postmodernism in music videos

 

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:

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

Post modernism is described as “the irrelevant teenager” compared to modern which is described as “a parents mid life crisis “

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

Roland Barthes suggested that the traditional concept of the author as the sole authority and origin of meaning in a text should be challenged. He argued that the focus should shift from the author’s intentions and biography to the active role of the reader or interpreter in creating meaning.

3) What is metatextuality?

Metatextuality is when a text refers to itself or comments on its own creation, blurring the line between fiction and reality.

4) 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." 

5) How does postmodernism link to media representations and reality?

We are aware, on some level or another, that the images we see are mediated to only give us a portion of the story as media audiences have grown more sophisticated over time. What is'real' and what isn't has become a source of anxiety as a result.

Music video CSPs and postmodernism

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

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

Through their unique use of videography which did reference modern problems that not only they as a band but society was facing.

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

Due to the blending of British film genres like social realism, arthouse, and hammer horror to create something new, we can see elements of bricolage and pastiche. Intertextual references to these film genres are made by underlighting, colour, and camerawork. 

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

They use an all black cast referencing the yee haw movement linking to the western genre, they also include a switch between the past and the future in order to show the difference between the two.

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

I feel as though old town road uses digital convergence quite effectivly. A key example of this that i can use is the mix of western music and hip hop. These are two genres that many would not have seen before. linked more with technologically, it would of course be the link between the past and the present since we see when lil nas x is faced with the little girl, he reaches to his side for his gun wheras the girl is reaching for her phone which shows how overtime we have changed and evolved to rely more on technology.  

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

I think he was trying to show how far they as a community have come, as he shows how racially divided they were in the past and in the present day there is a whole neighbourhood of black residents which is completely normal.