"Postmodern media manipulate time and space". To what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied?
Postmodernism is simply the rejection of modernism. Modernism offered truth, improvement, hierarchy and order. Postmodernism also rejected grand narratives such as the big bang theory, however also goes against the theory that a God created the universe. Industrialisation allowed postmodernism to be created as everything became identical. This is because it created an environment where items could be mass produced to a consumer market, this then resulted in mass production of things that are not essential for our survival aswell as things with planned obsolescence (intentionally do not last) for example fashion items. This was to create a feeling of constant need from the public, exploiting more money from them and making us all want the same things such as electronics, music and clothes. This then led to music which could be considered by some as repetitive. We can now mass produce pop bands and artists by using technology such as autotuning and by using stylists. Artists now 'play' with this idea resulting in them 'altering' their character.
Postmodernism occurs on a number of times in the film Django Unchained (2012) directed by Quentin Tarrintino. This is due to elements of pastiche from a number of famous films which were also to do with the slave trade of the 1800's. We see Django paying homage to Little Joe from 'Bonanza', which was an American Western TV series from the 50's, 60's and 70's, by wearing a hat almost identical and from the same designer as this character. Pastiche is also shown in Django when the heading 'Mississippi' appears across the screen in large white letters to show where they have now travelled to in the film. This is Tarrintino's way of creating pastiche to the film 'Gone With The Wind' as it is a similar style to the credit sequence of this film. Gone With The Wind is a famous western film which did a lot to mythologise southern antebellum plantations due to its inaccurate representations of the slave trade. Tarantino attacks this by making his film accurate then mocking Gone With The Wind with 'Mississippi' written in the same text as the credit sequence. Lastly, we see a rather strange element of comedy in this somewhat serious film when Tarrintino creates a parody scene of the 'KKK', this is a reference to the film 'Birth Of A Nation' which also showed an inaccurate representation of slavery making the KKK seem heroic when infact we know they were racist and cowardly. However when this film was made people didn't know this therefore members of the KKK increased rapidly after the making of the film. Tarantino also attacks this film by mocking the KKK making them seem uneducated. As Django was considered by some to be rather over the top with racist terms and language, Tarrintino may have put in this parody to show how ridiculous racism actually is. This shows how Tarrintino has manipulated time as he creates elements of pastiche with this film which is from the 1930's however also manipulates space as he murges comedy with western. The title of the film 'Django unchained' is in itself two references to the original 'Django' film and also to Hercules Unchained. He is manipulating time by referencing films from the 30's and 50's, however also manipulates space by showing elements of pastiche to an Italian-French epic fantasy feature film. Tarrantino makes references to 'blaxploitation' films which is a genre that occurred in the 1970's. These films often have derogatory terms which are used frequently throughout Django Unchained. A famous western 'blaxploitation' film is Boss Nigger, which is about two black bounty hunters. Tarrintino has adapted this film by, making one bounty hunter white, and one bounty hunter black showing how any race can work together and form a respectful relationship. Most films of this genre are set in the south of America as is Django.
Gorillaz are a very postmodern band who have manipulated time and space on many occasions throughout their songs, they also use simulacrum to create a 'hyper-real' band. They do this firstly by sampling songs of different time periods and genres into their music for example, in the song Superfast Jellyfish, Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn use samples from a jazz-funk song It's Your Thing by Cold Grits from 1969 manipulating time. He also manipulates space by adding a whole different genre to the song, he samples Great Starts Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches advert from the 1980's. Gorillaz are not a 'real' band. This is because they take the image of animated characters created by a co-creator of the band Jamie Hewlitt, Albarn samples and writes the music whereas Hewitt creates storyboards. Hewlitt created profiles for the band members making them from another world where surreal events occur for example the bassist character 'Murdoc' committed a crime and got sentenced to '30,000 hours of community service'. This character also takes the appearance of a young Keith Richards as he is an influential musician. As they perform live, instead of Albarn and co performing on stage, the characters are shown as holograms on stage with the real band playing behind a screen in time with the animation. This is regularly occurring in the music industry for example Snoop Dogg performed with a hologram of Tupac at Coachella festival, Tupac of course is not alive anymore. The use of simulacrum shows how postmodernism has manipulated time and space as the audience do not know what is real anymore, people would think they are a real band if they had just heard them and not seen interviews and heir performances.
(TV paragraph)
Overall I think that postmodernism will affect the future as people will start to think they wrote songs which actually have been written by other people before for example Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams have recently been sued by Marvin Gaye in their song 'Blurred Lines' for sampling one of his songs however due to the modern generation of young music fans not all knowing Marvin Gaye, they thought Thicke and Williams wrote this whole song by themselves.
Postmodernism occurs on a number of times in the film Django Unchained (2012) directed by Quentin Tarrintino. This is due to elements of pastiche from a number of famous films which were also to do with the slave trade of the 1800's. We see Django paying homage to Little Joe from 'Bonanza', which was an American Western TV series from the 50's, 60's and 70's, by wearing a hat almost identical and from the same designer as this character. Pastiche is also shown in Django when the heading 'Mississippi' appears across the screen in large white letters to show where they have now travelled to in the film. This is Tarrintino's way of creating pastiche to the film 'Gone With The Wind' as it is a similar style to the credit sequence of this film. Gone With The Wind is a famous western film which did a lot to mythologise southern antebellum plantations due to its inaccurate representations of the slave trade. Tarantino attacks this by making his film accurate then mocking Gone With The Wind with 'Mississippi' written in the same text as the credit sequence. Lastly, we see a rather strange element of comedy in this somewhat serious film when Tarrintino creates a parody scene of the 'KKK', this is a reference to the film 'Birth Of A Nation' which also showed an inaccurate representation of slavery making the KKK seem heroic when infact we know they were racist and cowardly. However when this film was made people didn't know this therefore members of the KKK increased rapidly after the making of the film. Tarantino also attacks this film by mocking the KKK making them seem uneducated. As Django was considered by some to be rather over the top with racist terms and language, Tarrintino may have put in this parody to show how ridiculous racism actually is. This shows how Tarrintino has manipulated time as he creates elements of pastiche with this film which is from the 1930's however also manipulates space as he murges comedy with western. The title of the film 'Django unchained' is in itself two references to the original 'Django' film and also to Hercules Unchained. He is manipulating time by referencing films from the 30's and 50's, however also manipulates space by showing elements of pastiche to an Italian-French epic fantasy feature film. Tarrantino makes references to 'blaxploitation' films which is a genre that occurred in the 1970's. These films often have derogatory terms which are used frequently throughout Django Unchained. A famous western 'blaxploitation' film is Boss Nigger, which is about two black bounty hunters. Tarrintino has adapted this film by, making one bounty hunter white, and one bounty hunter black showing how any race can work together and form a respectful relationship. Most films of this genre are set in the south of America as is Django.
Gorillaz are a very postmodern band who have manipulated time and space on many occasions throughout their songs, they also use simulacrum to create a 'hyper-real' band. They do this firstly by sampling songs of different time periods and genres into their music for example, in the song Superfast Jellyfish, Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn use samples from a jazz-funk song It's Your Thing by Cold Grits from 1969 manipulating time. He also manipulates space by adding a whole different genre to the song, he samples Great Starts Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches advert from the 1980's. Gorillaz are not a 'real' band. This is because they take the image of animated characters created by a co-creator of the band Jamie Hewlitt, Albarn samples and writes the music whereas Hewitt creates storyboards. Hewlitt created profiles for the band members making them from another world where surreal events occur for example the bassist character 'Murdoc' committed a crime and got sentenced to '30,000 hours of community service'. This character also takes the appearance of a young Keith Richards as he is an influential musician. As they perform live, instead of Albarn and co performing on stage, the characters are shown as holograms on stage with the real band playing behind a screen in time with the animation. This is regularly occurring in the music industry for example Snoop Dogg performed with a hologram of Tupac at Coachella festival, Tupac of course is not alive anymore. The use of simulacrum shows how postmodernism has manipulated time and space as the audience do not know what is real anymore, people would think they are a real band if they had just heard them and not seen interviews and heir performances.
(TV paragraph)
Overall I think that postmodernism will affect the future as people will start to think they wrote songs which actually have been written by other people before for example Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams have recently been sued by Marvin Gaye in their song 'Blurred Lines' for sampling one of his songs however due to the modern generation of young music fans not all knowing Marvin Gaye, they thought Thicke and Williams wrote this whole song by themselves.
Your Django section is clear but will need a brief summary of the films plot. You do well to explain Tarantino's purpose when employing the references he does. A few more examples for Gorillaz would help but your connections to Tupac and holographic artists is interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou will need to include criticisms of PoMo in your response if you are to move into the C.