Intertextuality is known as the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. It is the interconnection between similar or related works of media that reflect and influence an audience's interpretation of the text. Media products refer to a different media product within their own, this can be done in a humorous way (a parody) or reflected by the style of the product. This helps the audience take further levels of meaning away from the text. A theorist named John Stuart describes music videos as 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' which is essentially the essence of intertextuality.
Intertextuality can be found in all media platforms such as television, films and music videos. The TV show 'The Simpsons' includes lots of examples of intertextuality in various episodes. One particular example used in the popular entertainment programme is the characters copying the shower scene from the horror film 'Psycho', but the location is different and so are the props. The camera shots and facial expressions match those that are created in the original media text. The Simpsons may have chosen to recreate this scene as it is fairly iconic and because of the way the TV show have portrayed it, it becomes humorous for the audience as they can make the link between the two different media platforms.
An example of a music video containing intertextuality is 'Red Hot Chili Peppers -Californication' which throughout the video follows the theme of a video game.
The lyrics of the song match the scenes that are being shown in the music video through the use of a video game. An example of this is when the band sings "A teenage bride with a baby inside" and the main character within the video then comes across a pregnant women, this synchronises the lyrics in the song with the narrative in the music video.
By the Red Hot Chili Peppers using a video game theme in their music video, they have separated themselves from other alternative rock bands and created a unique selling point for themselves. This would make not only fans of the band like/watch the music video but also fans of video games would enjoy it too. By them using an unusual style of intertextuality in their music video, it may make both the song and the video more memorable, bringing in a larger audience and enhancing the success of the band which might be the reason behind the intertextuality idea. The video also holds very high graphics and visuals considering the time of its release as the album was released back in 1999. Graphical capabilities have improved drastically over the past few years so, for a music video to be able to contain so many different graphical techniques successfully in the time of its creation is very impressive, this may have helped the popularity of the music video and its amount of views. The music video also includes a performance from the band, making the audience more familiar with the band itself. The characters within the video game element are constructed to resemble the band members which is another positive aspect for building up the bands relationship with their audience as they are able to relate more to the band members.
The purpose of using a video game to create intertextuality within the bands' music video for their song 'Californication' may be to entertain the audience as it is interesting to watch the band members be recreated as video game characters. Also, the creator of the video may have wanted to show off their editing and graphical skills which would've gravely impressed both fans of the band and people who played video games at that time.