Colorado vs. California

Colorado girls are just better, just ask Lauren Brady, Josh Greenwood and Ian Rice.

The Katy Perry parody video, “Colorado Girls,” has become a growing sensation across campus. While Perry’s video is set in a magical Candy Land, creators Brady, Greenwood and Rice take a more relevant journey through the land marks and forests of Colorado, all set to new Colorado-related lyrics.

“We wanted to produce something since graduating and Ian had some awesome ideas,” said Greenwood on the source of inspiration for the video. Greenwood graduated from CU with a BFA in theatre and is currently working with improv group Left Right TIM.

“I don’t think we were trying to be better than the ‘California Gurls’ video,” Greenwood said. “If anything, we were paying homage to the original video and the wonderful state of Colorado in our own creative way.”

Students have their own opinion about which video is better. “’Colorado Girls’ is more relevant than ‘California Gurls,’ it has nothing to do with California,” said Marlee Glasgow, an 18-year-old freshman open-option major from San Diego. “But based on my knowledge, California girls are better.”

“I think ‘Colorado Girls’ is a misrepresentation of Colorado,” said Jackson Tilley, 18-year-old freshman pre-communication major from Greeley who used to live in California. “We’re not all tree-hugging hippies!”

Although the video clip faces some criticism, even out-of-staters have been able to appreciate the Colorado humor and references in the parody.

“It’s all very true to what my idea of a Colorado girl is,” said Holly Moran, an 18-year-old freshman open-option major from Chicago. One of the favorite lyrics around campus sticks to Boulder roots: “You can travel the globe, but nothing compares to Boulder’s dope.”

“The reception has been crazy for this video,” Greenwood said. Greenwood has been in Europe, traveling with Left Right TIM, but Brady and Rice have been recognized on the street and have been interviewed by two or three news stations and acknowledged by the Huffington Post.

The parody is even starting to get international attention.

“I was in Switzerland last week and most of the students there had seen the video,” Greenwood said.

“‘Colorado Girls’ is cleverer than the ‘California Gurls’ video,” said Garrett Strickler, an 18-year-old freshman pre-journalism major from Dallas, Texas. “It was more thought out and there are good representations of Colorado, even based on being here for only a few weeks.”

Perry’s lack of California references is one of the main reasons students favor Colorado’s version.

“They were more creative,” Glasgow said.

People not only appreciate the carefully thought-out lyrics, but also respect the time that Brady, Greenwood and Rice must have put in to create it.

“They must have a lot of free time on their hands,” said Anji Yang, 18-year-old freshman integrative physics major from Denver.

Some students say the video was good, and can tell there was a lot of hard work put into it.

“I can tell they worked hard; they have full on costumes, it’s put together really well and they use good camera angles,” Moran said.

It took about two and a half weeks to make “Colorado Girls,” including writing, editing and filming, said the creators. The creators kept to a low budget since they didn’t have much extra money.

“Many of the locations were shot guerilla style” Greenwood said. “We didn’t have the permission to film extensively in each spot but when we explained what we were doing, people either laughed or were very confused and let us do our thing.”

The consensus among students is that the video is well made for how low budget it seems.

“It looks low cost, but the logistics must be insane,” Tilley said.

So if there were a winner between the Sunshine and Centennial States, which would it be?

“In ‘California Gurls’ they have sexy blue hair, cupcake boobs, Snoop and innuendos about lollipops,” Tilley said. “What can be better than that?”

Greenwood said she thinks otherwise.

“If we had to fight in a grammar-relevancy cage match…we would totally win.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Danni Goodmann at Danielle.goodmann@colorado.edu.