The common tropes of a teen movie

MEDIA TRANSITION TIMELINE:

FOOTLOOSE-1984-Director:Herbert Ross
Tropes: moving away, everyone is boring cliché, the main character is an outcast, new friends made, evil father, high school, pop soundtrack.

TEEN WOLF-1985-Director:Rod Daniel
Tropes: main character is an outcast trying to fit in with the cool kids, bullies, love interest who's not interested at first but is eventually won over, sport team, a being yourself message, alcohol, high school, pop soundtrack.

CLUELESS-1995-Director: Amy Heckerling
Tropes: main character is at the top of her game and then spirals downwards where she eventually learns her lesson, unpopular best friend who is given a makeover, ignored friend who was right all along, romance, fashion, high school.

MEAN GIRLS-2004-Director: Mark Waters
Tropes: main character is an outcast, new best friends, fashion, pop music, message of being kind and not being shallow or vapid, high school.

EASY A-2010-Director: Will Gluck:
Tropes: main character is unpopular so lies to spice things up, best friend, busy body, misunderstanding and unwanted attention ensues, truth is revealed at the end, high school.

CONCLUSION:
Teen films usually have a main character who is unpopular, or a character who is popular but for whatever reason becomes unpopular. This is most likely so the teen audience can relate with them. There are usually bullies, as well as a best friend (they're either more unpopular than our hero or are the cool kid). The setting is usually a high school, so again the teen audience can relate. There are usually themes of fashion if they are appealing to girls, in contrast there are sporty themes for the boys. Usually (for the boys but sometimes for the girls) the main character gets the girl/guy who wasn't into them at the start of the movie. There is usually a pop soundtrack filled with music that was popular at the time of the movie's inception. This is probably to sell more merchandise like CD's or songs. And finally there is usually an important message at the end which ties in with and affect's the protagonist's ark, for example: the main character becomes really popular and shallow, learns the errors of their ways and becomes wiser at the end of the movie.