This beach-friendly pop tune is the first single from Katy Perry's third studio album, Teenage Dream. Perry co-wrote the song with Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin, the same team who produced her first hit "I Kissed a Girl." The other credited writers are American pop-rock singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee, who had some success with her debut album in 2004, and the rapper Snoop Dogg, who wrote his verse. Perry says it's a fun song that is perfect for the summertime. "My serotonin level changes, my personality changes," said the singer. "'California Girls' talks about all those iconic things that you've seen on postcards and on TV. And I wanted to do a homage to the Beach Boys."
Musically, this song bears a strong resemblance to Kesha's "TiK ToK," which is an earlier Dr. Luke production.
According to Perry, this ode to fun in the sun is a answer song to Jay-Z's tribute to New York, "Empire State of Mind." Perry said in a statement that she was inspired to write the song as she watched her friends go crazy at a party listening to the rap icon's salute to his home city: "Everybody was holding their drinks in the air and dancing, and I thought, 'We're not in New York, we're in Los Angeles! What about California? What about all the homies, the gin and juice, the swaying palm trees, the sun-kissed skin 24-7.' I decided that we needed to make a response. I want people to want to book a ticket to California the first time they hear it!"
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