Jonathan Kramer Theory

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

Destinys Child - Get On The Bus could be consider postmodern. The song features rapper/producer Timbaland and is lifted from the original motion picture soundtrack of Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998). As with other Timbaland productions, the single features some unorthodox parts, including the sounds of birds (a similar technique was used in Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?")

I have considered how each Kramers ideas could be applied to this song.The fact that the genre is RnB but natural sounds of birds and monkeys can be heard in the background could mean it avoids totalizing forms.




Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?" also by Timberland used the same idea in which the sound of a baby gurggling can be heard.



Stockhausen Helicopter String Quartet. This was wrote specifically to fit with noise of helicopters. The sound of the wind is incoperated and recorded.



Alvin Lucier I Am Sitting In A Room.

Postmodern Essay

Discuss Two or More Media Texts That You Would Define a1

Is Memento A Postmodern Film?

Memento, to an extent could be described as a postmodern media text. Lennie has to create and keep re creating his identity. Lennie makes himself up everyday to the person he wants to believe he is. He maintains a system of notes, photographs, and tattoos to record information about himself and others, which is in actual fact just creating his identity.

Memento

Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan.Leonard was a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believed raped and killed his wife. Leonard has short term memory loss, which he developed as a result of the severe head trauma during the attack on his wife. To cope with his condition, he maintains a system of notes, photographs, and tattoos to record information about himself and others, including his wife's killer. He is aided in his investigation by Teddy and Natalie neither of whom he can trust.

The story is told in a non linear narrative, the story is told in two narratives, one in colour, the other in black and white. The black and white sections are told in chronological order, showing Leonard on the phone in a motel room. Leonard's investigation is shown in the color sequences that are in reverse chronological order. By reversing the order, the audience are unaware of the previous events, just like Leonard.

At the end of the film the two narratives merge into one sequence that begins as black and white and fades into color. The audience then come to realise that although Lennies wife was raped, she survived the attack and Lennie had already killed the man that raped her a year ago with the help of teddy. Lennie's wife had diabetes and he in actual fact killed her by overdosing her on insulin, due to his condition of short term memory loss. Lennie tells this sotry through a made up character (Sammie) who the audience finally realise is actually Sammie. Teddy wanted to help Lennie get his revenge on the rapist of his wife so allowed Lennie to kill him, but Lennie then forgot he had killed him and still searches for him not knowing he is already dead. Teddy allows him to still look for the rapist, so Lennie actually kills other people such as drug dealers.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp

Postmodernism & Pulp Fiction Intertextuality

Media reality is the new reality. We no longer have any sense of the difference between real things, images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them. Representations are re interpreted and played around with through pastiche and intertextual references. People will deliberately expose the text as constructed to tell the audience that the piece is not real and it never pretends to be real at any point, they don't try and hide the fact the media text is constructed. An example of this is in Quentin Tarantino's film 'Kill Bill' the mise en scene shows the audience that this is a film and not real life. There is a childs painting on the wall which is meant to be a "doodle" but indicates splattered blood. The cereal is called "kaboom" showing the audience a gun exposion may happen. The spraying blood is over exaggerated. The camera shot in which it shows a birds eye view, shows the audience it is a film set because the angle shows there is no room of the house.



Pulp Fiction (1994) directed by Quentin Tarantino tells the story of hitmen linked into different stories. The criticism for this film has been that because the film makes so many intertextual references it is so sly and knowing that it doesn't seem 'real' it feels/looks like a construction. Does this make Pulp Fiction postmodern?



Jules quoting from the Bible is reminiscent of Robert Mitchum's character quoting from the Bible in Night Of The Hunter (1955 Charles Laughton)



Mia's haircut styled after Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box (1928 G.W. Pabst)





Marilyn Monroe's skirt flying up over a subway grating in The Seven Year Itch (1955 Billy Wilder)





The weapons that Butch considers before saving Marcellus:
Hammer—The Toolbox Murders (1978)
Baseball bat—Walking Tall (1973)
Chainsaw—The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)



The moment where Butch is waiting at a crossroads in his car has his path crossed by Marcellus Wallace is a direct reference to the moment in Psycho (1960 Alfred Hitchcock) when Marion Crane sees her boss walk in front of her car after fleeing from him, having stolen $40,000.

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