postmodern media essay

1.How do postmodern media differ from other media?

Postmodern media displays several diverse features than differ it from regular types of media. Intertextuality, Intertexual references are scattered throughout films, directors take inspiration from other texts previously used for example Tarantino has taken a lot of inspiration for certain scenes in throughout his films (such as inglorious Basterds and kill bill) from spaghetti western films, we can see this from the way he sets up scenes and shots such the tension building using a ‘standoff’ type set up, another way he decides the link to the genre is the soundtrack that can also be heard in the bar scene this scene is based around typical spaghetti westerns, As well as inglorious Basterds Drive also plays as homage to the spaghetti western genre, this can be recognised because ‘the kid’ barely speaks throughout the film, and this also is tension building for the film.

Another intertexual reference in film can be seen in the flm Kill Bill (vol.1), Kill bill is an action thriller film again written and directed by Tarantino, the film plays homage to other films such as old Japanese martial arts films, the way that kill bill differs from these films is the use of hyper reality and self-reflexivity, the martial arts scenes aren’t realistic and challenge typical convention of martial arts films, it also challenges gender roles by using a dominant female in the fights scenes.

Intertexuality in music, a lot of modern artists recognise different texts and reference them throughout their albums and songs, David Bowie creates his own individual identities for his singles and albums for example, ‘The rise and fall of ziggy stardust’ tell the story of his alter ego. This is a postmodern trait because he is creating new characters and pushing boundaries between what’s real and hypereal. Merging of genres in music, David Bowie is known for mixing genres and changing his music style per album. Another way artist can be considered postmodern is how they invent their image for example Madonna takes a lot of style inspiration from Marylin Monroe

Hyper reality in film, films such as Tarantino’s inglorious Basterds which is primarily a war film when you compare films such as this with other war films like saving private Ryan you can see how the postmodern approach has been taken with the film, hyper reality is used throughout the whole film and reinvents a different way to showcase a war film which therefore makes the whole film postmodern because its crossing different boundaries regarding the genre of the film. Scenes in saving Private Ryan paint a realistic and hard picture of war compared to the light-hearted approach and vast amounts of dialogue that tarantino has used, another postmodern element is the distortion of time and space, the film is set during the war yet modern features have been incorporated.

Postmodern media is produced for literate audiences to recognise and understand, With postmodern media artists and directors push the boundaries and typical conventions of film and music regarding structures such as genre, You can recognise the difference from postmodern media and other media, in postmodern media features are placed or used for a purpose, references are taken to create new and individual media.