How are music videos postmodern

How are music videos post modern?

Post modernity in music videos can be shown in many different types of elements; all elements are used to create a style and concept in the arts characterized by a distrust of theories by the drawing of attention to conventions. 

One way of music videos being post modern is pastiche this is when music videos references another media form. There are many reasons why artists use pastiche such as inspiration, changing meanings or subconscious development. For example in Madonna’s video ‘Material Girl’ the Mise en scene is almost identical to the one in ‘Gentlemen prefer Blondes’. They have similar pink cocktail dresses, they have props of hearts that men in tuxedos are holding and they also have similar choreography. The pastiche was not necessarily a tribute for Marylyn Monroe but more so for the Hollywood concept of the sexy blonde whose aims to get exactly what she wants which is the manner Madonna wanted to create.

An example of intertexuality would be the music video ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys, the camera work in this music video involved lots of quick cuts, montage of footage and lots of different low and high angles shots. This replicates the conventions of 1980’s cop shows.  The intertexuality was used to create a quick pace for the music video and to keep the audience on edge and engaged but also almost humorous.

Parody is another popular form of making music videos post modern; parodying has the intention of mocking a form of media/creation. Eminem frequently uses parody in many of his music videos. One example would be the use of referencing to Jessica Simpson. He parodies her by mocking her own video ‘Boots are made for walking’. He dresses up as Jessica Simpson and tries to act sexy but is clearly deliberately making her / himself look stupid. Parody is used to entertain the audience and it also blurs the boundaries of high and low culture as there is no divide between good and bad, meaning that Eminem can do whatever he pleases.

Bricolage is another example of how music videos become post modern.  Blending of different genres and styles is post modern as it distrusts the idea of having conventions for only one genre and it can all be blended. An example of this would be Lady Gaga’s telephone. It is a music video in terms of its purpose, however due to its high cinematography, the length of the video and different episodic scene and continuality it could also be a short film. Another reason why it is like bricolage would be that the music video follows on from the previous. 

In Lady Gaga’s telephone, Throughout the whole video there is a high amount of product placement, whether it is there to be ironic or to celebrate public consumerism. Many of the products had paid to be apart of the video, this had funded for a large part of her video as her music video was highly cinematic and unlike any other conventional video. However some of these products may have been there for a reason, many people think that having all these products in the video is Lady Gaga’s way of saying that we live in a reality that revolves around consumerism and could develop into a grand narrative. However she could be ironic as she is using the products as well.

The intertexuality of Lady Gaga’s music video is also very strong, In this particular video she was directly inspired by Tarantino’s pop-art aesthetic and this is reflected through the strong colours and cartoon feel. This sequence appears to be similar to a film or television episode opening, which suggests a blurring of the line between reality or truth, and hints that this video will be more than the average one.

Tarantino’s reference also came into the video through the 'Pussy Wagon' from 'Kill Bill'.  Lady Gaga is a controversial artist, and by putting the car into her video she is likening herself to the character from 'Kill Bill' who is trying to get revenge on those who wronged her, suggesting Gaga is doing the same within the video.

She was inspired by Warhol's exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising , so Gaga challenged the gender stereotype of the "perfect housewife" portrayed heavily in 1950s pop culture, using Wonder Bread and Miracle. The art element is strong in the music video, and throughout the parts where there is no singing, the editing seems to follow the rules of continuity which also breaks the conventions of music video. 

Towards the end of the video, there are intertextual references to a news station where there is a report on Gaga & Beyonce being on the run. There is also a radio announcement in the video. The video is very American with shots of diners, motel rooms and outfits with the American flag on.  There is a wonder woman theme continued through, and having Beyonce (who is a major US popstar) feature in the video and feature on the song as well, she is creating a synergy between the two artists and therefore her market is widened as Beyonce's fans will want to watch the video/buy the song as well.

The video has a strong sense of feminism as she is trying to break the stereotypes of women in the pop music/music video industry today. 

In her video Born This Way, the video has a lot of spiritual symbolism and it contains many references to God. It starts with a ‘manifesto of mother monster’, which she references to herself. There are many references to God with phrases such, “as her mother telling her he made you perfect” and “‘Cause God makes no mistakes” it shows her belief in God’s existence. However Lady Gaga does not promote the traditional belief of religion but she tries to show it as a bad way of making excuses of things many people don’t believe in. She is basically saying that God is not allowing her to believe and behave how she wants. For example a direct link would be, 'cause baby you were born this way (emphasis added) No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life” she declares any gender to be acceptable, and appears to side with nature in the nature verses nurture debate by saying people were born with a certain gender. Postmodernism is further evident not only by the acceptance of mixing worldviews but also promoting the legitimacy of any belief as long as it is your own.

Through out the video she is highly alienated as she has unnatural lights, distraught hair and lots of mixing visual effects. This symbolises her uniqueness and how she holds attention. The simulation is present in the video with the constant disfigure of Lady Gaga is deliberately creating a blur between human and simulation.

Another thing that makes this video post modern is the blurring of boundaries.  The culture of high and low culture has been eroded. A good example of this in the video would be the parts where lady Gaga and another actor are seen to have tattoos all over their face. However obscene it looked, she was able to make it look classy and ‘sexy’. This shows that there is no such thing as bad taste and you can do whatever you like without negative comments.

Blade Runner as a postmodern film

How is blade runner post modern?

Blade Runner by Ridley Scott (1982) is set in 2019 in a futuristic and dystopian city the audience are immediately introduced to the neon lit city with flying cars, densely packed skyscrapers and giant sized advertisements. However juxtaposing this elegant view of the city through the use of low angled shots it is revealed that the city is clustered and dark, and has the sense of the 50’s with low key lighting and smoky alleys which stereotypically resembles old crime / murder and gangster films. This is the beginning of the post modern aesthetic and mixing of textual references as a neo-noir visual style.

Throughout the film there is constant hybridity with the mixing of the futuristic views, 50’s views, cultures and social statuses. The mixing of culture is shown when Deckard, an American in LA, is shown in a long shot in a middle of the street where many people are rushing past, low lighting and dominating colours of blue and greys are shown, excluding the stereotypical neon lights of red and oriental patterns. Deckard then goes and takes a seat at an olden day styled noodle bar lit by cheap florescent blue lighting, his surroundings are of oriental people and loud crowd noises. Through the Mise en scene we can see that Deckard is not of dominance especially when he orders his food in English and the man does not reply in that dialect, this shows that English is not a dominant language any more.

The blurring of boundaries is also evident in this film as Deckard kills a lot of innocent people and conventionally protagonists are supposedly hero’s this means that as an audience we could get confused as right and wrong is blurred. However Deckard is portrayed as someone who is very dominating and strong, he seems to be able to kill without any emotions, and the narrative then takes us on a journey and shows the change in him and how he becomes a better character and sacrificing his own life.

There is also intertexuality in the film and the most striking one would be the scene where Deckard finds something in a picture. In this scene the director deliberately uses the camera shots and editing to intensify and build importance of the scene by holding shots for longer on extreme close ups of his face showing emotion and concentration. The scene follows Deckard’s feet walking across a room, at low angle which could signify development and progress that is dark and has lots of oak furnishing, making the room look vintage. The camera then tracks upwards to show the ancient looking TV in mid shot which the audience then discover it is voice activated, making the scene postmodern as it shows again the mix between times. We then see a series of close ups and shuttering of shots from the TV as it revealed a woman in a mirror picture. Although this is significant in the narrative it is also an intertextual reference of the Van Dyke portrait, celebrating its unique attributes. 

Matrix as a Postmodern film

How is Matrix Post Modern?

The matrix is post modern in many different ways. Firstly the narrative structure is about the show of a dystopian view of the future by exploring Neo’s relationship with a machine and the human race is being controlled by a network of machines and their existence is virtual, masking reality. The theme is post modern because it distrusts the idea of the ‘regular world’. It also looks at the relationship between humans and technology, and in the film there is a lot of ‘hacking’ which references the cyber punks. The relationship between human and technology also looks at Baudrillards philosophy and the matrix is an allegory of the lives we are living and how it is heavily commercialised in a media driven society.

The sequence ‘Bullet time’ which has a strong use of CGI  shows things becoming really slow and Neo is given the ability to stop things that in reality would be inevitable, shows the irony and is hyperreal. Bricolage is also evident as it resembles a video game as there is text on the screen as the ‘baddies’ become on screen and information is being given to the protagonist. This is also referential to the director Wachowski’s other graphic novels.

There is also a genetic hybrid as it features a blend of technophobic science fiction, through its extensive use of machinery and futuristic devises. Such as the machines that plug into the individual heads and space ships that seem to be fighting off gigantic metallic virus shaped robotics. This is also referential as biological viruses are also shaped with a pointy head and several sprouting legs. Hong Kong Kung Fu movies are also featured a lot in the film which is most evident in the training sequences when the walls become traditional Chinese bamboo walls and it is the story of master and the person who is learning. There are a lot of combat and traditional sequences used.

There is also direct intertexuality towards Baudrillards book ‘Simulacra and Simulation (1981)’ which is a cultural and philosophical text. This is shown near the beginning of the film where Neo opens a metal and ancient looking book which happens to be the Simulacra and Simulation, where he takes a disk out. There is a second referencing to the book when Morpheus describes the burned Chicago as, ‘'desert of the real”.Morpheus shows Neo what Chicago actually looks like, burned and destroyed, and tells him that he has been "living inside Baudrillard's vision, inside the map, not the territory". This refers to Baudrillard's theory that "the territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - it is the map that engenders the territory". In other words, the real no longer exists because everything becomes simulated.

Postmodernity on my case studies

How can texts in Music videos and television be described as postmodern?

Postmodernism is a term which describes the postmodernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements. It is in general the era that follows Modernism. It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term for sceptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought. A quote which explains postmodernity and I believe is very clear says “In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant.” - David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology.

My own case study of the music video ‘Telephone’ by Lady Gaga which was released on January 2010, by Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins has a synthpop/dance-pop genre. This music video follows a lot of postmodern conventions, taking into consideration the producer who is also known to make postmodern music.
Postmodernism can be expressed through a wide variety of Media texts, one of which are music videos. However as in the case with many other outlets of postmodernism, it is not always clear which are and which are not postmodern. This is because there is no real consensus of to what postmodernism actually means. Therefore any postmodern labels attached to a text are merely a reflection of personal choice.

One example of a music video what I believe is postmodern or at least appears to be influenced by the subject is the video for “Telephone” by the artist Lady Gaga.

Postmodernism can be expressed visually via the presence of postmodern techniques. These techniques can include many of the following: Parody, playfulness, pastiche, intertextuality, eclectism, hyper consciousness and narcissism. These postmodern techniques have been shown in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video and therefore have attached a label to the text as ‘postmodern’.

The first reason to why Lady Gaga is a postmodern artist comes from Baudrillard’s idea of hyper reality where he states that we cannot separate the images that we are shown from what is the reality. In relation to Gaga, her name is a clear symbol of hyper reality as it allows her to have two personalities as she is never referred to as Stefani Germanotta. This also allows her to keep her different lives separate; ultimately allowing her to control her image and get away with wearing outrageous outfits as this is the hyper reality presented to us for Lady Gaga. Furthermore, with the creation of a hyper – real version of herself, she is able to keep attention away from the reality of her everyday life.

Intertextual referencing is another key aspect into the bravado of Lady Gaga and this factor is used in almost every one of her videos. In relation to the “Telephone “video, Gaga calls Beyonce “Honey Bee” which is indirectly a reference to “honey bunny” who is a character in Quintin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Moreover, the label of “pussy wagon” on the car they drive is taken from “Kill Bill” where the same name is used. These intertextual references give the audience something to relate to, but also makes the original content and boosts her image.

To conclude, bricolage is another major influence on Lady Gaga’s persona and it could also be argued that the way she dresses alone is a bricolage due to the fact that it is so outrageous and creates a totally different image. Bricolage could also be denoted in her video “paparazzi” where she uses the iconic signifier of a cup and saucer and continues to style herself around that item. This has then become an iconic signifier of Lady Gaga, therefore highlighting a new image of an item has led to have a different meaning.

On the other hand, TV is also seen to be very postmodern, and in some cases in a very similar way as music videos are made to be postmodern, and they follow the same conventions and theorists such a Lyotard, Baudrillard and Jameson.

 The Simpsons manages to reflect the pluralism of postmodern society in a parodying yet symbolic manner. The Simpsons does not limit its subject matter to particular age groups, ethnicities or social classes, but merges all the binary opposites of society together to form the chaotic, diversified town of Springfield. But it is not only the composition of characters that affects this seeming chaos ‘melting pot’, but also the subject matter itself.

An episode may begin with a portrayal of elementary school banality and end on the issue of gay marriage, blindsiding the viewer entirely with its unforeseeable shifts in trajectory. The inability to pin the program down to one genre is indicative of its representation of America as framed by the postmodern paradigm. The conscious decision has been made not to localize The Simpsons to any distinct region besides America, nor to any one period of time besides the postmodern era. The creators of the program have gone to great lengths to not demarcate Springfield within any region such that it has become a running gag through the episodes. What’s more, the Simpson children never age or progress in school. In 17 years the Simpson’s infant has not learned to walk or talk, and has yet to give up her pacifier.

The family is as timeless as they are placeless. In this understanding the creators’ efforts are such that The Simpsons are nowhere, living at no time, and representing no specific family – but paradoxically they are every American family everywhere at any point in the postmodern era.

Despite these efforts, the show inevitably focuses more on white middle-class
America than other sectors of society. But few mainstream programs have featured these other sectors as prominently as The Simpsons. The popularity of the Apu character in the early 1990s marked the appearance of the first recurring South Asian character in a major American sitcom who is not only featured regularly but has been made the centre of several individual episodes. The show’s refusal to adhere to the norms of accepted sitcom subject matter is one of its foremost postmodern traits. It is an attitude that corresponds well to postmodernism’s aim to celebrate cultural differences and bring them to the surface. The Simpsons is a testament to the postmodern decentring of contemporary mass consciousness, by embracing diversity of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic status as part of the heterogeneity of society.

Postmodern fragmentation in The Simpsons is not limited to its subject matter but

extends to its narrative form as well. The erratic structure of The Simpsons’ storylines
results in a broken-down, fragmented narrative, another characteristic of postmodernism. The episodes are deliberately “all over the place” and non-linear: the first five to ten minutes usually have little or nothing to do with the main storyline. The show makes rich use of the plot-drift technique, interjecting stories with so many tangents and digressions into non-related subjects that it can at times be difficult to determine what a given episode is “about”. In many of its episodes, The Simpsons breaks down its already short time period of 22 minutes into several shorter mini-stories.

Postmodernism Quotes

“Postmodernism has turned into this devil's vortex where no matter what you do, your neck will be turned and your face shoved into a foreign example, and worse, no matter what you say, despite the context, it will be considered a postmodern device. That's the danger of postmodernism: it poses itself as something that can't be trumped, something you can’t escape. It continually mocks your efforts for the sake of its name. I know even this will be seen as another postmodern bullet, and no matter what I say, critics and readers will be locked into how to lock me in.”    -  Brian Celio, Catapult Soul
“Isn't post-modernism really one big cover-up for the failure of the French to write a truly interesting novel ever since a sports car ate Albert Camus?” ― John Leonard

“In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant.”
― David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology    

Postmodernity and Lady Gaga - Essay Form

Postmodernism can be expressed through a wide variety of Media texts, one of which are music videos. However as in the case with many other outlets of postmodernism, it is not always clear which are and which are not postmodern. This is because there is no real consensus of to what postmodernism actually means. Therefore any postmodern labels attached to a text are merely a reflection of personal choice.

One example of a music video what I believe is postmodern or at least appears to be influenced by the subject is the video for “Telephone” by the artist Lady Gaga.

 Postmodernism can be expressed visually via the presence of postmodern techniques. These techniques can include many of the following: Parody, playfulness, pastiche, intertextuality, eclectism, hyper consciousness and narcissism. These postmodern techniques have been shown in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video and therefore have attached a label to the text as ‘postmodern’.

 The first reason to why Lady Gaga is a postmodern artist comes from Baudrillard’s idea of hyper reality where he states that we cannot separate the images that we are shown from what is the reality. In relation to Gaga, her name is a clear symbol of hyper reality as it allows her to have two personalities as she is never referred to as Stefani Germanotta. This also allows her to keep her different lives separate; ultimately allowing her to control her image and get away with wearing outrageous outfits as this is the hyper reality presented to us for Lady Gaga. Furthermore, with the creation of a hyper – real version of herself, she is able to keep attention away from the reality of her everyday life.

 Intertextual referencing is another key aspect into the bravado of Lady Gaga and this factor is used in almost every one of her videos. In relation to the “Telephone” video, Gaga calls Beyonce “Honey Bee” which is indirectly a reference to “honey bunny” who is a character in Quintin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Moreover, the label of “pussy wagon” on the car they drive is taken from “Kill Bill” where the same name is used. These intertextual references give the audience something to relate to, but also makes the original content and boosts her image.

 

To conclude, bricolage is another major influence on Lady Gaga’s persona and it could also be argued that the way she dresses alone is a bricolage due to the fact that it is so outrageous and creates a totally different image. Bricolage could also be denoted in her video “paparazzi” where she uses the iconic signifier of a cup and saucer and continues to style herself around that item. This has then become an iconic signifier of Lady Gaga, therefore highlighting a new image of an item has led to have a different meaning.

 

Vocabulary

Narrative - A spoken or written account of connected events; a story

Syntax of the plot - The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Protagonist - The leading character or a major character in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text

Antagonist - A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something

Climax/ crescendo - The most intense, exciting, or important point of something

Equilibrium - A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced

Disequilibrium - A loss or lack of balance or stability

Enigma code - A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand

Proairetic - Drives narrative through anticipation of an action's resolution

Linear - Arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line: "linear arrangements

Non Linear - a system which is not linear, that is, a system which does not satisfy the superposition principle

Circular - Having the form of a circle.

Parallel narrative - two narrated parts of a story set in the same place and same time.

Convergent narrative - also known as Hybrid narrative, it is a narrative that mixes conventions of two or more different genres.

Interweaving narrative - a plot with several narrative threads that all take place one after another and are 'interwoven'

Flashbacks/flash-forward - A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier/later event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Real time - a narrative technique whereby events are depicted as occurring entirely within the span of and at the same rate as the depiction

Reversal - when events happen from the latest to the earliest, in back-to-front order i.e. from the most recent event to the first event.

Dream sequences - a technique used to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flash-forward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element.

Repetition - when an event in a narrative happens more than once

Different characters' POV - when a narrative is told from the perspectives of different characters rather than just the protagonist

Ellipsis - when a period of time in a narrative is skipped e.g. showing the birth of the protagonist then skipping their childhood to show them as a young adult.

Pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place - when a narrative suggests that certain events may have taken place, or the audience assumes these events have taken place even though the event itself may not be shown