Question 12: What is meant by the term 'Postmodern Media'

What is meant by ‘Postmodern Media’

Postmodernism is a late 20^th Century movement that represents the departure of modernism and is a way of mixing different styles and media.

In my opinion postmodern media has several concepts combined together to create the term. I think that different media’s have different elements that make them postmodern. If we take music as an example there are several elements that make it postmodern, for example when a band pays homage to another band or samples their music, for instance when Chase and Status sampled the song, Down So God Damn Long by The Doors, for their song Hypest Hype, it was considered postmodern. However there are other elements that make music postmodern, such as performance. A band called Kraftwerk were considered highly postmodern, an example is their song called The Robots. The band performs the song on stage as robots which create an appearance for themselves that is like a false front. This is an example of Baudrillard’s theory of simulacrum. Other examples of people who have used simulacrum via performance to be postmodern are Danger Mouse who performs with a mouse head on and Deft Punk who perform with shiny helmets on. These bands are all considered postmodern for a similar reason, which is ultimately creating a fake character by playing with the way they represent themselves, intriguing the public.

However, Music doesn’t have to be postmodern itself, but can be used as an element of postmodern media, in other medias. Songs are used all the times in films, sometimes in a postmodern way. Most of the track listing in the film Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino 2009), were considered postmodern as the songs used were all from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s such as David Bowie with his song Cat People from early to mid-80’s was used in the film during a montage of the character Shoshanna getting ready for a movie premiere set in 1944. The film was set in the early 40’s, therefore using music from a newer era in a film set in the past. They are also examples of music edited in a postmodern way such as in the film Inception (Christopher Nolan 2010), the Edith Piaf song I Regret Nothing was slowed down so much is stopped being an operatic pop song, and became an eerie, dramatic start to the film. The main background music that starts the song was slowed down and used within the film credits at the start. This is considered to be an element of postmodern media showing the diversity of the term and what can be included in it.

The term postmodern media isn’t just contained to music I can be spread across different Medias such as art. Picasso’s use of postmodernism in his cubism is just one example among many; another example is Grace Jones’ album artwork for her album Island Life by Jean Paul Goude in 1985. The reason for the artwork of Grace Jones to be considered postmodern is that it was a picture taken that was chopped up and taken apart and pieced back together in a slightly different way that was stretched out. The colours were all slightly changed and bits were removed. The final product looked similar to the original yet there was a big difference. The album cover was done in 1985 using the cut and paint technique by Goude in a time when Photoshop (which was released 5 years later in 1990 and would be used now as a preference) wasn’t around.

Postmodern media can be applied to films too. In the film Drive (Nicholas Winding 2011), the lead character doesn’t have a name and is referred to as ‘The Kid’ throughout. Not only this, but, the character rarely talks in the film, which can sometimes lead to uncomfortable periods of silence within the film. When there is something exciting happening like an argument or a fight the lead character talks only in a calm voice throughout the whole film. These elements in the film combined make the film a postmodern text and therefore it can be described as a postmodern media. As well as this in the film, the text used for the credits and also on the cover of the DVD is the same at that used for Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas, showing an intertextual reference, which again is postmodern. The director Tarantino used text as an intertextual reference between his films. We can tell a Tarantino film from the yellow subtitles throughout. Other examples of postmodern media within films can include films intertextually referencing one another such as the Odessa steps scene in the film Battleship Potemkin (Sergie Einstein 1925), where a baby in a pram falls down the Potemkin Stairs and a man is shot in the eye during a massacre of the people in Odessa. Many films or adverts in recent times have used this as an intertextual reference for example the Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut advert has a reference in that the baby falls down a set of steps in a pram. The clip is played in slow motion much the same as in Battleship Potemkin meaning again this is an example of postmodern media.

There are several examples I have used which are all good examples of postmodern media. There are several concepts that come together to create the term. We have to assess different medias in order to really show the diversity of the term ‘Postmodern Media.’ In my opinion the term postmodern media can be used to describe post 19^th century things that are out of the ordinary or redefine the way we think, such as the cubism movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and film makers such as Quentin Tarantino.