Sunday, 31 August 2014

General Research - Postmodernism and Music Videos

How are music videos postmodern? You need to begin to think about music videos as a postmodern medium/text. Do some general research into postmodernism and the music video.



Postmodernism from wmorris

- Postmodernism can be expressed through many forms of media. However it is not always clear which music videos are and which arent postmodern due to there being no real consensus, it is purely what one person thinks. 
- Postmodernism can be shown visually via presence of postmodern techniques such as: Parody, Playfulness, Pastiche, Intertextuality, Narcissism, Hyper Consciousness etc
- Example: Who's Laughing Now - Jessie J ... The singer plays many characters which are stereotypical. This demonstrates hyper consciousness as it reminds audiences that what they are seeing isn't real. 
- The characters show narcissism due to exaggerating their image and actions in music videos.
-  An idea of intertexual references can be seen as relating to Mean Girls due to the 'popular girls' being dressed similar and accordingly to the film, song and narrative. Music videos usually use a lot of intertextual references during the songs such as similar scenes from films or placing names in the songs themselves. 
- Hyper Reality is used throughout music videos when the shots jump cut from the artist or character as a young child to how they are now as an adult. It can be seen as postmodern as it confuses the audience as to what is real and what is either a flashback or product of imagination. 
- Postmodern music videos are usually playful due to the exaggerated and funny scenes shown within them which can be argued to challenge certain social ideas. 
- In music videos stereotypes are over used and exaggerated in order to make characters clear to the audience. 



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