Using summer camp and a band of your choice, explain how some artists can be called post-modern

As well as using Summer Camp to explain how some artists can be called post-modern, I will use Gorillaz as the band of my choice to help explain how. The two bands are both considered to be postmodern and are stand out obvious choices of example simply because of the image they portray to the audience. They both create a hyper-reality world as the image to suit their music. Summer Camp present this by putting the audience into a world of the 1980s, so although Summer Camp are a modern band that create modern music they instantly put us as the audience into this created world. The band do this from their website, as when you enter the site, it is not set up to follow traditional conventions of what we would expect a website to look like. This immediately makes us interested as it stands out as different. The website also shows the audience a montage and collection of photographs from the 1980s era. We immediately know we what decade we are being placed in as the people in the photographs are stereotypical of that era with the clothing and the big hair cuts. We are also shown a clock that is placed in the corner of the web page, it constantly tells us a date that says we are in the 1980s, so we are immediately put into this created hyper-real world.

The Gorillaz do something similar with their image that works to the same effect. We are never sure of the actual appearance of the band as when we see them perform in music videos and in band images, we are shown animations of created animals and creatures and told that is the band. The idea of a completely animated band has never been done before but is interesting in this case as it means the audience never knows what the band actually look like. Even when the band play live, they would play behind the scenes and project the animated characters that we have become used to on a screen backdrop. The idea of hiding the image of the band could have been done to allow the audience to make their own mind on what they feel the band look like, and also to move you into a hyper-reality world. Damon Albarn is the front man of Gorillaz and we know him from his previous successful band ‘Blur’. Fans of ‘Blur’ would not necessarily like Gorillaz as Albarn has completely re-invented himself musically and is producing a much different style and genre to what we are used to and would expect to hear from him. The Gorillaz take the theory of bricolage and use it to effect showing classical acoustic guitars and giving them the animated characters to play, this gives the classical acoustic guitars a cool new twist as we would not normally associate them with the style of music we are hearing over the video. Also the animations we are shown to represent each band member are not what we expect from the appearance to the genre of music we are shown, as they are all different shapes and sizes and first seem creepy and look like they should not be put with this bands music.

The idea of postmodernism is music is not a new theory, as we can always track different bands from different genres of music taking parts of music that already exist which have been produced by a previous successful band. The two categories that taking music is split into are called ‘Homage’ and ‘Pastiche’. When an artist pays Homage to another artists work they are taking parts of the music to pay respect to them. The most extreme example of this would be a tribute act, such as ‘The Bootleg Beatles’ copying the same music and style of the ‘The Beatles’ to pay respect to the band. When a band creates a pastiche as their music they are copying/imitating another artists work. An example of this would be

Summer Camp are a male and female duo from England. They create alternate/indie music and what makes them interesting is the way they the present themselves. In their music videos and band photos we never actually see the image of the band, as the hide behind footages of films from the 1980s. They have used found footage by taking certain scenes from films and putting their created music behind it, this makes it look like they have filmed the footage themselves as the videos they created matches and suits the music. We are surprised when we do see what the band actually look like as they are nothing what we would have thought after hearing the music and building up an image in our minds. This could be because we are shown scenes from a film a film and the people that are being shown to the audience are what we would expect the band to look something similar to. This is because we are always shown these people from the film and we would expect the band to have a similar style. The band also show people that have nothing to do with the music but are only shown because they were part of the film that was used, this is to carry on the theme of using similar looking people to keep within the era of the 1980s. The hair styles and the clothing is instantly recognisable and it made sense to use the same actors from the film on the album covers and band shots to keep a level of continuity to make the created world seem more realistic.

Gorillaz are a four piece band that consist of Damon Albarn who was previously the front man of the successful 90s band ‘Blur’, and artist Jamie Hewlett who created the animations that would act as the faces of the band. By having animations and cartoons as the image of the band, the audience do not challenge this as we accept it as the normal with this band. We would be interested to find out what the band we enjoy listening to look like but we have to make our perceptive of the bands image and style. This is what the band and directors wanted as it creates a different interest to the band apart from the music. What strikes immediately as being postmodern is the fact that it is difficult to pin Gorillaz down to a specific genre. We see example of their work with songs such as ‘Feel good inc’ and ‘Clint Eastwood’ portraying a number of different genres in each song which include, alternative rock, dub, hip-hop, electronic and pop. This is interesting for a band to do because usually a the genre of music the band plays defines what style the band will be by the way they dress and act, but because Gorillaz don’t have a specific genre it will be hard to pcture them having a certain style that we would usually associate with a different genre. This idea of the animations not being what we would expect to see as the visuals of the band because of the music we hear over top backs up ‘Kramers’ theory of ‘embracing contradictions’. This is what makes the band interesting.

Music presentation notes

David Bowie- He invents the idea of being someone else when he performs. He creates a new personified character each for each album and uses postmoderninsm to completly change his style. His songs are mix of different genres and each album not only shows a different character but also a new genre of music that the audience is not expecting. Bowie took lyrics from different songs and put them together in no particular order to create new material. His period of music creation from the years 1970-1980 are seen as the breakthrough of postmodern ideas in music.

Devo- These were an American band that based their music genre on 80s synth pop. They had a main aim to have fun and didnt take themselves seriously at all, they were a pastiche of old american west style music and wrote songs that would mock the media. They were renound for their outrageous dress style when performing and could be seen wearing bin liners and plant pots to create both interset and humour.

Tenacious D- This is a created duo that includes actor Jack Black. They record parody songs that are humurous with the lyrics but do have a musicalstructure which makes them interesting to listen to. They are also an example of a group that creates songs of humour to build a fanbase and over recent years they have performed at famous English festivals such as Reading and Leeds.

Lady Gaga- This artist is seen as the best example as everything she does and creates can be linked in a postmodern way. She uses intertextuality throughout most of her videos and can be linked to 50s films and previous music artists. There is evidence of her tryig to emulate Madonna in both her videos and music. Her dress sense changes all the time and she is constantly changing her style, her audience would not feellike they are watching her if she didn't do something outrageous and diferent.

Kanye West- He is known for changes his style by changing his appearence, although his music style and genre stays the same. He is also very outspoken and because he is such a respected artist in the music world, his opinions are heard.

Blue Man Group- These are an American comedy act that put on a variety show to their audience. They are seen as a strange group asthey are all completly blue, they even do this off stage. They create an audience from their humerous but yeat interesting acts which you would not seen anywhere else. They are also known for mixing different genrs when they do perform music.

Queen- The band do not follow typical conventions of a song that we are used to hearing as a lot of their work has no structure and songs sound like they could have put three songs into one. They have done this to good effect as some songs they have produced are seen as some of the best written ever. The way Freddie Murcury portrayed himself as a woman in the video 'I want to break free' is postmodern as he showing himself a housewife woman, he is almost living up to sterotypes. The video also uses intertextuality by showing scenes that we would expect to find in the well know television programme 'Corronation Street'.

Eminem- He uses intertextuality by taking scenes from well known films and ercreating them in his music videos. He creates an alter-ego for each album he produces, such as 'Slim Shady'. He plays and acts as a different character and gives them a personality and purpose. He also pays homage to other artists by taking parts of their music to make his own.

Hurts- They are postmodern as they pay homage to an era of music that we no longer hear in todays market, this is the 80s. This era has been brough back in todays music often. The bands work is shown to be contradicting itself as each song has more that one meaning that are completly different.

Mumford and Sons- They are an English folk band that pay homage to a genre of music that is also rarely played today, this is classical folf music. They have made classical guitars and banjos look cool and interesting whereas before this band we wouldn't. They take quotes from Shakespears plays such as 'Sigh no More' from 'Much ado about nothing'. They are a unigue band to the music society today.

2 Many DJs- They are a duo that produce rock/alternate music. The remix other peoples music. They have built up a fanbase and now play sets that last for hours at festivals. They use technology by projecting visulas onto the backscreen so the audince get a show as well as the set.

DJ Dangermouse- He pays homage to other artists that are big and successful as he named his album 'The Grey Album'. This is paying respect to 'The Beatles' who famously named one of their albums 'The White Album'. He had to take his case to court. He sold blank CDs and told people they could download his music off the internet for free. This way he was not selling jis music as people were buying nothing.

‘Digital technology turns Media consumers into Media producers’. In your own experience how has your creativity developed using digital technology to complete your coursework products?

A media convention that technology played a big part in its production was my digipak for my created band. Using technology I was able to research existing digipaks and album covers that were of bands that’s music was a similar genre. I was able find images of album covers using Google search engine and with seconds I had inspiration from existing albim covers I could re-create. The main technology that was pivotal in the production of my Digipak was Photoshop. Using Photoshop I was able create the exact product I had planned and I could edit photos and fonts to get the exact theme I wanted. The idea of Photoshop is that creating and editing has become a lot simpler and can be done by almost anyone who owns it. This is a great example of how technology has ‘Turned Media consumers into Media producers.

Another Media product that production was heavily influenced by technology was when we created our music video. After we had got all the footage we needed shooting our video, we could upload all the shots onto the Imac which had software called ‘Imovie’. This was again a programme that was designed for allowing people to make home video footage accessible to anyone and simplified what was once a specialised subject. This links to the quote as ‘Imovie’ has made the production of videos simple and a skill that is now available to anyone.

The use of technology was vital throughout my whole coursework as all my research was found on internet sites. I found existing digipaks that belonged to bands of a similar music genre to mine, so I could take inspiration and see what it was that made that particular design so successful. I got information and images off the internet and then uploaded them onto Blogger which was the site we used to track our planning and research for the coursework. Also other internet sites such as ‘Dafont’ and ‘Google’ allowed me to get specific fonts and images for my digipak not only to make it as realistic as possible, but to get the exact design I had planned.

When filming the music video, the HD camera we used enabled us to get the exact shots to the quality we wanted. This is the best example of how digital technology allows digital consumers to be digital producers as the camera allowed us to shoot a music video ourselves.

Postmodern Music- Gorillaz

•The Gorillaz are visual project rock band, formed in 1998 by Damon Albarn previously from Blur and Jamie Hewlett. The band immediately stood out as different and caught a lot of interest as the band projected themselves as animated characters, and by doing this never revealed their identity in music videos or even when performing. This was unusual as the audience were unaware of the bands appearance they were listening to.

This band has four animated members: 2D (lead vocalist, keyboard, and melodica), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar and drum machine), Noodle (guitar, keyboard, and occasional vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion). These four animated characters would represent each member of the band, with Damon Albarn being the only permanent member that has been involved from the begging to present.

The band are difficult to pin to a particular music genre, as work they have produced has touched all music genres of alternative rock, dub, hip-hop, electronic and pop music.

 

Gorillaz create a hyper real world by having animated cartoon characters as the faces of the band, and because the animations represent a different band member and stay the same throughout videos and live performances. From this the audience recognises the same animations that they are shown until the characters and their world are seen acceptable and we as the audience are drawn in to expect this and see it as the norm with this band.

The bands videos agree with the postmodern sensibility that anything can be considered cool and ironic as we would not expect the band we are listening to to be like they are portrayed to the audience, by hiding their appearance and we accept this as what they are because that’s what we have been shown from the start.

One of the main songs the band produced was ‘Feel good inc’ and the music video had scenes that shown it was created on older material. The video features scenes that show some of it has been produced using older imagery, as we it crosses strange looking animations that have a modern and futuristic twist with classic acoustic guitars which you would not associate the two together.

During the bands early years when they first created this virtual band, even played live performances behind the animations and the cartoon characters to keep the audiences believing the bands existence to be part of a created hyper- real world. The band would perform behind the stage and would show the audience the characters they recognise to be the band from the videos they have seen.

 http://youtu.be/2Ncw2jsoi8I- Gorillaz live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9fqx4H_Cg- Fell Good Inc video

Damon Albarn who features in the band has almost taken himself out of context by completely changing the music being produced to what we were used to from Blur.  Fans of Blur could not want to listen to Gorillaz because they are a completely different genre of music to what they might of expected.

It backs up Kramer’s theory by ‘embracing contradictions’ as the animations we are shown are not the image we would immediately put with the type of music they play, but we accept it because that is what we are shown.

In the songs there are over voices of laughing which sound creepy and weird as it appears during quiet parts of the song. This again changes the genre and even the mood but does suit a music video which we would expects to see these characters in.