RHCP - By The Way [Mikey]

- The narrative of the video is about the lead singer, Anthony Keidis, calling for a taxi.
-He gets in the taxi and the cabbie realises who he is and plays the song, 'By The Way', to please him.
- the cab driver then goes crazy and starts driving like a maniac, causing Anthony to be distressed, and subsequently then pages other band members, John and Flea, who at first think the call is a hoax, but when Keidis pages for a second time, they realise it is more serious and chase the cab, and Anthony then breaks out of the can window and into Flea's truck.
-the video ends with the other member of the Chilis, Chad, calling for the same cab, and the cabbie again realises he is a member of the Chilis, and drives off with him.
- The video starts off with lots of dismemberment of the different members of the band.
- it begins with shots from a narrative, before cutting to a performance shot, and then back to the narrative again.
- there are many close ups of the ban members during the performance part of the video, as well as long shots of the band playing there instruments together, the iconic band shot.
- the editing is done as such as it is in time to the beat of the music
- the video includes the stylistic band shot as well as the lead singer, Anthony Keidis, in his traditional 'shirt-off' role, which recurs in almost all of the Chili Peppers work.
-'Speed!' is used in the video shown by the camera movement, aand fast montage editing during the car chase sequences.
- this creates a visually decentred expreience necessary for music video consumption, and creating repeatability.
- there isn't anything that shows the notion of looking, with there specifically being no females invlolved in the narrative of the video.
- there is an intertextual reference to 'Under The Bridge' also by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the video for 'By The Way', as the taxi drives literally, under the bridge, which is the same bridge as shot in the video for 'Under The Bridge' where Anthony struggles with drugs and amost ended his life.
- another intertextual reference is the fast and often jerky camera angles used in the high speed chase sequences, which are based on the 2000 Mexican film Amores Perros in which all the characters are linked by a car crash at the beginning of the film, before the crash is an almost identical high speed car chase sequence.
- the book that Anthony holds in his hand at the beginning is Lexicon Devil which is a biography of his earlier influence, The Germs.
- the music and video are related as the taxi driver starts driving like a mad man as the first beat starts to drop, and goes crazy with his driving.
- the narrative is disjunctured and therefore has no relationship with the lyrics, yet shows them in their traditional, crazy, wild and whacky form. the video seems to ignore the original song and give it a whole new set of meanings.
- contrary to the music video, the song's lyrics tells an ambiguous story of a girl named Dani. The story had been gradually developing throughout a 7 year time period, starting with 'Californication', in which the lyrics refer to an unnamed 'Teenage bride with a baby inside'. This story was continued in 'By the Way', and has since concluded in 'Dani California'.