^ This review shows that the film could be considered as ‘genreless’ text (goes against Derrida’s theory) because it includes so many different conventions from different genres of films that it is no longer a hybrid of genres but has no genre because of the great number of influences/conventions included.
Showing posts with label Theories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theories. Show all posts
Monday, 26 March 2012
"Drive" (2011) - Reviews and Postmodern Aspects
"Winner of the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, “Drive” is a stylish film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a thriller? A romance? A heist film? All of the above? To be honest, I really don’t know. Though based on the novel of the same name by James Sallis, “Drive” has very little dialogue. The majority of the story is told through camera angles and a musical score that seems to have been composed in 1985." - (Section of the review by Mike Smith - LINK).
Monday, 27 February 2012
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:
- is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
- is, on some level and in some way, ironic
- does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
- challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
- shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
- questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
- avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
- considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
- includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
- considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
- embraces contradictions
- distrusts binary oppositions
- includes fragmentations and discontinuities
- encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
- presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
- 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.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Postmodernism - Key Terms
We frequently hear it said that ‘we are living in a postmodern world.’ Are we? How do we know? And how is postmodernism as a theoretical perspective applicable to Media Studies?
Where do we start? How about some definitions? George Ritzer (1996) suggested that postmodernism usually refers to a cultural movement – postmodernist cultural products such as architecture, art, music, films, TV, adverts etc.
Ritzer also suggested that postmodern culture is signified by the following:
• The breakdown of the distinction between high culture and mass culture. Think: drama about Dame Margot Fonteyn, a famous prima ballerina, on BBC4.
• The breakdown of barriers between genres and styles. Think: Shaun of the Dead a rom-com-zom.
• Mixing up of time, space and narrative. Think Pulp Fiction or The Mighty Boosh.
• Emphasis on style rather than content. Think: Girls Aloud.
• The blurring of the distinction between representation and reality. Think, Katie Price or Celebrity Big Brother.
The French theorist Baudrillard argues that contemporary society increasingly reflects the media; that the surface image becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from the reality. Think about all the times you have heard an actor on a soap-opera say, that when they are out and about, people refer to them by their character’s name. Look at The Sun’s website and search stories on Nicholas Hoult when he was in Skins: he is predominantly written about as though he is ‘Tony’, his character in Skins.
Key terms
Among all the theoretical writing on postmodernism (and you might like to look up George Ritzer, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson and Dominic Strinati), there are a few key terms that you’ll find it useful to know. These terms can form the basis of analysis when looking at a text from a postmodern perspective:
• intertextuality – one media text referring to another
• parody – mocking something in an original way
• pastiche – a stylistic mask, a form of self-conscious imitation
• homage – imitation from a respectful standpoint
• bricolage – mixing up and using different genres and styles
• simulacra – simulations or copies that are replacing ‘real’ artefacts
• hyperreality – a situation where images cease to be rooted in reality
• fragmentation – used frequently to describe most aspects of society, often in relation to identity
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 32, April 2010.
Where do we start? How about some definitions? George Ritzer (1996) suggested that postmodernism usually refers to a cultural movement – postmodernist cultural products such as architecture, art, music, films, TV, adverts etc.
Ritzer also suggested that postmodern culture is signified by the following:
• The breakdown of the distinction between high culture and mass culture. Think: drama about Dame Margot Fonteyn, a famous prima ballerina, on BBC4.
• The breakdown of barriers between genres and styles. Think: Shaun of the Dead a rom-com-zom.
• Mixing up of time, space and narrative. Think Pulp Fiction or The Mighty Boosh.
• Emphasis on style rather than content. Think: Girls Aloud.
• The blurring of the distinction between representation and reality. Think, Katie Price or Celebrity Big Brother.
The French theorist Baudrillard argues that contemporary society increasingly reflects the media; that the surface image becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from the reality. Think about all the times you have heard an actor on a soap-opera say, that when they are out and about, people refer to them by their character’s name. Look at The Sun’s website and search stories on Nicholas Hoult when he was in Skins: he is predominantly written about as though he is ‘Tony’, his character in Skins.
Key terms
Among all the theoretical writing on postmodernism (and you might like to look up George Ritzer, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson and Dominic Strinati), there are a few key terms that you’ll find it useful to know. These terms can form the basis of analysis when looking at a text from a postmodern perspective:
• intertextuality – one media text referring to another
• parody – mocking something in an original way
• pastiche – a stylistic mask, a form of self-conscious imitation
• homage – imitation from a respectful standpoint
• bricolage – mixing up and using different genres and styles
• simulacra – simulations or copies that are replacing ‘real’ artefacts
• hyperreality – a situation where images cease to be rooted in reality
• fragmentation – used frequently to describe most aspects of society, often in relation to identity
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 32, April 2010.
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