Postmodernism

What is it?

Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture and criticism that was a departure from modernism. Postmodernism includes sceptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history and so on.

In media, postmodernism rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely taste.

Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience and culture ‘eats itself’ as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute

The distinction between media and reality has collapsed and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations- a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some ‘pure’ reality that exists before the image represents it-this is the state of hyper-reality.

Postmodernism is also said to reflect modern society’s feelings of alienation, insecurity and uncertainties concerning identity, history, progress and truth. Artists such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and David Bowie are all cited as examples of postmodernism in the ways in which they have created or re-created different identities for themselves.

What do experts say?

Theorists on postmodernism such as Lyotard, Baudrillard and Jameson argued that recent economic changes produced particular ‘structure of feeling’ or a ‘cultural logic’. Typical assertions include claims that, mostly thanks to television and MTV in particular, we now live in a ‘three minute culture’ (the length of most people’s attention spans); or that we are part of an over-visual society, a ‘society of the spectacle’- due to the preponderance of television and the internet.

Postmodernism=Aesthetic?

Hybridity- (the combination and sampling of different kinds f levels-of hip hop music, material in TV adverts, films etc.). Hybrid forms are said to level hierarchies of taste. It is said that all distinctions between high culture and popular culture have gone, or become blurred. Postmodern texts ‘raid the image bank’ which is so richly available through video and computer technologies, recycle some old movies and shows on television, the internet etc. Music, film and TV provide excellent examples of these processes.

I feel that in my work I will be creating a product that uses the elements of something that will be a pastiche. This is because I intend to follow the work of The Cure and emulate their up-beat entertaining work. By doing this, I will also be creating a homage as I will be bringing a song of the 1980s into a modern context, ergo widening my audience to a younger age as well as gaining attention from previous fans of The Cure.

PASTICHE AND HOMAGE

The Cure’s music videos…

The band's early music videos have been described as "dreadful affairs" and have been maligned for their poor quality, particularly by the band itself. Lol Tolhurst said, "Those videos were unmitigated disasters; we weren't actors and our personalities weren't coming across."[94] It was with the video for "Let's Go to Bed", their first collaboration with director Tim Pope, that the Cure would become noted for their videos. Pope added a playful element to the band's videos; the director insisted in a 1987 Spin interview, "I think that side of them was always there, but was never brought out."[13] Pope would go on to direct the majority of the Cure's videos, and his videos, which became synonymous with the band, helped expand the Cure's audience during the 1980s.[95] Pope explained the appeal of working with the Cure by saying, "the Cure is the ultimate band for a filmmaker to work with because Robert Smith really understands the camera. His songs are so cinematic. I mean on one level there's this stupidity and humour, right, but beneath that there are all [Smith's] psychological obsessions and claustrophobia."[88]