 

5) Asher Roth, “I Love College” (2009)

The lyrics of “I Love College” are probably 
not going to win any awards. “Man I love 
college (Hey!) / And I love drinking (Hey!) / I 
love women (Hey!) / Man I love college (Hey!).” 
It’s a silly romp of frat-rap about partying and 
drinking and weed and girls. But the music video 
for “I Love College” is a gem, displaying the 
conspicuous carelessness of party culture in full 
swing. Roth makes his way through the rooms 
of a house where a burn-it-down party is in full 
swing. 
Revelers make out, throw a mattress off a 
balcony and play strip poker. Someone dressed 
in a dinosaur costume simulates sex with a keg. 
Roth grins next to an unconscious, Sharpie-
covered partier getting a buzz cut, singing, 
“Don’t pass out with your shoes on.” It’s dumb 
and dangerous and it feels weirdly familiar, like 
this 11-year-old party could have happened last 
weekend. 
It’s hard to say anything about being young 
without falling into the dangerous territory of 
aphorisms. These artists say something new, but 
they also say all the old things. Run away, find 
yourself, fall in love. “When I think back about 
those days / All I can do is sit and smile,” sings 
Mellencamp. Go West, young man — you’re only 
young once.

B-SIDE: MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Teenage dirtbags, cherry bombs: Youth in music videos

MIRIAM FRANCISCO
Daily Arts Writer

“Everything I 
Wanted”

Billie Eilish

Interscope

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW: 
‘EVERYTHING I WANTED’

Right before the final 
award of the night was 
announced 
at 
the 
2020 
Grammys, Billie Eilish could 
be seen whispering, “Please 
don’t 
be 
me.” 
Moments 
later, her name was called 
— making Eilish the night’s 
biggest winner. Her music 
video “everything i wanted” 
details the fear that comes 
with her kind of fame. 
Eilish has never been 
one to shy away from dark 
subject matters. However, 
“everything i wanted” feels 
distinctly 
personal. 
Not 
only did Eilish direct the 
video herself, her brother 
and collaborator, FINNEAS, 
is her only co-star. It opens 
up 
with 
Billie 
driving 
Finneas through a sunset 
San 
Francisco-esque 
cityscape. Yet as the pattern 
of 
skyscrapers 
repeat, 

blinking along to the music, 
it becomes clear that she’s 
really driving through her 
dreamscape. 
According 
to an interview with BBC 
Radio 1, the song itself is 
based on a dream Eilish had 
in which she committed 
suicide and everyone turned 

on her. As horrifying as that 
sounds, Billie drives blank-
faced. She doesn’t need to 
acknowledge the lyrics that 
weave together her image-
related 
anxieties, 
they 
already feel present — and 
heavy.

“everything 
i 
wanted” 
ends ominously. Billie and 
Finneas drive onto the beach 
and then floor it into the 
ocean, where the car sinks. 
In these final scenes, it’s 
obvious that this video is as 
much about Eilish’s mental 
health as it is about her 
relationship to her brother. 
He mouths the lyrics “they 
don’t deserve you” and takes 
her hand with a smile as they 
go deeper into the water. 
This allows for a glimmer of 
optimism. Although they’ve 
both been consumed by the 
darkness of being in the 
spotlight, they still have 
each other — and a lot more 
success — ahead of them.

 
— Katie Beekman, 
Daily Arts Writer

DARKROOM AND INTERSCROPE

“B.I.T.C.H.”

Megan Thee Stallion

Roc Nation

SINGLE REVIEW: ‘B.I.T.C.H.’

Hot Girl Meg marks her 
return this winter with a 
new single: “B.I.T.C.H.” The 
new single will appear on her 
upcoming studio album Suga, 
named after Stallion’s new 
alter ego. The song samples 
Tupac’s All Eyez on Me song 
“Rather Be Ya N**ga” (a track 
that samples Bootsy Collins’s 
single “I’d Rather Be with 
You”). “B.I.T.C.H” embodies 
the same swagger and groove 
as its throwback inspiration, 
but with Megan’s own sexy 
twist. Whereas Tupac wants 
to get with his muse, Megan 
maintains her independence 
and commands respect on 
her track. “I’d rather be a 
B.I.T.C.H., ’cause that’s what 
you gonna call me when I’m 
trippin’ anyway / You know 
you can’t control me, baby 
/ You need a real one in 
your life,” she asserts in the 

chorus. 
Despite the vintage bubble 
wrap, “B.I.T.C.H.” does not 
run the risk of sounding out of 
place from Megan’s standard 
discography. The tune is just 
as sexy and fun as it was 
when Tupac first introduced 
it in 1996, but with a raunchy 

twist; 
this 
rendition’s 
twinkly, romantic plinking is 
a lot more downplayed under 
slight trap inflections. With 
“B.I.T.C.H.” Stallion doesn’t 
want to appeal to anyone 
so much as she strives to 
position herself as a force 

worth reckoning with. She is 
cool, calm, talented and sexy 
without having to comply 
with anyone’s standards.
The banger flourishes over 
a bouncy, funky beat. Sultry 
whispers of “I’d rather keep 
it real with ya” echo to signal 
the 
delicate 
vulnerability 
that tinges the track. Despite 
Megan’s 
reputation 
and 
her assertion of dominance 
and 
independence, 
she 
recognizes 
her 
man’s 
ignorance of her feelings. 
It’s not that she’s drawing 
his attention so much as 
she’s pushing him away; she 
refuses to waste her time on 
someone who won’t devote 
any to her.

— Diana Yassin,
Daily Arts Writer

ROC NATION

In song, youth is the perfect 
storm of irresponsibility and 
impressionability. You can 
do everything and anything, 
and it all feels important

SPOTLIGHT OTTAWA

COLUMBIA RECORDS

