Yasmin Francis

What is meant by ‘postmodern media’?

Postmodern media is media which has been created to reject the “functional” modernist approach. Postmodern media opposes the idea of “grand narratives” such as love, politics and religion which are associated with totalising forms which have been used by many to “understand” reality. PoMo media often disregards conventions such as time and space to create a deliberate distortion of what is regarded as reality to create “hyper reality” which is made up of referential techniques such as intertextual references, bricolage, self reflexivity, parody and homage. The point of PoMo media is to allow the audience to know that the text is not reality and is just a text.

Postmodern conventions are often found in music and some artists consider themselves to be postmodern, particularly “mixers”. An example of a postmodern mixer would be DJ shadow who re-leased the album “Endtroducing” in 1996 which was entirely made of sampled music. This feature of postmodern music can be seen by some as very skilful and some as “cheating” which makes him a very controversial artist. The albums title is postmodern as it is a paradox- the end and the introduction of the same thing cannot happen at the same time- which is something postmodern media often includes due to the fact it cannot happen and therefore rejects the modernist approach that everything happens in sequence. The album takes samples from a variety of different genres including; hip hop, jazz, funk, psychedelia and heavy metal as well as incorporating speech from films and interviews. The opening track “Best Foot Forward” includes samples from Jazzy J, Stan-ley Clarke and The Beastie Boys to create a bricolage of sounds and genres due to the fact that they have no relation to each other and shouldn't be put together on a track. Postmodernists would say that DJ Shadow pays homage to other artists, however many modernists would consider this as a pastiche due to the fact he just uses their music in what could be considered “rubbish” music. As well as this, the track is self reflexive as it includes speech saying “guess whose back again” and “DJ Shadow”- both of which reference himself which allows the audience to know that it is a text created by him which is common in postmodern media.

From this influence, DJ Dangermouse released an album named “The Grey Album” which sampled both Jay Z from his album “The Black Album” released in 2003 and The Beatles from their album “White Album” released in 1968. The two acts form a bricolage as they are from completely differ-ent decades and genres and so shouldn't go together however have been put together by the cre-ator regardless. The album was said to breach copyright laws and so couldn't be released as record label EMI claimed the DJ Dangermouse had “stolen” The Beatles music- however the Jay Z vocals weren't considered to be stolen as they had been purposely released to encourage sam-pling and mash up. The album was released online on ‘Grey Tuesday’, which is known as “Elec-tronic Civil Disobedience” (another paradox as being civil and disobedient at the same time is im-possible) as it is using IT to carry out something considered to be against the law which is a very postmodern way of releasing sampled music. The album was downloaded over 100,000 times.

The current equivalent of DJ Shadow/Dangermouse is “Girl Talk”, a mixer who has been described as “a lawsuit waiting to happen” due to the fact he samples extremely well known songs which breach copyright laws. Due to this, they aren’t on the iTunes store and can be purchased via the Il -legal Art website where people can choose how much they want to pay for the albums and tracks which rejects the modernist idea of hierarchy which is applied to the price albums suggesting “the higher the price, the better the artist/album”. The name “Girl Talk”- real name Gregg Gills- is also very postmodern as he has used a common pop culture phrase to disassociate himself with the type of music he produces as it sounds like the opposite of a guy sitting there with a laptop. The silly name also suggests that he purposely creates rubbish music which is a very common conven-tion of postmodern music. This raises the question of “whats the point?” amongst the audience, a question which postmodern texts intended to impose.

Before the rise of postmodern media, films intended to create a realistic view of what situations were like in order to entertain the viewer as well as making them feel as though they were being in-formed of events which had actuality happened in the past. One example of this is the war film “Saving Private Ryan” whereby the viewers felt as though they were watching an accurate version

Yasmin Francis

of a historical event when, in fact, it is a false version of the war which has been glorified to show the way in which the audience want to view the film.

Quentin Tarrantino’s war film “Inglorious Basterds” follows The Basterds, group of American Jew-ish Nazi Hunters on their mission to kill Hitler in France during WWII. The text rejects modern me-dia elements to create a distorted reality through the manipulation of the audiences perception of war. The film shows that it is a text through the use of the old “Universal” opening titles which would have been used during the time of the war which then makes the audience aware that the text isn't real- common in postmodern films. It continues to do this through the use of postmodern elements, including that of the changing the ending of the grand narrative of WWII due to Hitler dy-ing in a cinema which isn't historically accurate.

Intertextual references are a huge convention of PoMo media and are frequently used in Inglorious Basterds.. Incorporating intertextual references from pre-existing war films, as well as films of other genres, including the first chapters exterior opening shots from “The Sound of Music” where a lone house sits on a hill (yet ends with a girl running through the hills) is used to reference the idealistic “fairytale” lifestyle which is something which people like the idea of, however is then contrasted with the following action where the family are massacred by the German force. As well as this, Mr LaPedite’s daughter is named Julie which could be seen as a direct reference to The Sound of Mu-sic as the main character, nun Maria is played by Julie Andrews. The films opening to the chapter also begins “Once Upon a Time, in Nazi-occupied Germany” which references Sergio Leone’s 1968 western “Once Upon a Time in the West”. Again, this reflects the idealistic fairytale which Tarantino conveys, however this genre would appeal to a younger audience than that of rated 18 Inglorious Basterds. The use of music commonly used in Spaghetti Western films when the Ger-man army make their way to the house, a Spanish guitar section is added which is an intertextual reference used in Sergio Leone’s Italian Spaghetti Western film “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” which foreshadows the shootout that happens later in the film. Continued in the opening scene, Colonel Landa can be seen smoking a pipe which is typically used in portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. This intertextual reference places the pipe in the 1930s/40’s which looks out of place in the context and the time period. However, the intertextual reference has also been used to exag-gerate the characters similarities to Sherlock Holmes due to him having solved the case of the Jewish Dreyfus family hiding under the floorboards, all of which suggest to the audience that the text is nit real and is a construction of the war.

The text Inglorious Basterds uses the concept of bricolage to place the idea of a traditional war film into different contexts which ultimately creates a mashup of genres. This is extremely obvious in the opening scene; Chapter 1 where the title (Chapter 1) is shown on the screen as though it is a literature adaptation as it is more like a story book than a film. It then involves the characters speaking in their own foreign languages which suggests to the audience that it is a Foreign Lan-guage film. Western music is then used to foreshadow the shoot out which is a common conven-tion used in Spaghetti Western films. It is not until the conversation in English between Monsieur LaPedite and Colonel Hans Landa that we know the context and realise that it is a war film. In Chapter 2 Hugo Stiglitz is introduced to the audience by the shot being paused with his name bursting onto the screen before a variety of shots which match the voiceover description of what he is famous for. This creates a disjuncture because it doesn't fit with the story, however shows brico-lage as the storybook type introduction isn't normal in war films. In Chapter 5 in the cinema, a David Bowie sing is played over the shots in order to foreshadow coming events and amplify the lyrics, however this isn't right for the time period. This mash of time periods, songs and genre cre-ate bricolage which is common in PoMo media as it shows that it is a film and not real.

Self reflexivity is also a convention which is used in PoMo media, especially in Tarantino films. One way which he makes it obvious that it is his film is by using his “drop down yellow font” which he uses in many of his films including Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. This font is used in the opening scene when the title Inglorious Basterds bursts onto the screen and again when the character Hugo Stiglitz is introduced to the audience. As well as this, his own brand of cigarettes “Red Apple” are shown on the table alongside Hans Landa in the opening scene. These are motifs which are used in Tarantino’s other films including Pulp Fiction where Mia Wallace is seen smoking them and in

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Kill Bill where The Bride walks past a huge advertising board in the airport, showing the con-structed reality as the brand don't actually exist, just in his films. As well as this, the token “Tarantino shot” showing the set to the audience is included in the opening scene when the cam-era pans through the floorboards to show the hiding family and in Chapter 5 when an birds eye shot shows Shosanna move through the door and down the stairs. Again, this is done to show the audience that this is a set and that it is a text- not a film. Tarantino is also in the film as his hands can be seen strangling Diane Kruger’s character Bridget Von Hammersmark. This is a common feature of Tarantinos films as he appears in Kill Bill as a dead body in the Church and in Django Unchained as a dumb cowboy who gets blown up. In the end scene, Tarantino also talks to the au-dience through the character of Brad Pitt. He says “this could be my masterpiece”, referring to this being his best film yet which continues to let the audience know that this is his film and it is a text.

Parody and Homage are conventions which are commonly used in PoMo texts. Tarantino exagger-ates and parodies the characters which he uses in his films, examples being that of Aldo Raine with an extreme southern Tennessee accent which draws to the stereotype of a typical American. The portrayal of Hitler is also very over the top and theatrical, where he can be seen in chapter 2 dramatically and violently hitting a desk and shouting in a grand room to exaggerate his power. He is also wearing a cloak with the Nazi swastika sign with a minor doing a giant portrait of him, con-tinuing to show his power. Again, these over-exaggerated versions of characters parodies the im-age of certain stereotypes which continues to chow the audience that this isn't real and is just an interpretation of the war. Aldo Raine in chapter 2 is seen briefing his team on their mission which pays homage to the scene in Robert Aldrich’s 1960’s American war film “The Dirty Dozen” where, again, the soldiers are being briefed. Characters speaking in their own language is a homage to the actual war and a pastiche of other war films. This is because typically in war films which try to give an accurate representation of the, foreign characters speak English with a bad accent which seems to be an unintentional parody of war which isn't the intended outcome. Their attempt at a homage to war turns out to be a pastiche, however Tarantino’s attempted pastiche to other war films turns out to be more unintentionally more respectful than others such as “Saving Private Ryan”. The purpose of parodying and homaging other films shows that the text is a construction to the audience and raises the question “what is the point in that?”.

The future of postmodern film is fairly intermediate. The use of bricolage and pastiche within movies may decrease due to laws surrounding copyright. For example, as more and more prod-ucts begin to reference one another, people may become less willing to allow their text to be mim-icked or placed in a different context. If this occurs then it is likely that the future of postmodern me-dia is quite bleak and the pressure to create “original” material is only heightened by the introduc-tion of patent sharks. It is also significant to consider that as more films intentionally become eclec-tic, combining influences from varying media, it could become difficult to distinguish whether a film is doing this on purpose or merely by accident; meaning that it will be challenging to set post mod-ern films apart.