The City She Loves Me: The Los Angeles of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Abstract

The Los Angeles music scene had its share of “hair bands”, but it also had a growing number of bands that resisted “glam” and began something new. As visual elements are often the focus of media geographies, it is useful to explore studies of literature and place and film and place in an attempt to transfer these theories to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Los Angeles. Los Angeles was always present in earlier work, but Blood Sugar Sex Magik more fully embraced the band’s home town. The song “Suck My Kiss” is a sexually charged funk anthem, although its sonic values alone do not necessarily produce the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Los Angeles. Arguably the band’s most recognized song; “Under the Bridge” is not only set in Los Angeles, but uses the city as a driving character.