Post modernism

There are so many different definitions of post modernism. In short though Postmodernism is what came before. Post modernism has become a phrase which is used to describe anything that looks culturally avante garde in an old school way. To understand what post modernism is you need to look at what came before. When looking at genre there is a theory that suggest genres go into a cycle. That cycle is shown below 

 

 Experimental-----Cannon-----Post modernism

 

After these 3 stages happen the cycle then repeats itself. The experimental stage is the stage of genres that attempt to establish new trends. The cannon stage works with those trends to try and fix them into our cultural understanding. Finally post modernism looks at those trends and then adds something new in them. People may argue that music videos are post modern. This is because they might follow the cycle below.

 

Full length talkie films----music videos----Short silent films

 

Then this sequence will go back to the start. Post modernism becomes the new by referring to the old. This can invent copying. This can be created by anyone and made to how they please.

 

A lot of music videos now day incorporate ideas from films. For example the top gun film has interested Will Young into making his own music video called "Switch it on" which has a similar style to the film itself. When artists do this they sometimes choose to make it funny occasionally so that it adds a different view on the film. Cult status is often awarded to a movie due to the fact that it is post modern. Staying on Intertextuality there are 3 different types of intertextuality. The first is Homage which is imitation which is the highest form of flattery. Pastiche is using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another. Finally parody's are basically taking the mickey of the film.

 

An example of Homage would apply to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" which refers to Vincente Minelli's "The band Wagon" in 1953. The contrast of the two videos can be shown below. Michael Jackson's version is the 2nd one.

 

An example of Pastiche being used in music videos would be Will Young's music video version of the Top Gun film in 1983. The music video is called "switch it on" and highlights some of the homoerotic scenes that go on in the film. This is not a parody though as it is not made to be solely funny. The video of "switch it on" is shown below. 

 

An example of a Parody music video would be Backstreets song called "Everybody". This is a parody from the film Casper. The video takes the mick out of a lot of horror characters which include the likes of mummy's, Dracula, Frankenstein and more. The music video is shown below. 

Now that we have the invention of you tube and state of the art editing software, many people have taken it upon themselves to create their own parody's to show the world. There is the debate though whether or not they are music videos or film extracts though as they contain film extracts but are carefully edited so that the dialogue is different to make the video fit the music video conventions. The answer to this though is that it is a music video because it has been specifically edited to create amusement in the music video industry.

 

Overall my answer to post modernism being a shortcut to mass audiences is true because things that have been changed to attract mass audiences. They attract mass audiences because they may have seen the original film or music video and if it was a success then the audiences that watched them will want to see the updated versions to see what has been changed and what is good. They are classified as a shortcut to mass audiences because the audience will already be there. This means that the necessary adverts for the music video will not have to be as thorough  as the original as the audience of the original will most likely be the audience of the new version.