By Ricarda Schmiede & Linda Mohaupt
Born in Santa Barbara, California, the singer and songwriter Katy Perry contributed with her song California Gurls to the unbroken myth of California. However, the lyrics as well as the music video leave the audience with a little smile on their face over-emphasizing California as the dreamland.
Perry characterizes the stereotypical Californian girls as 'undeniable fine, fresh, fierce, [...] toned, tanned, fit, and ready' and 'west-coast represent'. They are 'unforgettable' with 'sun-kissed skin, so hot'. The phrase 'These are the girls I love the most' even seems to lift them up to the most desirable creatures on the planet.
According to the song California is 'a place where the grass is really greener' and it offers the assumption that 'there must be somethin’ in the water', implying that it is naturally outstanding. Moreover, the song defines California as a state where 'summertime is everyday'. In the end the lyrics create the impression that California is inhabited only by pretty girls and that it is just a fun place where people spend their lives in an endless vacation 'sippin' gin and juice', 'layin' underneath the palm trees' and have 'sex on the beach'.
California Gurls thus becomes one of manifold pieces of popular culture that depict California as a lush place that's naturally sexier and more fun than anywhere else in the world. But not only does it seem to advertise and uphold the everlasting, glowing Californian promise, it also makes the listener feel invited by claiming: "Once you party with us you'll be falling in love" as if California (and its 'gurls') were already waiting for the implied listener to come and join them. Thus, the song characterizes California as a naturally magnificent place full of gorgeous, open-minded, happy people who bid whoever wants to come welcome, in short: as paradise.
This notion is taken to extremes in the California Gurls music video which depicts California as a gigantic candy store named 'Candyfornia' in a rather childlike (but at the same time highly sexualized) manner. This can be read critically as a hint towards the mainly hedonistic opportunities that people so naively (i.e. without any awareness of or interest in the great dangers inherent in both California's natural condition and its lifestyle) strive for when heading towards California. In that setting, the plot is being depicted as a board game within which Snoop Dogg embodies a stereotypical sugardaddy-gambler who holds the dice and makes the California Gurls his tokens. This could on the one hand be interpreted as referencing the tradition of gambling dating back in Californian cultural history to the California Gold Rush and persisting ( in varied forms, of course) to the present day. On the other hand it's worth paying attention to what happens in the course of the game: the Katy Perry - token has to fullfill the task of releasing the 'Queens of Candyfornia' who she finds trapped along the way. On that route she has to face and master some severe challenges, such as having to traverse a sinister - looking gorge on a candy cane. Another scene shows Perry trying to climb to the sky. In the process of choosing a candy cane to hold on to most of them turn out to be snakes. Can this be read as a rather bashful hint at the hidden dangers, the dark side of the Candystore California appears to be but isn't? Probably. But just like in California's public perception this notion gets quickly wiped away: Candy - Perry overcomes all troubles and ends up proning naked on a pink cotton candy cloud, smiling her Californian toothpaste grin, flirting with the camera (resp. the viewer) as she praises California and its 'gurls', not being concerned with anything but their "daisy dukes" and "bikinis on top" anymore. After all, the Candyfornia Queens emancipate from the sugardaddy and the rules of his game and end up having fun, looking lush and happy on the beach. Thus, the video seems to fail at - if intended - making the viewer aware of the flipside of the shiny, glittering facade of the concept of California as being promoted widely. If criticism is implied, it is immediately enfeebled by distracting the viewer through its spectacular images and catchy tune. In a way one could argue, though, that this again works analogous to the widespread (maybe even deliberate) denial of the dark aspects of the Californian dreamland - such as the often experienced cruel denial of its promise, the partly inhumane parts of its history or its natural desasters.
After all, one could conclude that Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg's California Gurls affiliates itself to the tradition of advertising the utopia of California and its lifestyle (as indicated by the framing Beach Boys quotes) but, especially the video, can also be interpreted, if looked at very closely, as cultural criticism in so far as it does point at problematic cultural phenomena such as gambling, cautiously hints at the misleading Californian promise and at the same time demonstrates how easily, broadly and willingly this all is being ignored.
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