How do postmodern media differ form other media?
There are a number of elements that contribute to a media becoming postmodern and set aside from other media. The 2011 Nicolas Winding film 'Drive' features many postmodern elements such as the clashing of genres. Ryan gosling plays the role of a get away driver and hero/villain, fighting for the princess played by Carey Mulligan. This fairytale genre is interjected with violent outbursts as we follow the get away driver (Ryan Gosling) fighting the 'bad guys' and stomping someone to death in a lift. Therefore there are clear themes of violence, romance and gangster genre. The violent lift scene and the close-up on his face reflect almost a monster, not a hero. However the inclusion of an recent 80's sounding synth-pop track 'A Real Hero' by, College ft. Electric youth works surprisingly well with the characteristics of the protagonist and night shots of the city which is thought to be California.
The clashing of genre's make this film postmodern because normally movie producers of a media product would stick to one genre in order to target a specific audience. Theorist Jacques Derrida has commented that 'there is no genreless text'. With a film such as Drive, it is hard to determined one specific genre. Drive could be considered a bricolage as these many genre's have been re-worked into one film. The film also displays hypotexuality as the director had elaborated, modified and transformed the existing genre's.
Quentin Tarentino's 90's film 'Pulp Fiction' is significantly older than drive. It has a gangster/crime genre that appeals to an audience who enjoy that specific genre and the directors work. The film has been described as a 'delirious post-modern mix of neo-noir thrills'. Although it is loyal to one genre the film has a time twisting narrative that make it a postmodern media. The film incorporates four different stories, from the professional mob hit men, crackhead wife, and the ammeters in the restaurant. Having these chronology shifts make the film more complex for an illiterate audience to understand and the combination of essentially four different plots and chronology shifts distort the normal conventions of film. The unfamiliar narrative structure highlights hyperreality as it reminds the audience that they are watching a fictitious film. Pulp Fiction also has an interesting soundtrack as one of the songs ('girl, you'll be a woman soon' - Urge Overkill) encapsulates a Western style that Tartentino uses often. His western influences mstly come from older movies such as 'The Searchers'. The opening of Inglorious Basterds uses a similar shot/framing of the door from 'The Searchers'. Another example of Tarentino using this western style is during his most recent film Django, where there is a shoot out the replicates that of the one in 'The good the bad and the ugly'. The inclusion of these scene's, taken from older movies displays intertexuality as well as '...................' theory of addition, deletion and transformation. This can be seen as well in Django as a modern Hip-Hop song (Rick ROss - Black Coffins) is played in a 1950's setting, which confuses the audience as the film distorts time.
The lack of dialogue in Drive displays postmodern qualities as the protagonist is represented as a quiet and introverted character, that is somehow arrogant and confident enough to fight these brutal battles. Drive was filmed in L.A and the fly over camera work of the city present it as a strangely lonely place, there doesn't appear to be many people on the streets. This is slightly hypperreal and doesn't reflect the true reality of a busy city, in-fact it implies that the film is set during an unidentified time period. Although we know it must be set within the last ten years due to the usage of mobile phones and fairly modern costumes. The setting could be used as a metaphor for the character as they both appear to be lonely. The protagonist is unidentified and simply referred to as the 'kid' and throughout the film he is constantly alone without any family. Winding as specifically not included any nudity or intimacy between Gosling and Mulligan, in his film Drive. This makes the film modern as usual Hollywood blockbusters would feel that it is a necessity, purely to attract a larger mass audience.
Some may find the lack of dialogue in Drive slightly irritating, however it is also interpreted as an interesting stylistic approach that leaves the audience to fill in the missing conversation and make their own interpretations. The lack of dialogue could be considered hyperreal as in reality, the conversations between characters would not be so vague/staggered.
Tarantino's films are almost an exact opposite to 'Drive'. The extensive amount of intetexuality in Tarrentino's movies such as Pulp fiction, Inglorious Basterds and Django are there for the literate audience who have previous viewing experience. His 2009 movie 'Inglorious Basterds' features the postmodern element of self-reflexity as we see Soshanna exiting her apartment and some of the set is revealed. This is an element that tarentino uses fairly regularly, therefore he could be considered a postmodern Director with a massive encyclopedic knowledge. 'Pulp fiction' also displays self-reflexity when Jules and Mia Wallace pull up to Rabbit Slims diner and Mia draws a square on the screen. This reminds us we are watching a fictitious film. The Rabbit Slims diner is full of famous parodies working in the diner, for example the intertexual reference to Marilyn Monroe who is working as a waitress in the diner. This is postmodern as it isn't the actual actress (Marylyn Monroe).
Other media that could be considered postmodern is music. The 31 year old singer 'Beyonce' is an artist that has displays qualities that contribute to modernism and postmodernism. Songs that have sampled others are considered postmodern as the artist has modernised an older song. Beyoncé sampled a 1970's band 'The Chi-Lites' in her song 'Crazy in love'. She also uses sampling in her song 'Run the world (girls)' as the chorus was actually sampled from Major lazer with their track 'pon de floor' released in 2009. 'Run the world' also contributes to Jonathan Kramer's consideration of 'music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural social and political contexts'. The is due to the African style of choreography, that was inspired by the African dance duo 'Tofo Tofo'. The song also has an African sound that differ’s from her usual R&B genre of music. Beyoncé also makes social and political statements through her empowering lyrics 'who run the world? Girls'. Beyoncé will also be adapting her usual R&B genre when she teams up with Andre 3000 for the cover of Amy Winehouse 'back to black' for the soundtrack of The Great Gatsby. Another R&B artist who heavily samples other tracks is Kayne West. Johnathan Kramar suggests ‘The piece of music that is copying, doesn’t respect the boundaries/ conventions of the time It was written.’ An examples of this is Kayne West’s song ‘Blame Game’ that heavily samples Aphex Twin ‘Avril 14th’. It is unusual for a rapper to sample a ambient piano song.
Another postmodern music artist is David Bowie. Every album of his was known for having a different genre or sound and every album was in some way different to the last. This could be considered post-modern as it rejects the normal conventions and structuring of an album. David Bowie has Beocme an icon in his own right. He was the main musical artist of the seventies and eighties and was admired for his New Romantic style/glam rock style that was pretty much unheard of before. Most of Bowie’s albums have a strong narrative which is different compared to modern mainstream music today. His album ‘The rise and fall of ziggy stardust’ tell the story of his alter ego. He adopted this alter ego to comment on society, drugs (which he used heavily) and the rock ‘n’ roll scene during the 70’s. Bowie was far from a heavy rocker. He was known for his shocking style and costumes on stage that seemed slightly feminine as he also wore make-up. His stage appearance and variety of genre’s in his music relate to Eno’s theory ‘The death of uncool’, as Bowie was excepted for his style and even influenced other postmodern artist’s such as Lady Gaga. All of these factors including his 2013 ‘The next day’ bricolage album cover (taken from previous album, Hero’s) make Bowie a postmodern figure in the music industry.
Postmodern media differ’s from other media/media’s quite considerably. Postmodern artist’s in some way have more freedom as they can ‘do what they want’ as opposed to mainstream film/music that stick to certain guidelines in order to be successful. Postmodern media seems to take a more stylistic approach when it comes to production and reception of the product. Making it differ from ordinary media.
