Postmodernism in music video: Blog tasks

 

Postmodernism in music video: Blog tasks

Media Magazine Theory Drop - Postmodernism

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?

Postmodernism takes this concept of questioning traditional structures, representations and expectations and pushes things a step further.

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

he challenged tradition when he said that a writer’s opinions, intentions or interpretation of their own work are no more valid than anyone else’s.

3) What is metatextuality?

Metatextuality is where a text draws attention to the fact that it is a text.

4) What is the repeated phrase on the cartoon on postmodernism on page 28?

Postmodernism is a cultural movement that airbrushes all established philosophies and frequently experiments with the medium it is represented in.

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

People are forced to rely on media institutions to give us a global picture of the world we live in. As media audiences have become more sophisticated over the years, we realise on some level or other that the images we see are mediated to give us only a partial version of the story. This has led to an anxiety over what is ‘real’ and what is not

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?

Postmodern view on the road movie genre - No destination or resolution, just aimless driving

Bricolage of Social Realism and Hammer Horror

Hybridity and Intertextuality

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

Road Movie - Driving in a car for most of the video

Hammer Horror - Elements of gothic themes

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

Henry Jenkins - textual poaching - Red Dead Redemption videogame

Yeehaw agenda - bricolage and pastiche

Reality - Old Town Road 2019 - plays with our sense of reality

Riff bought from Youtube 

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

Celebrity cameos - BRC, Chris Rock

Knowing, self referential elements: BRC saying don't worry you're with me now - country chart controversy

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?

He talks about how old and new culture of America will always be evident and through his representations through the music video he is able to show this and celebrate that older aspect of American culture