MUSIC VIDEO: POSTMODERNISM!

 

MUSIC VIDEO: POSTMODERNISM:

Media Magazine Theory Drop - Postmodernism

Create a new blog post called 'Postmodernism in music video: blog tasks'. Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postmodernism’ in MM66  (p26). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. Answer the following questions:

How does the article define postmodernism in the first page of the article?

post modernism takes this concept of questioning traditional structures, representations and expectations and pushes things a step further. 

What did media theorist and Semiotician Roland Barthes suggest in his essay 'The Death of the Author'?

He challenged tradition when he said that a writers opinions, intentions or interpretation of their own work are no more valid that anyone else's.

 What is metatextuality?

Metatextuality is where a text draws attentions to the fact that it is a text, it points to the process of its own creation. 

What is the repeated phrase on the cartoon on postmodernism on page 28?

"postmodernism is a cultural movement that distrusts all established philosophies and frequently experiments with the medium it is presented in"

How does postmodernism link to media representations and reality?

As media audiences have become more sophisticated over the years, we realise on some level or other that the images we see are mediated to give us only a partial version of the story. This has led to an anxiety over what is ‘real’ and what is not. As the key postmodern thinker Jean Baudrillard put it; ‘the distinction between what is real and what is imagined is continually blurred and meaning is systematically eroded’.

Music video CSPs and postmodernism

Now apply postmodern ideas to our music video CSPs by answering the following questions:

How does the music video for Ghost Town incorporate elements of postmodernism?

The hybrid mix of references and music video forms – an experimental combination of narrative (the journey), performance and concept – means that the video can be read through a postmodern approach with reference to intertextuality and hybridity.

We can see examples of bricolage and pastiche – a merging of British film genres such as social realism and hammer horror in order to create something new (as music videos were in 1981). The lighting, colour and camerawork also create intertextual references to these film genres. Arguably, the narrative offers an example of bricolage - a postmodern take on the 'road movie' but with no destination or quest to complete (which is perhaps why the video ends with them aimlessly throwing stones into the River Thames).

What film genres are alluded to in the music video for Ghost Town? Which scenes in particular created these links?

• German expressionism 
• horror 
• road movie 

 How does Old Town Road use postmodern elements in its music video?

Audience theorist Henry Jenkins coined the term textual poaching for sampling or re-editing existing texts – a classic postmodern signifier. 

How does the Old Town Road music video reflect technological convergence and modern digital culture?  

Lil Nas X also used footage from the popular Western-genre videogame Red Dead Redemption in promoting the song on TikTok and other social media platforms. The song became a meme on TikTok with viral videos and Yeehaw challenges.

What do YOU think Lil Nas X was trying to say about reality and American culture in the music video for Old Town Road?