Postmodernism in music video: blog tasks

1) How does the article define postmodernism in the first page of the article?

If you ask an academic the question ‘what is postmodernism?’ you will most likely come away with an answer you’ll only understand with the aid of a dictionary and a reading list as long as your arm. This article aims to give you a basic understanding of the concept, and give you some pointers on where to look if you want to research it further.

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

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. It points to the process of its own creation.

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

Postmodernism is a movement that distrusts all established philosophies and frequently experiments with the medium that it is presented within.

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

This is a frequent preoccupation in the content of postmodern narratives. As stated earlier, postmodernism tends to reject most aspects of authority, meaning, as Jean Francois Lyotard put it in The Postmodern Condition, ‘the grand narrative has lost its credibility’.

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?

The music video incorporates elements of postmodernism through the hybrid mix of music video forms where it references different narratives within their journey. It uses bricolage by having a postmodern take on The Road movie for an audience who is quite familiar with it.

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

The links they make can be hammer horror as in ghost town they have aspects of horror a example can be the lighting inside the car the lighting shines from under there face which can be eerie. 

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

Through the music video their are hints towards digital culture through the common TikTok dance moves where they are seen on social platforms

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

Old town road reflects it by having both of them purpose each other and showing them both in the same music video 

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?

That in reality white people are seen as more westernised and less up to date with reality whereas other cultures are more up to date with reality but views each other in a different way and not really equal in some sort.