The 90s were over, the new millennium was upon us, and we entered into a radically new era for pop music as a whole. Everything seemed to change once the clock hit midnight. We didn’t (thankfully!) succumb to the horrors of the Y2K problem. Musically, we entered into a very different era. It was one ruled by the internet, tech advances, and new subgenres left and right.
At the start of it all, at least for teens at the time, was “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus. This song might be one of the most famous one-hit wonder tunes of the era. It is also one of the very few that became a certified anthem for a whole generation of millennials.
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Let’s take a look back at the story behind “Teenage Dirtbag” and its influence on the music that followed in the 2000s.
The Story Behind “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus
The power pop anthem “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus dropped in the summer of 2000 as the lead single from the band’s self-titled debut album. Songwriter and frontman Brendan B. Brown wrote the song about his own childhood. Surprisingly, it was relevant enough to really resonate with teenagers at the turn of the millennium.
“It [‘Teenage Dirtbag’] came from the summer of 1984 on Long Island, when I was 10 years old,” Brown said in a 2012 interview. “That summer in the woods behind my house, there was a Satanic, drug-induced ritual teen homicide that went down. And the kid who did it was called Ricky Kasso, and he was arrested wearing an AC/DC T-shirt. That made all the papers, and the television, obviously; and here I was, 10 years old, walking around with a case full of AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Metallica – and all the parents and the teachers and the cops thought I was some kind of Satan worshipper. So that’s the backdrop for that song.”
A Hit on the Charts, but Still Deserved Better
“Teenage Dirtbag” was a pretty big hit upon its release. It peaked at No. 7 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the States. Somehow, it didn’t quite make it to the Billboard Hot 100. The track was extremely popular across the pond, though. There, it peaked at No. 3 on the Eurochart Hot 100 and reached the Top 10 in countless countries. It was a No. 2 hit in the UK as well.
The song has been covered by everyone from Sega Bodega to Cat Burns to Cavetown in the years since its release. It was also used in countless film and television soundtracks. A few include The Hills, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Dawson’s Creek. But the 2000 one-hit wonder “Teenage Dirtbag” will always be part of the soundtrack of life for millions of millennial fans around the globe.
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