Eminem - Postmodern Artist Presentation (With a few extra points):

Eminem - Postmodern Artist? on Prezi

We Made You (2009) - The music video is a parody of the television series Rock of Love and Star Trek (with the Starfleet insignia replaced with an inverted 2nd Infantry Division (United States)), as well as Eminem singing in a background of an imitation version of the notes of Guitar Hero while the casino-based sequence in the video is an homage to the film Rain Man, a film Eminem has previously referenced in his lyrics.^[9] The casino scene was shot in The Palms hotel and casino. References to Nanook of the North are also made, especially seen in the scenes with Sarah Palin, those scenes parodying Larry Flynt's Who's Nailin' Paylin?. There is also an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. On April 3, 2009, Eminem talked about the music video in an MTV News interview, stating that there is some "Celebrity bashing in it," which is often a feature of his album's lead singles.^[10] In addition to Sarah Palin, notable celebrities mocked using look-alike actresses and actors include Jessica Simpson, Bret Michaels, Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, Lindsay Lohan, Samantha Ronson, Amy Winehouse and her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Alba, Elvis Presley, Tony Romo, John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian.^[11] Eminem even spoofed himself, wearing an ALF t-shirt and holding a cake, referencing a commonly circulated pre-fame photo of him of when he was a youth. This Music Video also marks the return of Eminem's alter ego "Slim Shady".
From 'Concept' section of Music Video on Wikipedia Page; What this shows is a scramble of many intertextual references and metatextual references when he is critizing others' work.



Just Lose It (2004) - The video contains a parody of a rap battle scene from 8 Mile in which it is Eminem, as B-Rabbit, versus Eminem, as Slim Shady. It also contains several scenes where Eminem is walking down the streets naked. As he is doing this, Dr. Dre is seen driving next to him, looking disgusted. For the music video, the lyrics were edited slightly, notably the phrase "shake that ass", becoming the less provocative "shake that thing". Other changes include the muting of some parts of the second verse, and the phrase "butt naked" becoming "buck naked". Such examples of parodies that are included in this video are Michael Jackson, MC Hammer and his hit single "U Can't Touch This", Pee Wee Herman, Madonna and the movie Bad Santa, by displaying Eminem as a "mall santa" and even going so far to include Tony Cox, the actor who played the elf from the actual movie, as Eminem's helper. Some of the celebrities who appeared in this music video were Paris Hilton, Katie Cassidy, Monica Parales, Erik Estrada, Alyson Stoner, BooBoo Stewart, Mekhi Phifer and Dr. Dre. The video was later nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rap Video, but lost to Ludacris' "Number One Spot". Much Music's 50 Most Controversial Videos ranked it #50 for its jokes on famous people.

CONCLUSION:

There are loads more songs that I could have used to show that Eminem is a postmodern artist - what I have picked are only a select few. The majority of his songs have intertextual/samples/interpolations included within and this creates meaning from the use of older debris of texts (bricolage). His music is relevant to culture, political and social events and his work as a whole shows that his own personality is difficult to define because of the different directions that each album tends to go in (with all of the alter-egos). This is hyper-real in itself and so how does the audience know which one is the real him? They don't. They see a more 'gentle' side to him in 'Mockingbird' but then is contrasted at the end with the violent lyrics. This distrusts binary oppositions because we can't tell whether his is a violent or peaceful character. To summarise, I think that he is therefore A POSTMODERN ARTIST!

Eminem - Postmodern Artist Presentation

Eminem - Postmodern Artist? on Prezi

Phantom Of The Opera - Plagiarism claim from Pink Floyd's "Echoes"

Roger Waters of Pink Floyd had asserted that Andrew Lloyd Webber had plagiarized the intro section from the Pink Floyd song "Echoes", which largely resembles it, although he decided against filing a lawsuit.

"Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da* [sic]. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature - it's 12/8 - and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber."^[3]

The notes in question are about 4 minutes into this video:

Kramer's Postmodern Music Theory

Jonathan Kramer posits the idea (following Umberto Eco and Jean-François Lyotard) that postmodernism (including musical postmodernism) is less a surface style or historical period (i.e., condition) than an attitude. Kramer enumerates 16 (arguably subjective) "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

It should be noted here that Kramer is again referencing work in the Western art music tradition, and does not seem to be addressing music from the "popular" end of the spectrum; this kind of intentionality is not unheard-of in popular music, but it is quite unusual.

From Wikipedia's POSTMODERN MUSIC page.

Postmodern Music - Sampling - 'Ghetto Gospel' (2Pac)

I came across this song ages ago and remember that Elton John’s song ‘Indian Sunset’ was sampled for the chorus. This is an example of using another song to create something new. The meaning of the song ‘Ghetto Gospel’ relates to ‘Indian Sunset’ but the genres have been fused together. Eminem produced this song.

Genre of 'Ghetto Gospel': West Coast Hip Hop/Conscious Hip Hop.
Genre of 'Indian Sunset' (Elton John): Symphonic Rock/Soft Rock

Postmodern Music - Research - The Time (Dirty Bit) by The Black Eyed Peas

When looking at ‘sampling’, this song immediately came to mind because of its use of sampling (click on link below for Wikipedia article). It uses samples/interpolations from ‘(I’ve had) The Time of My Life’ soundtrack from the film Dirty Dancing (1987):

Sampling Article

Couldn’t get an embed code for the Dirty Dancing (1987) clip so click HERE for the link.

Comparisons to Deadmau5 - From Wikipedia Page of 'The Time (Dirty Bit)':

Critics also noted similarities between "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and works by record producer Deadmau5.^[9] The record producer spoke of the similarities through his official Facebook account. He likened the Black Eyed Peas song to the remix of "You and I" by Medina, a song he produced. "I so know that hi-hat... and the pattern it was in... so I went to my masters folder, cracked open my instrumental mix of 'You and I' remix thing I did for Medina... and there it was again, staring me in the face". The producer stated he welcomed the usage of sampling in electronic music, "This isn't calling the Black Eyed Peas out at all. This is just another interesting factoid I keep finding about sampling and electronic music".