Postmodernism Mock Re-write

Postmodernism Essay

It is not always clear what is and what isn’t postmodern. This is due to the fact that postmodernism does not have a specific definition. Postmodernism media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgments of value are merely taste. This means that anything can be art and can deserve to reach an audience, and culture effectively ‘eats itself’ as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute. Postmodernism suggests that the distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a ‘reality’ defined by images and representations – a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other as reality rather than pure reality that exists before the image represents it in a state of hyper-reality. Postmodernists believe that all ideas of ‘the truth’ are just competing claims.

Modernism is different to this, modernism is what came before postmodernism. It refers to attitudes and beliefs in religion and is mainly based on using rational and logical means to gain knowledge and that morality can be defined. Whereas postmodernists believe that morality is relative.

One music video I believe to be postmodern is ‘Who’s laughing now’ by Jessie J. This is due to it following the typical conventions of a postmodern music video. This includes using Baudrillard’s Hyper-conscious. Throughout the video the audience can clearly see that the artist is playing multiple, highly stereotypical characters, as well as herself. She dresses as a teacher, dinner lady and a school student, demonstrating hyperconscious to remind the viewer that what we are watching is not real and is all in the artists mind. This is highly postmodern due to the audience being able to see inside another person’s mind. This can also be a form of Narcissism as they appear to exaggerate their self-image to emphasize the individual stereotypes. Coming back to my point of postmodernism ‘eating itself’, the narcissism is postmodern due to demonstrating intertextual references.

This video is, what I personally believe to be an interetextual reference to ‘Mean Girls’ this is due to the group of girls featured in the video wearing entirely all pink and demonstrating bitchy and nasty behaviour toward the other kids within the video which ‘Mean Girls’ are typically known for. This postmodern reference is common throughout postmodern medias as it allows the audience to feel like they are ‘in on the joke’.

Furthermore, this video follows further conventions of postmodern media as it includes Baudrillard’s idea of Hyper-reality. This is due to the video being presented from a younger version of Jessie to her actual self. This applies postmodernity due to there being no distinction between them. By this I mean no progression of time is implemented throughout the video. This lack of progression confuses the audience because they do not know what is real time and what is just a feature of Jessie’s imagination. This applies postmodernity because it is not real.

Another example of postmodernism is that it includes playfulness which is evident due to their being some funny and in sensual situations created. For example this occurs when the foam fight kicks of in the classroom, this is created to portray humour. Which comes on to Parody. For example, the video parodies the school by over stereotyping the staff and parodies the bullies by humiliating. This again shows qualities of postmodernity due to the viewer being ‘in on the joke’.

To conclude, Jessie J’s ‘Who’s laughing now’ could be argued to be a postmodern music video due to showing multiple examples of postmodern conventions in music videos.