Postmodernism is a general and wide-ranging term which is applied to many disciplines, including literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective efforts to explain reality. In essence, it is based on the position that reality is not mirrored in human understanding of it, but is rather constructed as the mind tries to understand its own personal reality. Postmodernism is therefore skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, arguing that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
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Are Music Videos Post Modern?
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HOW are music videos Post Modern?
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How are FILMS Post Modern?
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Blade Runner (1982, Rick Decard)
How is it Post Modern?
- More Human than Human: Artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybernetics seek to enhance, or replace, humanity.
- The postmodern aesthetic of Blade Runner is the result of recycling, fusion of levels, discontinuous signifiers, explosion of boundaries, and erosion. The disconnected temporality of the replicants and the pastiche city are all an effect of a postmodern, postindustrial condition: wearing out, waste. The increased speed of development and process produces the diminishing of distances and distinction.
- In Blade Runner, the visions of postindustrial decay are set in an inclusive, hybrid architectural design. The city is called Los Angeles, but it is an L.A. that looks very much like New York, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. We are not presented with a real geography, but an imaginary one: a synthesis of mental architectures. Quoting from different real cities, postcards, advertising, movies, the text makes a point about the city of postindustrialism.
- Overlooking the city is the "Japanese simulacrum," the huge advertisement which alternates a seductive Japanese face and a Coca Cola sign. In the postindustrial city the explosion of urbanization, melting the futuristic high- tech look into an intercultural scenario, recreates the third world inside the first. One travels almost without moving.
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'Love Story' - Taylor Swift & Postmodernism
The Love Story Music video takes the well known 'Romeo & Juliet' narrative and adopts it in a pastiché form. Rather than parodying the original in a humorous way, the video is more of a celebration of the story and various scenes are recreated in a serious and professional manner. For example, Taylor is pictured with ‘Romeo’ at a formal dance where they are seen wearing traditional clothing from the Shakespearean period. There is also a scene where the couple are walking through the garden, which is an iconic scene from the film.
Another way that the video is post modern is due to the whole thing being an intertextual reference to one of Shakespeare's well known plays. The lyrics even directly refer to its characters, Romeo and Juliet. For example "Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone" and “Marry me Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone”. It is obvious to the viewer that this is the case however the video assists in the blurring of historical and chronological distinctions. This takes place with the transition of the scene of the couple meeting outside their high school before cutting to shots of the two dancing at the ball.
The video relies on repeated lyrics and shots and therefore reinforces a feature of post modernism, that being reproduction: "We can expect the production of both image and sound to become more and more a matter of combining and altering already existing images and sounds extracted from one or other information store." (Wollen 230-31). This means that a lot of the image and lyrics are repeated throughout the video and it therefore lacks originality and fails to create much of a chronological narrative/plot for the audience.
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Moulin Rouge (2001) as Postmodern Film
The musical element in Moulin Rouge seems to be over-enforced & hyperbolic, as if it is making fun of the musical genre when it is in fact a musical; in other words it's a parody. Additionally, there is the sense of mixing of genres, not just as the film combines musical with drama and comedy but also uses fantasy-like animation, making it more surreal and less like a realistic story. The film is almost a pop culture bricolage as it reinvents and renews popular music such as The Police’s ‘Roxanne’ which was turned into Tango music. Furthermore there is the idea of a show within a show, as 'Spectacular Spectacular' is a constant reference to the plot between the characters. One of the most significant things about Moulin Rouge is how it brings Bollywood sensibilities to Hollywood audiences and the fact that they're blended together with Paris and contemporary music so seamlessly proves the globalisation of the film, alongside the global origins of the actors who star in it. Moulin Rouge is therefore institutionally postmodern, as well as having a strong postmodern aesthetic.
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My Case Studies
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My Case Studies
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How do postmodern media differ from other media (RE-WRITE)
Postmodrnism is an art movement that transitioned from the theory of modernism. Postmodern media began to recreate and redefine texts in such ways of parody, pastiché, intertextuality, bricolage, timelessness, hyperreality, self consciousness and the blurring of boundaries. These attributes are essentially what makes postmodern media different from other media texts. I intend to address this question by referencing my case studies, Moulin Rouge (2001, Baz Lurhman), Family Guy (1999-present, Seth MacFarlane), The Inbetweeners (2008-2010, Dan Beesley, Iain Morris) and The Sims (2000-present, EA Games).
Starting with Moulin Rouge, it is clear to me that the film is a pop culture bricolage as many songs, for example The Police’s ‘Roxanne’, are recreated to have a different sound. Additionally, the film blurs the boundary between reality and simulation as the main character Christian is telling the story as the audience watch it. This supports Jean Baudrillard’s argument that there is no longer a distinction between reality and simulacrum and is essentially what makes postmodern texts so different from other media texts. Moulin Rouge is dependent on the theory of an ‘active audience to decode the relevant intertextual references, in order for them to embrace the implied meanings that the text entails. Intertextual references are a key feature of postmodern texts as they rely on the borrowing of other texts to create another, seemingly different one. Although Moulin Rouge is more of a celebration of the musical genre, it is also self referential as it employs the idea of a show with a show. Moulin Rouge pays homage to the art by utilising costume and location however this concept of pastiche is, in essence, what makes Moulin Rouge so postmodern and different to other media texts.
Whereas films such as Moulin Rouge attempt to uphold ‘traditional’ generic conventions whilst displaying them is such a way that makes them appear original and celebrated, television offers a platform for texts to be more playful with these ideal, classic values. Fundamentally, postmodern texts are so different to other media texts because they do little to support the idea of progress and tend to parody other landmark texts. Family Guy, for example tends to subvert traditional views upon controversial subjects such as religion and culture as there are constant references in the series to God, Jesus, Jewish and black people in comedic or offensive ways, for example God has been known to throw a birthday party for Jesus in one episode and attempt to attract a female at a bar in another. Nonetheless it is valid to note that often these areas that could be deemd offensive, go back to have some sort of symbolic meaning or moral code. The postmodern aesthetics of Family Guy begin with the opening sequence. Characters Peter and Lois Griffin appear sat at a piano, singing the theme song before this turns into a hyperbolic spectacle, accompanied by gold suits, backing dancers and a stage lined with red curtains. This exaggerated performance sets the tone for the rest of the episode and it is common for postmodern texts to adopt episodic narratives as opposed to the linearity found in other media texts. One particular episode that I found to be largely postmodern is “When you wish upon a Weinstein” (Episode 22, Series 3). The episode consists of many intertextual references to landmark films, including parodies of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, alongside the enforcement of the racial stereotype that all Jewish people are smart. This is because Peter is seen searching for a Jewish friend to help him solve his money issues and assist his son with his homework. The lack of tradition and seriousness when exploring such, potentially offensive topics is expected in postmodern media and is what makes it different from other media texts.
Furthermore I looked at The Inbetweeners as a postmodern text as the concept of bricolage is explored through the vast mixtures of so many generic conventions including romance, comedy and slapstick. Additionally, there are intertextual references to TV shows and bands like ‘Take That’, that the audience can then identify with. “The Gig and the Girlfriend” (Episode 2, Series 3) shows character Simon trying to impress a girl by telling her that he once went to a gig, before revealing that it was to see ‘Take That’ with his mum. The reference therefore needs to be understood by the audience in order for it to have comedic value, meaning that the audience plays an active role in the decoding of postmodern texts whereas other media texts tend to provide entertainment on the surface that the audience don’t have to think much about for them to enjoy.
Lastly, when looking at the platform of video games, I chose to discuss the post-modernity of The Sims as this game highlights the concept of hyperreality by allowing the player to take part in a life seemingly better than their own. Players can make decisions that they cannot make in reality such as not going to school or work and young players especially, enjoy having this freedom. The player can also develop their social life and there are even ‘cheat codes’, developed by players to give them an advantage over others and allowing them to bend the rules of the game whilst blurring the foundations between the relationship of the producer and the audience. Moreover, players are given the opportunity to alter the time state of the game by fast-forwarding or pausing the game, adding to the element of timelessness and significantly differing it to other media products.
To conclude, I believe that postmodern texts differ from other media texts as they employ methods that break boundaries of tradition, convention and producer/audience relationships whilst practically disallowing progress and originality. I believe that in the future, there will no longer be any ‘original’ texts as postmodernism allows producers of texts to borrow and parody admirable work through intertextual referencing in another text. I believe that there will soon be no media text that is not postmodern in some way and that it will be even harder to compare postmodern texts to other media texts.
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Assess the arguments for and against postmodernism in relation to media examples(RE-WRITE)
Postmodernism is an art movement that transitioned from the theory of modernism. Postmodern texts, although often deemed as playful, innovative and pleasurable also tend to break the modernist boundaries of tradition and often destroy meaning whilst being unoriginal and sometimes offensive. I have chosen to argue the strengths and weaknesses of postmodernism by referencing my case studies, Moulin Rouge (2001, Baz Lurhman), Family Guy (1999-present, Seth MacFarlane), The Inbetweeners (2008-2010, Dan Beesley, Iain Morris) and The Sims (2000, EA Games).
Moulin Rouge, in my opinion is a clear example of a pop culture bricolage as songs, including The Police’s “Roxanne”, have been reinvented and redefined to have a different style. The problem with this sort of referencing of classic songs or other traditional and original sources, results in a loss of historical content as boundaries between classic and modern are broken. However the film is able to pay homage to the art through its progressive interpretation. This is achieved through the concept of pastiché as Moulin Rouge is about celebrating the time and culture. Additionally, the employment of intertextual references within the film allows room for active audience participation. The audience is able to take part in decoding the references and will take pleasure from their ability to uncover them and relate them to previous experiences. I feel that although Moulin Rouge is successful in incorporating the audience into the decoding of the film, supporting the theory of the “active audience”, the film is unsuccessful in distinguishing the historical contents from the modern characters, for example Kylie Minouge and thus complies with Jameson’s argument that with no originality, we are essentially glossing over history and recreating it through borrowing from other texts.
As much as Moulin Rouge attempts to pay homage to tradition and acts as a celebration and progressive text, Family Guy for example does little to reinforce this and adopts a lack of respect for traditional values of religion and culture that Moulin Rouge explores more passively. Family Guy is playful with the concept of religion and in certain episodes, “God” can frequently be represented trying to impress women at bars or throwing extravagant birthday parties for Jesus. This method is playful but potentially offensive and acts as a weakness when discussing postmodernism. However it is important to note that these offensive and often ironic plots go back to having some form or moral code. Another strength surrounding postmodernism texts is the amount of pleasure the audience can consume from them. Family Guy’s hyperbolic nature begins with its opening sequence, where characters Peter and Lois are first pictures at a piano singing the theme tune, before this turns into a highly exaggerated spectacle accompanied by gold suits, backing dancers and a stage lined with red curtains. This type of performance is easily enjoyable from the perspective of any audience member. On the other hand episode 2, series 3, “When you wish upon a Weinstein”, goes further by parodying texts such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’. The audience therefore needs to have an education or have previously accessed these texts in order for the references to hold their comedic value. Alongside this, the episode is seemingly regressive as it reinforces the racial stereotype that Jewish people are naturally smart as Peter is seen looking for a “Jewish friend” to solve his money issues and help his son with his maths homework. Essentially, I feel that although Family Guy is playful with its use of offensive and disrespectful remarks, it is overall regressive as it parodies original “landmark” texts that had meaning, by making them comedic and disowned by the audience.
Furthermore I looked at The Inbetweeners and felt that the show also leaves room for the audience to actively pick out intertextual references. “The Gig and the Girlfriend” (episode 2, series 3) shows character Simon trying to impress a girl by telling her that he has been to a gig. We later find out that it was to see ‘Take That’ and he went with his mum. The audience needs to understand that ‘Take That’ aren’t seen as current or cool among young people on order for the reference to make sense and hold its value for the audience. Moreover, there is often narration by character Will throughout the series and this supports Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the blurring in the distinction between reality and simulacra. Although this means that the audience is seemingly involved in the text, it suggests a lack of separation in the audience’s existence outside the text.
Lastly, I chose to look at The Sims and the idea that the audience and producer boundaries are limited as the audience is gives the chance to “bend” the rules of the game by accessing ‘cheat codes’ made by other audience members. The Sims explores the concept of hyperreality and its audience members could potentially become addicted to their parallel lives within the game as they can create themselves as an avatar in the game and complete actions such as making friends and falling in love, which take time in reality, instantaneously in the game. The player can also alter the time state of the game by pausing it or fast forwarding and I feel that this ability to do this is the foundation of the weakness of the game in the sense of postmodernity.
Therefore I can conclude that although there are strengths to theory of postmodernism s it allows an active audience role and creates playful situations for the audience to enjoy, its flaws lie in the lack of tradition and originality that it results in, alongside the extended reliability for the audience to decode the relevant references.
