Intertextuality

Example 1: Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers

This music video uses intertextuality throughout, with a theme of using a red hot chili peppers based video game

Firstly, the lyrics in the music video match the on screen action in the video game. An example of this in the song is:

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It's Californication

During this scene of the music video the main character in the video game comes across a pregnant woman, synchronising the lyrics in the song with the narrative in the music video. Another example of this in the music video is:

Space may be the final frontier
But it's made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderaan's not far away
It's Californication

During this part of the music video the main character in the music video walks into an outerspace scene, matching the location created in the song with the onscreen action in the video.

By using a video game theme in this music video, red hot chili peppers may have seperated themselves from other bands in the rock scene. Also by using a unusual style of intertextuality in the music video it may make the song and video more memorable, bringing in a larger audience and eventually enhancing the bands success. This video also held very high tech graphics and visuals for the time of the release, the album entitled 'Californication' was released on June 8th 1999, graphical capabilites have improved durastically in the past 13 years so for a music video to hold such a strong graphic link is impressive for the time it was created.

The music video also contains band performance scenes aswell making the audience more familiar with the band itself. They have also used the bands members to construct the characters in the game which is also another good aspect of this music video as it allows the audience to be able to relate with the members of the band more. All the band scenes cut from a member of the band to the video game aspect of the music video, this shows advanced levels of editing. 

Example 2: Arguing with Thermometers - Enter Shikari

This music video uses intertexuality by creating a news and weather report, the news reporter stays inside the studio for parts of the video and also goes out onto the street and gets involved with some band scenes.

This music video plays more with the idea of humour than my previous example of intertextuality 'californication'. For example at points in the lyrics where the singer is screaming the lyrics, the news reporter will mime this adding a sense of unseriousness and easy nature to a video, even though the lyrics in the song emphasise key problems in the world such as climate change. This video helps show that despite the seriousness of Enter Shikari's lyrics they are still willing to add a humourous theme to their music videos.

The images on the screen in the background match the lyrics that the lead singer of the band is emphasising such as melting ice caps, the song fits the news report theme well as some of the topics and subjects bought up in the lyrics of the song are common news stories. The drummer who is reporting the news shows the weather with his drum sticks once again emphasising a sense of humour.

The video also uses news reports out on the streets with a handheld camera adding a sense of realism to the onscreen action, as it could be perceived as a real news report. An interesting and out of the ordinary music video may also improve the bands popularity.