MixTape

Me & You - Cassie (Age 11 Year 7, "Chav" phase.)

What I've been Waiting For - Sharpay & Ryan (2006 Christmas - Gift, sing along)

Make You Feel My Love - Adele (Saying goodbye to my family everytime I leave Thailand)

Black & White - Michael Jackson (Michael Jackson's Death, I remember everyone being sad on that day. And music channels kept doing Michael's Greatest songs and this was my favourite!)

Greatest Hits (Album) - Shania Twain (Listened to it on repeat during the car journey to Disneyland Paris with the family.)

The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script (Summer Before Year 10, memories of High School.)

Pussycat Dolls - (A lot of their songs were played on loudspeaker while playing out during High School)

IN WHAT WAYS CAN SCOTT PILGRIM BE CONSIDERED AS POSTMODERN?

In What Ways Can Scott Pilgrim Be Considered Postmodern

LADY GAGA - POSTMODERN ARTIST

Lady Gaga - Postmodern Artist

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Using Summer Camp and a band or artist of your choice, explain how some artists can be postermodern.

There is a number of reasons why Summer Camp and Lady Gaga are postmodern, Summer Camp is a 2 person band from London. Their music is very much based on the 80s era, more focused on teenagers on that particular time, this is portrayed through the aesthetics of their videos, blogs and album cover. Lady Gaga on the other hand is very much the queen of postmodernism, she crosses so many boundaries and takes the influences she sees in the world and incorporates into her work to make is appeal to her fans. Postmodernism is not only applied to these two, it is everywhere in the music industry. Artists and groups are always remixing and incorporating past works into theirs,

Postmodernism is a rejection to modernism. Modernism is the belief that we should never look back, we should always look into the future and always create something new. Before modernism, there were such things as the “Grand Narratives”, Science, Religion and Politics coined by Jean Francois Lyotard. It was believed that before modernism everyone fitted or believed in only one thing, you were either, religious, political or scientific. You could not intersect into these worlds because it would counter act your original belief. Like music for example, in the past, if you listened to rock music, that was the genre that you could listen to, you could not like rock and another genre like Hip Hop for example, these two are completely the other end of the scales from one another and it would have been considered as weird or unusual for one to like more than genre of music. Nowadays, everyone is a postmodernist in some aspect, the majority of people with iPods, iPhones or MP3 players have all different genre of music on it. Brian Eno coined the phrase “The Death Of Uncool”, meaning that nothing is uncool anymore, you can have all of these genres in one place and it cannot be considered as uncool in today’s culture as everything is about remixing things together and making something new and unique. To believe in postmodern or to be a postmodernist, you would have to completely go against the idea of a modernist. A postmodernist would acknowledge the past, they would say that without the past, you cannot move into the future because you won’t learn anything from it. It would be like making a mistake over and over again. Postmodernism in today’s culture is very popular; it’s so popular that when we see it, we don’t even recognize it.

There are a number of aspects which makes Summer Camp postmodern, starting off with how they look. By just looking at the aesthetic of their Videos, Blogs and Album covers. You can the impression that they are going to be this cool band who are uncool, which makes them cool. Summer Camp has used hyper-reality to portray who they want to be to the audience through their projected image, but when you actually see a picture of them and watch their videos, you can see that they are a British 2 person group living in London who are obsessed with 80s music, another artist who uses Hyper-reality very heavily is Lady Gaga who has created a character or persona for her music to go along with her music. Lady Gaga the also takes music influences from the past and incorporates it into her work,  an example being that she has taken the influence of the 70s sounds and incorporated it in her second album “The Fame Monster”. Their website is very postmodern, it features a variety of video clips when the user clicks on the links. All of the videos clips are found footage from the 80s, each one of them having a different element to them whether it be humorous, sadness or happiness. The website itself is very postmodern because it’s using footage from the past, and projected through advanced technology we have today. The video for “Round The Moon” was made up of found footage from Swedish film called “Enkarlekshistoria” which came out in the 80s. By using this, they are using Bricolage, because by having young adults doing adult things, like smoking and drinking and kissing. Although at first it seems creepy, but as the song goes with the videos, it makes it sweet and innocent. Summer Camp also follow Kramer’s theory of “is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension”, the extension aspect of SummerCamp is that they use "80s synths and ’80s drum-machine sounds" in their music, the break would be to use the of technology we have in the present such as the GIFs they made their video out of 'Down'.

The foundation behind “Lady Gaga” is postmodernism, she is always remixing and re-working past movements and adapting it into her own to appeal to her fans, this is an example of Kirby Ferguson’s theory of “Everything is a remix”.  When thinking about Gaga, you cannot ignore her predecessor, Madonna. Her music, videos, and image is quite similar to Madonna’s back in the 80s when she became a worldwide superstar, and it is through this which has helped Gaga to become the star that she is today. She has focused her career on being unpredictable and outrageous; she is probably doing everything that Madonna has done but amplifying it three times to gather press and new audiences. A clear example of how similar Gaga’s music is to Madonna is with her first single from her album “Born This Way” which sounds very similar to Madonna’s “Express Yourself”. Lady Gaga is a “populist”, meaning that she is mainstream but she also includes “elitist” aspects into her work like with the use of Opera in “Government Hooker” on her latest album “Born This Way”. Another way in which Gaga is postmodern is that she uses Intertextual References in her work, a clear example would be her music video starring alongside Beyonce “Telephone”. This video was one of Gaga’s most unusual and creative videos, throughout the short film, she makes clear intextual references to Quentin Tarantino’s work. Example are spread throughout the film starting right at thy start with the font chosen for the title and credits, the font chosen is a yellow card with reddish drop shadow, this is a subtle reference to Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Another reference Gaga makes to Tarantino’s work is with Beyonce’s nickname in the video “Honey Bee”, this being a clear reference to the diner robber in “Pulp Fiction” named “Honey Bunny”. Gaga addresses Beyonce as “Honey Bee” before they pull off their poison murder spree in the diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to “Honey Bunny,” the nickname given to Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene in Pulp Fiction. The clearest reference to Tarantino’s work in “Telephone” is the “Pussy Wagon” that Gaga and Beyonce drive in the video, the car was featured in “Kill Bill Vol 1” which was used for lead actress Uma Thurman to drive in, in the film she stole the car from the male nurse and used it as she drive to her victim’s house “Copper Head”. The video also shows an intextual reference to Andy Warhol’s idea of “Exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising” through his Campbell’s soup studies, in the video Gaga and the video director Akerlund wanted to challenge gender stereotypes of the “perfect housewife” portrayed heavily in the 1950s pop culture by using popular staple American household products like the “Wonder Bread” and “Miracle Whip” as their artistic devices in the video. By doing this, she also uses Bricolage, because in the “Let’s Make A SandWhich” scene, she uses the role of the 50s housewife and changes its meaning by adding poison to the food she makes which ends up killing all of the people in the diner. Gaga uses Hyper-reality to her advantage, she has consumed this character and this is what helps her music sell. When you think about Gaga, you don’t just think about her music, you think about her overall image and aesthetic. When you think of Gaga, you see all of her theatrics, whether it be the choice of Fashion, hair or makeup, whenever you go to see one of her live shows, you expect a show. Without her hyper-real self, her music would not sell as well. This goes with Baudrillard’s theory of that “our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality”, meaning that the manner in which the message is mediated becomes more important than the meaning of the message itself.

In conclusion, both of these artists and bands share similarities in how they are postmodern, but they also differ from each other because one is quite niche and the other one is quite mainstream. Similarities which they both share are Hyper-reality, influences of past music and incorporating it into their work.  Although Gaga has amplified this a thousand times more than Summer Camp, I also think that because of Summer Camp’s particular use of hyper-reality, it can confuse the audience about who they are before they see. Comparing them both, they are very different, in similar in a number of ways.

SUMMERCAMP - JONATHAN KRAMER THEORIES.

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension - The extension aspect of SummerCamp is that they use "80s synths and ’80s drum-machine sounds" in their music, the break would be to use the of technology we have in the present such as the GIFs they made their video out of 'Down'.

2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic - Through the 1980s research, I have realised that the reason for why SummerCamp is cool, they are 'cool' because they are being ironically 'uncool' therefore making them 'cool' in the present day. The reason for why they are ironically 'cool' is because they are infatuated with the 80s, this particular era was the decade of the teenagers. New movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Weird Science focused on teenagers and High School at that particular time, these movies were 'cool' in that particular era, but comparing them to films that are made now they are 'uncool' because when we watch them now, we realise who cheesy and cringey they are, but by acknowledging that they are 'uncool' it makes it 'cool' to like them.

3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present - ?

4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles - Summer Camp write their own songs, so therefore they follow the traditional methods of artists, which makes them High Style. Other artists who are considered 'High Styles' are The Beatles, Adele. Examples of 'Low Style' artists are Justin Bieber, One Direction.

5. hows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity - ?

6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values - Summer Camp are considered 'cool' by some people because they are not in the charts or mainstream, meaning that they are an elitist instead of a populist. But if Summer Camp was to become successful in the charts and mainstream, populists would start liking them and the elitists would go off them.

7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold) - I would say from listening to their songs on YouTube that all of them have the same sound, meaning that their music is one piece instead of 'avoiding totalizing forms' where each song of theirs has a different sound.

8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts - Summer Camp produces music which is very much based on the 80s era in America, the 80s being probably the most famous and heard about, they are following the American culture and social contexts.

9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures - Their songs, videos, image is very much based around American 80s Pop Culture. Although at the start, before I had seen their picture, I had an image in my head of what they would look like from looking at their blog, website and images.

10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music - Summer Camp has incorporated computerized sounds in pop songs from the 80s in their music by using the technology we have today, to replicate the first computerised sounds on songs.

11. embraces contradictions - Their video 'Round The Moon' has been made completely out of uncopyrighted footage from the 1970 Swedish film "En kärlekshistoria", so by doing this they are contradicting their style because they are using an old piece of footage with something that is brand new.

12. distrusts binary oppositions - ?

13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities - by using clips from "En kärlekshistoria", it pays homage as they are using the clips to visualise the context of the song to the audience watching.

14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism - Summer Camp uses a techno sound, similar to those of Vampire Weekend.

15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities - By using clips from different times and putting it with their music. They are presenting multiple meanings and temporalities.

16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers - With people having iPods and MP3 players nowadays, they are not bound to one category of music.

EXPLAIN HOW FAR YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CONVENTIONS OF EXISTING MEDIA INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU CREATED YOUR OWN MEDIA PRODUCTS. REFER TO A RANGE OF EXMAPLES IN YOUR ANSWER TO SHOW THIS UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPING OVER TIME.

During the two year course of Media Studies, I have completed two preliminary tasks, one for each year. By doing so, they have given me an insight of what is to come when I actually do the final products and what challenges and hurdles I will have to overcome in order to achieve the highest quality of work. For my AS year of the course, I created a school magazine called ‘Homme’, meaning ‘Man’ in French. The target audience I was going for were boys who were studying at Lutterworth College and had an interest in Fashion & Lifestyle. I would say that from doing this, I did have some knowledge of the conventions of a magazine as I was a regular reader of men’s magazines such as GQ and Esquire. I used these particular magazines as a foundation to build on preliminary magazine on top of, and by doing so, I thought that my preliminary magazine was quite high standard as it was only my first time trying to create a magazine and had little experience with the editing software we were using which was Adobe Photoshop Elements. For my A2 year of Media Studies, as a preliminary task, I was asked with my classmates to create a music video to Busted’s ‘That’s What I Go To School For’, I found this second preliminary task was much more complicated and harder to do as there were a lot of things which needed to be done before we could actually start shooting the video. Examples being that we had to come up with a storyboard of what we wanted to happen in the video, cast the actors who were going to play the characters in the video, come up with a shooting plan of when and where we were going to shoot each individual shot and only then could we start shooting the shots we needed. After all the scenes had been shot, we then had to individually take it in turn to edit the video so the shots go in sync with the music. As our video was very much based on the original video of the song, we didn’t really have much freedom with our ideas so I would definitely say that for our preliminary task, the conventions of a music video heavily influenced us when it came to producing the video.

Before I had started my AS coursework, I thought that I did not know any conventions of a music magazine, or any magazine that were already existing. But as I started to do my research and planning for the magazine, I began to find out that I did already know some conventions of a music magazine or any other magazine. For my A2, during my research and planning, I was able to find conventions in which music videos followed, although most of them do not follow the same. What I found out was it was up to the genre of the music which decided the conventions of the videos, Pop music for example, artists such as Lady Gaga and Madonna. They are two internationally known pop stars and although they make great music, it is how they express their music through their videos, performances and shows that is almost as important as the music itself.

When creating the music magazine, I found that this was very much easier as the magazine was from my point of view, so I was able to incorporate only my ideas into the product and no one else’s which made it easier to produce something I liked all the while still following the brief of the task. From the very start, I wanted to create a music magazine that was very much fashion orientated, but still keeping the content of the magazine music related as music and fashion go hand in hand. Before I could start taking any pictures or start writing the content, I had to do a lot of research into existing Fashion and Music magazines such as ‘VOGUE’, ‘LOVE’, ‘Wonderland’, ‘Q’ and ‘Rolling Stone’. By looking at fashion magazines, I could see the typical conventions they all shared and incorporate it into my magazine. The conventions I found were that the featured celebrity in the issue was styled from head to toe and they were using different types of camera angles like close-ups, long shots, mid-shots, everything was fashion forward and they didn’t change who the person was through hair and makeup, the magazines kept their feature star individual as this would be why people would buy the magazine. They were also doing particular poses which would only be seen in a fashion magazine, and during that time, I not looked at magazines, but also photographers who inspired me as well like Terry Richardson and Mario Testino. When looking at music magazines, I found that unlike the conventions of a Fashion Magazine, the mis-en-scene for their pictures are kept simple and clean, the main attraction is the artist featured on the page, nothing else. The music magazines I had chosen were ‘Q’ magazine and ‘Rolling Stones’, I had chosen these particular magazines because they were and still are the highest selling music magazines in the industry, meaning that they were respected and it would be appropriate to incorporate the conventions found on these magazines into mine. 

In A2, the brief was to create a music magazine and two ancillary texts such as a digipak and a poster. To find the conventions of a music video, we first had to pick out what song we were going to do. Once we had done that, we could then start looking at other existing bands and artists who were similar to our band so we could take influences from them and incorporate it into our video. Other existing bands we looked at were Kings Of Leon, Coldplay and OneRepublic, the conventions of these videos were of course, lip syncing, instrument playing etc. So I incorporated some of these aspects into our music video in order to get a prodessional looking end product. For the digipak and poster, I looked at the same bands as I did for the music video and found Kings of Leon’s digipak of ‘Come Around Sundown’ which featured a scenic photograph of the beach and two palm trees in the centre of the frame, by the use of editing they were able to take away some of the colour, almost making it into an old photo. The reason for why I really liked it was because the photo felt like a memory captured through the bands eyes, I thought that it made it more personal for the audience. So I tok this inspiration and applied it to my digipak and poster, I had decided to use a photo of picadilly circus I had shot when shooting the shots for the video in London. I thought by using the image of the city, it emphasised the album name ‘City & Colours’ giving the audience a visual representation of the city. 

JONATHAN KRAMER - POSTMODERNISM MUSIC THEORY

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.