Postmodern music video analysis - Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Dani California'

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song ‘Dani California’ is a good example of a postmodern music video that shows intertextual references to other popular music artists and genres through time. The music video is montage-esque as it shows all of the band members playing along to the song, impersonating different music acts and genres consecutively after each other. The different music acts and genres impersonated only stay on the screen long enough for the audience to recognise and appreciate who/what it is.

At the beginning of the song, the band can be seen impersonating Elvis Presley and the general style of popular music in the 50s and 60s. The lead singer can be seen dancing and behaving like Elvis Presley, he is also dressed similarly to how Elvis dressed in a white 50s styled suit. Furthermore, the other band members are dressed in a 50s style fashion too. This has been done to pay homage to Elvis Presley and similar artists of the 50s and 60s as they are regarded very highly.

Directly after the Red Hot Chili Peppers reference Elvis, they link the Beatles in to their video. The backdrop to this section of the music video is a very similar setting to somewhere where the Beatles would have played. Moreover, the instruments used in this section are very reminiscent to the style of instrument that would have been played at the time. A black and white filter is also used here to pay homage to the Beatles. 

 As well as that, the ‘Dani California’ music video also pays homage to one of the biggest bands of the 90s – Nirvana. Anthony Kiedis – the lead singer – is dressed as the Nirvana lead singer – Kurt Cobain. His clothes are similar and he has a wig that closely resembles the hair of Cobain. The slower editing used here could be seen to mirror the editing used in many Nirvana music videos. Furthermore, the darker mise-en-scene used in this section of the video also closely resembles the grunge-style mise-en-scene used in Nirvana’s videos. Once again, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are paying homage to Nirvana as they are very popular and it would please many of the Nirvana fans if they viewed this video.