Dark side of California

            California is the wonderland in many people’s heart. It is because you can fulfill your own dream here no matter who you are. In the song “Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP), they sing about their perspectives of California. For example, when you dream for success, somehow you might be undergoing “Californication”. In the song, RHCP talks about the California Dream, “And if you want these kind of dreams, It’s Californication.” Also the band talks about the dark side of the Hollywood and the export of culture through the movie industry. Red Hot Chili Peppers thinks California may not be as attractive as we know based on their song “Californication”.

            In the second stanza of the song, RHCP talks about the geographic settings of California. The song says, “It’s the edge of the world and all of western civilization.” The influences made by the California during its development from 1850s affected the whole world. Since the discovery of gold mines, population increased rapidly.  Natalie Merchant sings in her song “San Andrea Fault” about why people should go to California,” Go west, paradise is there…” The reason why California is called a “paradise” is because of the Gold Rush. It brings out an idea that California is the place for people to succeed if they are willing to. People with their own dream come to California and try to struggle for a bright future. As the number of people dreaming for success increases, it led to the largest voluntary migration in the western history.

And this rapid growth in population hastened the development of California. Although the Gold Rush ends in 1850s, this place still has a huge impact in everyone’s heart.

            Besides the California geographic settings, RHCP also mentions the people in California. Because of the uprising of Hollywood, its movie culture has affected many people. RHCP thinks people are so idealized in their thinking. There is a line talking about the idealization thought by people who are affected by the Hollywood movie industry, “Marry me girl be my fairy to the world. Be my very own constellation.” The musician use imagery in this line to let the reader to visualize the picture of their dream boy/girl and send out a message that people are not so realistic now. Moreover, the following line is talking about “A teenage bride with a baby inside getting high on information.” Due to the impact of the movie industry, people might think a young lady with a baby in the movie is true and they should follow it. More and more people followed the trend and the public started to concern on the problem. It led to many juvenile delinquent problems. According to the Harper’s in early 1955, it reported that California juvenile delinquent problem was “40 percent worse than the national average as the youth poured the state “by the thousands.”” It shows that teenagers in California have a really low sense on sex. According to a report in 2006 by Guttmacher Institute, they have compiled the teenage pregnancy statistic in the United States in 2000 and based on the data they had, they ranked the top ten states with highest teenager pregnancy and birth rates. California ranks no.5 in the United States in rates of pregnancy among woman age 15-19 (around 100 pregnancies per thousand).

            From the lines of the song, RHCP also express their opinion on California Dream. They use an example of a dream of some little girls to talk about the California Dream, “Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations, and if you want these kind of dream, it’s Californication.” In “California—A place, a People, a Dream,” James J. Rawls explains what is meant a California Dream,

“For most of us, the California Dream is simply a vision of the good life…Founded on expectation and hope, the California Dream promises to fulfill our deepest longings for opportunity and success, warmth, sunshine and beauty, health and long life, freedom, and even a foretaste of the future (CDR 23).”

The reason why we specify it is a California Dream is because California is the promised land. Since the Gold Rush in 1850s, the state represents as a land with full of opportunities and success.  Also the band points out that Hollywood, a historical center of movie studios and movie stars, sells those California Dreams.  However, from the wording used in the song, we can see that Hollywood has its dark side. It has led to so many problems. But why people still chasing the California Dream? It is because they saw many people succeed in the Golden State. So they work hard to achieve and make their dream come true – become a billionaire and gain position in the society. They will not think about the dark side of the state since it is overwhelmed by those successful stories of the celebrities from California like Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, or Leonardo DiCarprio, who became famous after starring the movie Titanic.

            Moreover, there are few lines in “Californication” shows Red Hot Chili Peppers’ perspective on the culture of California. The song talks a lot about the materialistic lifestyle in the state from the lines “pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging. Celebrity skin is this your chin or is what that war your waging” and “buy me a star on the boulevard.”  After the World War II, the development of California was accelerated. It resulted in search of a more luxurious way of life among people. People resist becoming old when they own so much. They want to be young forever and so they go for plastic surgery. In some sense, people want to be famous so they do the plastic surgery too. Californians love entertainment and they just enjoyed the luxury of leisure time and money to burn. Kirse Grant May, writer of “Suburban Eden,” use a sentence to explain the lifestyle in California, “new frontiers in living…the life that lures the East.” Obviously, the lifestyle in California did affect a lot to other parts of the United States. “California Fantasy” has affected those developers. They started to follow the Californian lifestyle’s footstep and build the cities that are closely identified with California. They just keep on spending more and more money on building resorts or focusing on some leisure projects rather than helping people who are in need or doing something meaningful.

           Despite those good things in California, Red Hot Chili Peppers has brought us into the world we do not know. This world is totally different from we have already known. Behind those glories, the state has a lot of dark sides, mostly from Hollywood. People just received the wrong message from it and doing something that is harmful for them. However, RHCP wrote the last stanza telling us even it is hard, if you try to change, think positively, you will create something good: “Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.”