Rebecca Dickinson

What is meant by postmodern media?

There are several variations of styles of postmodern media. Postmodernists use several different theoretical approaches in their work. Postmodernism means after modernism which means it came after modernism. Postmodernism is almost the binary opposite of modernism, often being less serious than modernists, who were very set in their ways of how a media product should be, based on true life serious events, and dissipates the meaning of what is cool and what is not, as proven by the death of uncool theory. Postmodernism is a product of the technological revolution, and has been adapted around this. The first form of such postmodernism in media is a parody. A parody refers to the mocking of an existing material, usually an element out of current pop culture. Acts such as The Key of Awesome, Bart Baker and The Midnight Beast are examples of a parody, often mocking mainstream music in a comedic way. In cinematic postmodernism, parodies often are used in the characters of the film. In Inglourious Basterds for example, which is based loosely on World War II, the antagonists, Adolf Hitler and Hans Landa, and the protagonist, Aldo Raine are all examples of parodies, the audience seeing these characters as humorous figures rather than the evil people they would have been in real life. This rejects the modernist theory that media is heavily based on real life history. Postmodernism, although it could be loosely based on real life situations, use an alternative style of film, or add comedy to a situation usually seen as disastrous or morbid in real life. Inglourious Basterds can be seen as a sadistic comedy for this reason. Finally, in the Walkers Baked Crisp TV advert, Lionel Ritchie almost parodies himself in the advert, singing about the crisps in the style of his music. Parodies support Jamesons theory against media being recognised as postmodern as he sees it as a joke with no further depth, and that the media is more focused on globalisation and culture than historical, like the modernist theory. Another element of what makes media postmodern is Intertextuality, the referencing of older, media in a media product. This is common in both postmodern cinema and music. In postmodern filmmaking, examples of intertextual referencing is heavily used in the 2010 film Inception. There is a heavy referencing Citizen Kanes 1941 Dream within a Dream concept, as seen with all of the layers of the dream at the end. Secondly, French singer Edith Piafs song Non Je Ne Regrette Rien was also heavily referenced in the film, especially where the Kicks of the dream occur. Similarly in Inglourious Basterds (2009), there were references to scenes from The Sound of Music (1961) and The Searchers (1956) both released after the film was originally set (1941 and 1944) The 1982 track Cat People by David Bowie, was also used in the film whilst Shoshanna was getting ready for the movie premiere . This is a bricolage, the use of a mixture of different genres and time periods. A more prominent example of intertextuality is used in the music industry in the name of sampling. Sampling is the use of existing music in new music, essentially artists using other peoples materials, thus breaking the law of intellectual property. This is a persons idea. There are many instances of sampling. One of the first instances of sampling was Led Zeppelin, the classic 1970s heavy metal band. They were criticised as rip offs due to their heavy use of sampling, another argument against the term postmodern. Artists often sample other existing materials. Daft Punks 2001 album, Discovery, was heavily based on samples from the 1970s as memories of the duos childhood. Deadmau5 has sampled material from the 70s, 80s and 90s of several genres, such as Disco, Rock, Classical and even the use of The Legend of Zelda theme tune in his song You Need a

Rebecca Dickinson Ladder. The use of sampling from different genres support point 9 of the Kramer Theory of Postmodernism that the music and films include quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures due to the bricolage of genres, time periods and cultures. Following on from the point of intertextuality, another form of postmodern media is the use of pastiche or homage to previous material. This means a reference to or almost a copy of pre-existing media. A prime example of pastiche is that of Lady Gaga. Some of her music and her overall image is that of Madonna, particularly in the 1980s. The styling is quirky and often provocative, rejecting the modernist theory of having boundaries. The quirkiness of these two acts, along with the recent behaviour of Miley Cyrus almost crosses the boundaries of what is right and wrong to the audience. This challenges audiences interactions with the media by distrusting the binary opposites of audiences (Kramer Theory, Point 12), which supports Jean Lyotards theory of the Death of uncool, the use of irony that its so bad and wrong that it is almost interesting and good. Postmodernism challenges the use of sexualised media having the representation of being disgusting and wrong as in this era, it has become more acceptable and seen as interesting and quirky. Although still controversial, sexualisation has become more acceptable in the media thanks to postmodernism. The use of Jean Baudrillards theory of simulacrum, the use of signs and symbols in relation to reality, using the disguise in order to reveal the truth. An example of this is deadmau5s mouse mask, the mau5head, is a hyper real nod to Mickey Mouse. Although this can be seen as a hidden identity hiding what he actually looks like, it is an emphasis of how he created his stage name of deadmau5. He discovered a dead mouse in his computer, so he was known as the guy with the dead mouse. It is an abbreviation of dead mouse for that reason. Another key point that makes media postmodern is the fragmentation of time and the narrative. Time is subverted and manipulated. In modernist texts, usually the narrative is presented to the audience in time chronological order. Postmodernism fragments time in these narratives, often used as flashbacks and foreshadowing. This challenges the audiences interaction with the media that time just happened in chronological order in a story or film. A prime example of this fragmentation is Inceptions dream within a dream concept. The deeper the layer of the dream, the longer the time is made to be. There are cuts between each layer of the dream in order to give a fragmented looking storyline. Secondly the music video for Turn Back Time by Sub Focus is based on a woman with a time parallax book travelling back in time to her childhood. Fragmentation supports Kramers theory that postmodern media is fragmented. Postmodern media often is not entirely based on true events or reality, but often an alternate version of reality or a fantasy, known as hyper reality. Hyper reality challenges the audiences interaction with media as a reality based object based on historical events and reality by almost tampering with real life events in order to make an alternate version of the story, or fantasy. In the movie Inglourious Basterds, the ending of the war occurred in 1944 as opposed to the reality of the ending of the war in 1945. Also Aldo Raines white suit remained intact even though he had been in a fight. In Avatar, a whole new language was created for the Pandora natives (Avatars). The avatars themselves were a hyper real interpretation of the actors playing the characters, showing them as a purple cat like creature. There is a boundary between the reality in the science lab and the alternate universe, Pandora. In Music, the music video of deadmau5s The Veldt is a hyper real version of the 1950 short story by Ray Bradbury, with the use of silhouetted characters (Children) and an African theme that the children supposedly made in a technological nursery. It is an enhancement of the story in cartoon form. Hyper reality blurs the line between fantasy and reality, seeking stimulated stimuli according to Jean Baudrillard.

Rebecca Dickinson Postmodernism has also affected the media institutions in a postmodern world, greatly due to the technological revolution that has occurred alongside postmodernism. Technological advances in filmmaking in the production of films has enabled film companies to experiment with blurring the lines between reality and fantasy in order to create hyper real films such as Inception (Dream Within a Dream), Avatar (simulation of the avatars) and Star Wars (space theme). The advancement of technology has also given the ability of people to produce parodies of well-known material based on pop culture, supporting Jamesons theory that media is not based on history any more, but pop culture. This development of new technologies has also enabled postmodern material to be distributed more easily, thus making the material more accessible to the audience. In Modern times, distribution of the material was one to many, only being broadcast on the television, through records or the Cinema. Due to the development of technology, media in the postmodern era has been advanced to be of a many to many distribution. Although modern media institutions still use these modern methods of distribution, the development of the internet has enabled media industries to distribute their material on online websites such as YouTube and iTunes. Major conglomerates are not needed to get postmodern acts noticed due to the use of social media. Deadmau5 posts his music on his website, www.deadmau5 .com, and became noticed for posting music this way and even created his own record label. This is an example of digital distribution and supports the Kramer theory that technology is considered as a way to produce, preserve and transmit music. I strongly feel that Kramers theory applies to all postmodern media as the principles are all the same in each medium such as filmmaking, advertising and TV shows. I believe that as technology continues to evolve, these styles of postmodern media will eventually all become distributed online and the web will take over all other methods of postmodern media distribution.