How does the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication

appeal to its target audience?By Cody Davison

Song Information• Californication is the fourth single from the album with the same name. The

album was their 7th studio release and is the Chili Peppers most successful commercial release, selling over 15million copies worldwide and an impressive 5 million copies in America alone.• The single was released in 2000 and rose to the 69th spot on the Billboard hot

100 charts. The track claimed 16th on the UK singles chart, with other accolades including hitting number 1 on both the US Mainstream Rock Tracks, where it remained for 2 weeks. Also sitting in 1st on the US Modern Rock Tracks for 1 week.• Tracks sold isn’t the only category in which the single performed well. The song

quickly became one of the bands most popular and has featured in nearly every set list since its debut, with over 500 live performances, making it the bands 3rd most performed song of all time.

Band Information• The Chili Peppers have been making music together since 1983 and formed in the

city of Los Angeles. The bands musical style has foundations of rock whilst fusing and exploring different genres such as punk rock and psychedelic rock. Similarly to the group Tempesst who I have created a music video for.

• The group currently consists of Anthony Kiedis on vocals, bassist Flea, with Chad Smith on drums and former touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

• RHCP are one of the best selling bands of all time, selling over 80 million records worldwide. They have been nominated for 16 Grammy awards, winning 6 and are the most successful band in alternative rock radio history. They currently hold the records for most number one singles, 13, most cumulative weeks at the top spot, 85, and most top ten songs on the Billboard Alternative song chart, 25.

• In 2012 the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

•The music videos story is set inside of a video game with graphics similar to the original Playstation. The Playstation was one of the biggest consoles when the album was released. However, this isn’t used to make the video appeal to a younger audience, the subject matter of the Chili Peppers music is mature and Californication in particular tackles topics such as teen pregnancy, and the video features shots of a porn film being recorded. The average age for a gamer is in the 30’s so it would make sense for the video to appeal to an older audience using the video game setting whilst tackling more mature topics.

The Chili Peppers cleverly integrated intertextuality into their video to make it appeal to their audience. From the 2 photos provided, it is clear that the style of the video is heavily inspired from the video game Grand Theft Auto. This can be told from not only the content of the video but also the overlays being very similar to the style used in GTA.

The Grand Theft Auto series is infamous for its mature topics and has taken a lot of flak from the media because of it. Its story lines have featured narratives ranging from prostitution to drug trafficking. With the Chili Peppers singing about mature topics, it would make sense for them use GTA as a style for the music video. Fans of the GTA series may see the visual style and be intrigued to watch the music video.

By using a mature rated game as the setting for the video, the Chili Peppers are reaching out the mature audience which they are trying to target.

Californication breaks the style typically used in rock music whilst also conforming to them. I have yet to see another music video which uses the style of placing the band in a video game, in this way it breaks the genre conventions. However it also conforms to them by still having band shots interweaved in the video and featuring the band members throughout, through both the character icon screen on the overlay but also having the characters carrying out actions in the music video.

By conforming to genre conventions, the Chili Peppers video appeals to fans of traditional band music videos, Goodwins theory can be applied here and it is likely that the record label demanded that shots of the band be integrated into the music video, especially close ups as these can be used for publicity.

By breaking genre conventions, and using an experimental style for the video, people who may have skipped over the song/music video may decide to have a look, if for the style used or for its experimental nature.

Who is the target audience for the music video? Consider demographics and psychometrics – you’ll need to be as specific as possible e.g. writing: ‘It’s aimed at young people…’ is too vague. Explore the profile of the audience – what might their interests be? Which brands do they buy? Where might they live? What life style might they have? Remember to consider the difference between the constructed audience and the actual audience.

What was / is the audience’s reaction to the music video? What are the potential ‘readings’ of the music video? Explore Stuart Hall: preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings