Why are some media products described as 'postmodern'? [50]

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, media products are described as postmodern, either when the break the rules of normal conventions or the follow the rules of postmodern theories. So far we have studied Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarrentino 2009,) Drive (Nicholas Winding Refn 2011,) Her (Spike Jonze 2013,) and Inception (Christopher Nolan 2010.) All of the films we have studied so far are packed with postmodern elements. However as you will see in my essay, the term postmodern applies much as the question suggests to other media products such as music and art.

Postmodern media has several concepts combined together and 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. If we take Inglorious Basterds as an example, throughout the film there are several genres of music used, from periods of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The David Bowie – Cat people from early to mid-80’s was used in the film during a montage of the character Shoshanna  as well as during the scene in the forest, where a German soldier walks in slow motion, music from a spaghetti western was used. This shows a distinct difference between genres of music and different eras. As the film was set in 1940’s, and the music playing is from a significantly more modern era, creating a hugely postmodern but realistic feel to the film. Whereas in Inception which is a modern day film, there is music dating back to a song written in 1956 the song in the film performed in 1960. They have taken Edith Piaf’s version of the song, stretched it massively and used it in the film. The use of this song was at the very start of the film and was used to create suspense through the music. The 60’s pop song was slowed down and distorted so much it sounded eerie and created tension. By slowing down the song, the film is manipulating time, which is considered postmodern as well as using old music which creates homage by bringing a potentially over looked or forgotten style back to a new audience.

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, 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 is postmodern theory by Gerard Genette. There is also an intertextual reference between the film The Driver (Walter Hill 1978) and the film Drive. The Film is referenced twice, once is the start of both films is almost identical, both set in a multi-story car park. The second is that throughout the police chase in The Driver, the driver of the car stays calm throughout the chase and doesn’t talk throughout the entire chase, whereas the passengers try to. Also, he manages to get away and hide the car and the occupants and is then found again by the police and he has to escape again, which is intertextually referenced in the film Drive. This works closely with the theory by Claude Levi-Strauss of ‘bricolage.’ Bricolage is a text that is constructed from part of another text, meaning intertextual references can be considered a part. The reason for this is that using a reference from another film such as the film Drive referencing the film The Driver is using a text to construct a new text making intertextuality a part of bricolage. 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.

Another example using Inglorious Basterds of something that could be described as a postmodern text is that breaks the rules of representation. This postmodern film breaks the rules of the representation of nationality. There are several instances throughout the film where this occurs. The best example we can take is where the three American ‘Basterds’ accompany the film star to the film premier and are meant to be disguised as Italians. 2 of the three put on a good Italian accent but the main one of the three (Brad Pitt) talks in Italian in the most put on American accent. This is an example of a parody used in the film which creates self-mocking humour and is a technique is considered postmodern. This breaks the rules of representation in that he is meant to represent an Italian man in the film but parodies the role making us clearly aware he is playing a part in the film. The idea behind postmodern media is that they want you to know that it has been created and is hence not real, this highlights how it extensively breaks the rules of representation of reality. Postmodern theorist John Fiske said a representation of a car chase will only make sense in relation to others we have seen. So if we see a car chase in real life, we make sense of it by turning it into a movie such as the car chase in the film Drive. Therefore this breaks the rules as reality is being distorted by films, something that happens in real like we only make sense of by relating it to a film, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks being described as ‘like a movie.’

If we now take Her as an example of something that can be described as postmodern, we can see that throughout the film there are several examples. The film follows some of the postmodern theories such as Fiske and Baudrillard in that the main character (Theodor) thinks that reality isn’t good enough so he engages with a fantasy. He enters into a relationship with the operating system on his computer as he had trouble with his ex-wife and felt that his computer was easy to fall back on. Other postmodern elements include the film following Derrida’s theory that no film can belong to no genres. Her is in two genre categories, romance and sci-fi. The sci-fi part of the film can also be considered postmodern in that it’s not like Star wars, it’s more realistic and believable. When we look at the film and we think how technologies have developed in the last 10 years, from the Nokia 3210 to the IPhone it is a huge leap. So when we see this technology in the film it wouldn’t surprise is if it came out later on this year. Also the world the film is set in is a form of hyper reality, everything is too neat, too clean, too uniform. We cannot relate the city to one place, like Dubai for example as the city is far too advanced and planned for that which follows the postmodern theory by Baudrillard of hyper reality.

In my opinion, media products are described as postmodern, either when the break the rules of normal conventions or the follow the rules of postmodern theories. When we look at theories by Derrida, Baudrillard, Fiske, Levi-Strauss etc we can see the films I have studied are considered postmodern in that they either follow the rules of postmodernism or they break the rules of normal film making, such as representation. So when a film follows the theories or breaks the rules, that is why it is described as postmodern.