A kind of philosophy and a way of seeing the world
We essentially live in a world of copying/imagining, we copy from one another but interpret things in different ways
We have new expressions of identity/being in today’s society
We continue to reference ourselves and other things
We’re a bit fragmented/removed from each other
‘Strike a cord with you’
Expressions are new iterations (versions) of previous expressions of popular culture
‘Two points are frequently made about music videos: ‘their preoccupation with visual style’ – Their status as key exemplars of ‘postmodern’ texts.’ (2001:167)
Shuker refers Fredric Jameson’s (1984) notion of the ‘meta narrative’ that ’embody the postmodern condition’ (168). For example, the fragmentary, decentered nature of music videos
We find it hard to distinguish fiction from reality
It’s fragmentary if we are referencing different things
Essentially music videos are a commercial tool to sell music videos
If someone enjoys something then they’ll watch/buy it
Postmodern culture is a deliberate, self-conscious, re-working one that prioritises the idea of the copy
If it the priority is play, then the emphasis is on the surface
Focus is superficial/shallow if the main focus is just connecting one product to another
In a post modern world surfaces/style will become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture
The emphasis of style and surface over substance, means that what something looks like becomes more important than anything else, as opposed to what something might mean, or what it could be used for
You become subservient to the media and what companies want you to buy
We are potentially more interested in the surface of an object over its inner meaning
Richard Hoggart noted the shift in modern societies, especially the impact on our ‘neighbourhood lives’
John Urry comments, this was ‘life centered upon groups of known streets’ where there was ‘relatively little separation of production and consumption‘ (2014:76)
We don’t make anything anymore and consume a lot more than we used to
We live in a society where we consume a lot
Focus on consumption and buying things
Fragmentary consumption = Fragmentary identities
fragmented consumption separating, splitting up and dividing previously homogeneous groups such as, friends, the family, the neighborhood, the local community, the town, the county, the country and importantly, is often linked to the process of fragmented identity construction
Buying one thing could lead to you buying even more (e.g a good phone can make you buy more)
Fragmentation of identity is characterised and linked to an increase of consumption and the proliferation of new forms of digital technologies
A key key characteristic of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living (precariously) in fragmented societies.
There’s a belief that everything connects in some way or another
Strinati points out that ‘the distinction between culture and society is being eroded’ (231) and suggests that our sense of reality appears to come from the culture, rather than from society which is then reproduced, represented and relayed through media
A way of understanding this comes from Baudrillard’s provocative 1991 book ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place’, It suggests that not only our experience and understanding of this war a ‘mediated reality’ . He also suggests we live in a world of hyper reality and the simulation is more real than the real thing
