Postmodern exam essay

Postmodernism rejects the idea that one media text or product is of more value than something else, postmodernist’s feel judgements aren’t of value it’s purely down to taste and opinion. Postmodernism started due to the pressure, scrutiny and debate which modernism had come under.

There are many differences between modernism and postmodernism, first of all modernism has very clear boundaries between what modernists feel should be classed as art, literature and music, whereas in contrast postmodernism feels anything can be interpreted as art it is merely down to a individuals taste and opinion.  

Furthermore another key difference is postmodernism reflects society’s feelings a lot more and portrays what is happening in the current social time, whereas modernism has a huge hierarchy order and is more about everything being in one set way rather than changing and adapting to what society wants.

Music videos are very postmodern texts for a variety of different reasons. First of all the use of pastiche is very postmodern because the video may try to parody something which was iconic, the video could either be mocking it or paying tribute to it. Another feature which makes music videos very postmodern which is commonly used is self-references this is where the artist may mention in the video something which has become famous within the media world. For example in Lady Gaga’s music video for the song ‘Telephone’ a self-reference of ‘I knew she didn’t have a dick’ was used to destroy the rumours in the media that Lady Gaga could quite possibly be a transgender. Next is bricolage this is where something may be weird and crazy to help create a new image for the artist. For example Miley Cyrus created the video ‘Wreckin Ball’ to create a new image for herself and get away from the Hannah Montana stereotype which had already been created.  Furthermore intertextuality is used to help parody or pay tribute to something which has already happened in the media.

Jean Baudrillard and his theory of hyperreality also helps create very postmodern music videos. For example Katy Perry’s ‘California Dream’ is about creating her perfect world, this is her ideal reality so has used Baudrillard’s idea of hyperreality to help represent this similar to the film ‘The Matrix.

The music video which I have chosen to analyse as a postmodern text is Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ this was a very controversial video and song and as a result many feminists protested againt’s it as they felt it promoted the idea of rape as a positive thing, this led to the song being banned in many different countries all over the world and many feminists realising parodies of the song to highlight the fact that the song promotes rape so much. This explains that the video is postmodern because it is very outrageous just try cause controversy.

Furthermore the actual video is very postmodern, first of all it uses the self reference of a # appearing across the screen reading #THICKE this is the main artists name however the close up shot of his crotch area also suggests and is implying his private area is thick and as a result all the women must want it. Next intertextuality is used because farmers are referenced throughout the video. This is done through the use of mise-en-scene such as props, costumes and body positioning. For example one of the male actors (Pharrel Williams) is wearing a farmers hat whilst one of the female actors in the video is holding a toy lamb this refers to sex however the farmers metaphor is significant as it implies how the male actors will look after and tend the females like a farmer would a lamb.

Pastiche and good product placement is also significantly used. First of all pastiche is used to create the feeling of a soft porn video because the lighting and costumes used imply this greatly in addition to this the product placement of ‘Remy Martin Vodka’ also helps portray the idea of Robin Thicke being compared to a playboy which has obviously been done by the director Diane Martel.

Lastly intertextuality is used to portray how females will do anything to get with men, this is shown by them doing many things such as: exercise, wearing sexual outfits and wearing massive high heeled shoes to get them taller, just to help them try and seduce the male actors in the video. This is kind of parodying the times when females had to do everything for the man and didn’t have equal rights meaning they served more of a purpose to men than just compassion and love compared to what would be expected from a normal relationship now. This also links with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gauze because the camera shots, body positioning and lighting throughout the video suggests that the female characters are being seduced and will do anything to get with the male artists in the video.

In conclusion I feel music videos will become more and more postmodern as time progresses, this is because some of the main features which you would expect to see in a postmodern video are becoming more and more common, I also feel artists are engaging with social media more through their videos and this will become more and more as a way of engaging people. Lastly music videos are becoming weird and unusual just for the video to be classed as original and give the artists something unique compared to the stereotypical music artists who are becoming more and more common in the world today.