Terminology Theorists Examples Hannah Duncan

Provide your definition of postmodern media and support it with examples.

Postmodernism is a rejection of modernism (the movement in western arts,
architecture and design) and traditional narrative structures like grand narratives
(Lyotard). Postmodernism is characterised by using earlier styles and conventions;
mixing different artistic styles and media together as well as a general distrust of
theories.
I think postmodern media challenges the relationship between the text and the
audience by manipulating the way the audience receive the text. Postmodern media
leads to alienation (Jameson) which challenges the traditional conventions of media
texts by making them artistic but also meaningless to the audience (Chomsky).
Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film directed by Tim Miller and is a
postmodern film. Postmodernists take moments from previous texts and apply it to
their own to create something new. Usually, this is done either respectfully in
homage to the original text or in mockery for comedy as a pastiche (Jameson).
Intertextuality between texts is criticised as audience members would have to
understand the context of the joke to be able to appreciate it. In Deadpool, actor
Ryan Reynolds (who plays Deadpool) makes a reference to a moment within the
comic book of Deadpool. He breaks into an apartment and orders a pizza to the
door, before he completes the job he was sent for. Audience members, who havent
read the comic book, may not understand the reference compared to someone who
has read the book and misses the humour of the moment. Some people may not like
this as they could be feeling as though they wouldnt be able to understand a text if
they arent able to understand the original reference; putting them off postmodern
media. I too sometimes feel as though I cant laugh along with a film as I dont
understand all of the references like most people do. Originality is questioned with
intertextuality as if the same material is being regurgitated, it could potentially lose its
humour if overly used and they are taking elements that dont belong to them. The
intertextuality in Deadpool enables the film to be more humorous as, the majority of
the audience, would understand the references.
Postmodern films tend to rid texts of their emotional impact on viewers (Jameson). A
traditional media convention would ensure the audience are manipulated into feeling
sympathetic or empathetic for the characters. In postmodern texts, the audience
dont usually engage with the characters emotionally and the lives of the characters
are shown emotionless. This has been applied to The Neon Demon as, from
feedback after watching it in class, the audience are emotionless towards the death
of Jesse. The lack of dialogue and emotion from the character herself cause the
audience to not feel sympathetic towards her as it is like we dont know her and
understand her as well as we would a character with expression and speech we
could relate to. The audiences emotions have been manipulated by the director
(Nicolas Winding Refn) to add alienation (Jameson) between the characters in the
text and the audience. This is something certain audience members may not be
used to if they are used to watching films that follow traditional media conventions.
The episodic nature of The Neon Demon comes from there being short scenes with
very little dialogue. Audiences are no longer concerned with the process of
understanding a text (through dialogue) as they can interpret it from the visuals. The
linear narrative enables audiences to follow the film in a way that would make them
understand it; even with little dialogue. This would not be possible in Deadpool as
the narrative is fragmented and non-linear. Deadpool plays around with time and, as
an audience, it would be harder to understand as the dialogue would carry the
events happening in the film. The lack of dialogue was replaced by music which was
upbeat and continuously increased tension, as well as allowed room for
interpretation. Theorists (Kramer) would suggest that multiple meanings to media is
a good thing as it allows us to take something from the film that we would value .
However, some criticise this as there must be certain elements of a films structure
that are necessary for the audience to understand the narrative (Parsons). If this isnt
there, like Deadpool, some may not get it and become confused, like I sometimes
do; displeasing them and refraining them from continuing with postmodern media.
Postmodernism doesnt just exist in film; it exists in all kinds of media. Like
Deadpool, artists like Kanye West, Eminem and Grimes all use elements of
bricolage, parody, homage etc to form their music; leading them to be labelled as
postmodern artists.
Eminem uses sampling as a way of creating sounds for his music and as a way of
paying homage to other artists. On his track Berzerk from The Marshall Mathers
LP.2 he samples four different tracks. The song sampled the most is Billy Squires
The Stroke which influenced the drums, electric guitar and other instruments in the
track. Certain riffs are taken from Squires work and placed into Eminems to give the
track more sound. Furthermore, Eminem sampled Labi Siffres I Got The from
1975 in his track My Name Is on his debut album The Slim Shady LP in 1999. The
elements used from Siffres track are funk, soul and disco. The sample used in
Eminems song has a jazzy feel to it which contrasts against his hip hop/rap genre.
This, again, introduces Eminems audience to a form of music they may not have
heard of and brings the jazz style back into music. Eminem clearly adopts Kramers
theory that postmodern music challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles as
Jazz would be a high style and rap would be a low style. Eminem mixes the two
together to produce sounds that an audience would never have heard of before.
Predicting the future for postmodernism is difficult as there as so many routes a
postmodern film or artist can go down. Technology allows us to explore things further
and come up with new ideas that no one would have thought about. For example,
Michael Jackson was made into a hologram for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards
where he performed his first set after his death in 2009. Since then, companies
have been experimenting and recently, in Star Wars Rogue One, there have been
CGI effects added to place the faces of past characters (of whom the actors are now
dead) onto the bodies of other people so they could return for the film. This has had
some criticism as many dont want the CGI faces to replace the past actors as they
should be remembered for what they did. But, this seems to be the route that
postmodernism is going down. If it is happening for stars, maybe people will invent
ways of bringing back friends and family that they could interact with like those who
interacted with Michael Jacksons hologram on stage.