Postmodernism

Postmodernism to me is defined by a confusion over time and space, or where originality is ignored to pursue glamour. Postmodernism also means that there is a deliberate absence of substance or character, only to be replaced by flashy style and theatrics. The term postmodernism has many meanings depending upon the context which it is used. For this assignment, I'll be referring to postmodernism as it relates to the contemporary entertainment industry, and more specifically music in American popular culture.

As stated, postmodernism can be defined by a confusion over space and time. This characteristic of postmodernism can be seen in the entertainment industry in films or music which may combine different time periods in one piece of work. Similarly, a piece of art that is remade by another artist during a later period may be a confusion in time. The substance of the original piece may not have the same meaning in the remake as it may have in the original.

Associating the concept of postmodernism with the band Green Day is somewhat difficult for me. Based upon the various definitions and meanings of postmodernism, I don't think that Green Day represents an example of postmodernism in American popular culture. There are a few examples which may support postmodernistic tendencies in Green Day's music. To address the confusion of time characteristic, Green Day has done a couple of song remakes. Most recently, as discussed in a previous blog posted here, Green Day did a remake of the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero". Although this song did not carry the same meaning that was represented in the original performed by John Lennon, the Green Day rendition had its own independent meanings relating to current events. This is truly the strongest connection that can be made between Green Day and the concept of postmodernism. Also, Green Day is not known for their flashy music videos.

There are many other popular culture artists who can labeled as postmodernistic. Under the pretense that postmodernism can be defined as a piece of art that substitutes character and substance for glamour and special effects, I think it can be easily argued that many of the pop culture artists in American "mainstream" music have postmodernistic tendencies. To explain, I will point to the "MTV TRL artists". These are generally artists who produce songs that are consumed by the young teenage listening audience. These are songs which do not always have strong meaning or mature lyrics and messages, but they have flashy music videos and almost always a catchy tune with lots of computer generated background musical effects. These types of songs and videos tend to provide the listening audience with a feeling of an alternate reality. This alternate reality allows the listener to separate the song from reality, and they themselves are separated from reality while consuming the music. This is also a characteristic of postmodernism.

To relate back to the confusion of time in popular culture, I'd like to review a few artists who are notorious for this. During the mid to late 1990's, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and his sidekick artist "Ma$e" were making one chart topping hit after another. A common key element to many of the songs which were becoming so popular by these two artists was that many of their songs were either using variations of music from older songs from the early 20th century, or they had simply remade a song from this time period and modified the lyrics to be modern and added special effects to make the music more current. I would label these two artists as highly postmodernistic, as they pulled lyrics and music from a different time period and remade them to be popular for the current culture. The second part that justifies this statement is that these two particular artists are very well known for their flashy music videos, huge bank accounts and flashy cars. All of this glamour that was added to the music video and live appearances allows for the absence of substance. This specifically relates back to one of the defining characteristics of postmodernism.

In conclusion, I would not categorize Green Day as postmodernistic. There are several other artists who are producing or have produced popular culture songs which are very easily identified as postmodernistic. I won't say that I think it is a bad thing, because they are producing material which is meeting the demands of the people.