1. Postmodernism
Aims of Lesson:
- To examine the characteristics of
modernism and postmodernism.
- To analyse a postmodern music video.

2. Modernism
- Art / social-political movement that aimed to reinvent culture that
had become outdated.
- Roughly occurred between 1890s - 1960s.
- A rejection against realism.
- Divisions of modernism include avant-garde and surrealism.
- Films / novels / art were self-reflexive of society.

3. Postmodernism
- 1970s onwards
- The breakdown of barriers between genres and style
- The breakdown of distinction between binary divides
(E.g. human and machine)
- Mixing up time, space and narrative
- Emphasis of style over content
- Blurring of fiction and reality / representation and the real
- Becoming more use to a mediated version of reality, than reality
itself (hyperreality).

4. Key Terms
Intertextuality - one media text referring to another
Parody - mocking something in an original way
1970s / 1980s cop series
Sabotage music video

5. Parody
- The Simpsons parodies both high and low culture to a wide range of
audiences.
- Part of the idea of postmodernism is that there is no divide between high
art and mass culture.

6. Pastiche - An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another
work, artist, or period. This is a self-conscious imitation.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Material Girl
Marilyn Monroe
Madonna
Goodfellas
Ashanti Foolish music
video

7. Bricolage - mixing up and using different genres and styles
Shaun of the
Dead:
Zombie mixed
with and
romantic
comedy.
Blade Runner: Sci-Fi and film noir
DJ Shadow’s Entroducing:
The first album to be completely
made up of sampled music.

8. Homage - imitation from a respectful standpoint
Psycho - the 1960 original
Psycho - the 1998 remake

9. Analysis of Postmodern Music
Video
Paparazzi
(Lady Gaga)
Directed by Jonas Akerlund

10. Pastiche /
Homage
• Generic conventions of
a ‘golden age’ Hollywood
film of which ‘Gaga’ is the
leading lady

11. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Narrative and stylistic similarities and intertextual references

12. Intertextuality and the blurring of
boundaries
The breakdown of distinction between binary divides.
Lady Gaga as an humanoid
Fembot, Metropolis (RIGHT)

13. Referencing Popular Culture

14. CASE STUDY: Lady Gaga
Hitchcock Homage
• Makes reference to the film ‘Vertigo’
• The use of icy, remote blonde
‘femme fatale’ character is also a
hallmark of a Hitchcock film.

15. Blurring of fiction and reality / representation and the
real

16. Plenary
What are the conventions of a postmodern media text?
What is the appeal to audiences?