Post Modernism and the Music Video

Post Modernism and the

Music Video(a true love story)

On your blogs:

“Postmodernism is a shortcut to mass audiences. Discuss.

Refer to at least 2 music promos”

What is post-modernism?Quick answer: Nobody really knows- there are so many definitions of it by so

many different academics that it has become a phrase used to describe anything that looks culturally avante garde in an old school way!

“Oooh that’s so post-modern!”

Further Reading: Derrida, Foucault, Heidegger, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Jameson.

To understand what post-modernism is:

You have to look at what came before...

When we look at genre in Media studies, there is a theory that suggests that genres go in cycles:

Cannon

Post-ModernExperimental

If the experimental stage of genre attempts to establish trends...

and the cannon stage works within those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding...

then post-modernism looks at those trends, laughs at them, pokes them with a big stick and adds something new in....

Thereby creating a new experimental stage etc...

How can we apply this theory to the History of the Music Video?

It could be argued...

That the music video is a post-modern stage of the evolution of cinema....

Short Silent films

Music VideosFull length talkie films

So Postmodernism...

• becomes the ‘new’ by referring to the ‘old’.

• invents by copying.

• Is humorous and/or terrifying

• can be created by anybody

Before our brains start to melt!

Can you work out from the next few slides, which are stills from music videos and which

are stills from films?

The Band Wagon (1953)

Will Young- Switch It On!

Barbarella (1968)

Flashdance (1983)

Destiny’s Child- Girl

Backstreet Boys- Everybody

McFly- Transylvania

Many Music Videos take their inspiration from Cult Movies.

(ironically ‘cult status’ is usually awarded to a movie due to the fact that it is post modern)

There are three types of intertextuality

(In order of cruelty):

Homage- Imitation is the highest form of flattery

Pastiche- Using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another.

Parody- Taking the Mickey!!

Homage:

http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=RWdGIbZKtmg

Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal pays homage to Vincente Minelli’s The Band Wagon (1953). This has since also been referenced in the Beyonce video Naughty Girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvspvfnKBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuJ_OHBN78

Pastiche:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjhJmVsvzws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndMk5chmNho

Pop Idol Will Young creates a pastiche of Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1983) in his video Switch It On, particularly highlighting some of the (originally unintentional) homoerotic content.

Parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M6samPEMpM

(yes, that is the same set as Casper (1995) )

What is being parodied here?

Other Videos you might want to find:

• I believe in a thing called love- The Darkness (Barbarella)

• It’s Rainin’ Men- Geri Halliwell (Flashdance)

• Girl- Destiny’s Child (Sex and the City)

• ET- Katy Perry (Wall-E)

• Transylvania- McFly (Nosferatu)

But what kind of intertextuality are these?

But where now...With the invention of YouTube (amen), and the availability of

editing software an amusing trend has followed the intertextuality of the music video...

Taking parody to a whole new level:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlicWUDf5MM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCmeQaXuFig

Are these still music videos?

On your blogs:

“Postmodernism is a shortcut to mass audiences. Discuss.

Refer to at least 2 music promos”