Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media.

There are many arguments for and against post modernism, and there are many theories that support and criticise it. One of the main aspects of postmodernism that sparks debate is the use of intertextual references. A good example of how intertextual references are used by someone who is post-modern is on popular current cartoon shows such as Family Guy, who constantly make reference to classic films like Star Wars or Star Trek. Also, take the 2009 Quentin Tarintino film ‘Inglorious Basterds’ for example; this film has many references to other films, as it uses Spaghetti Western typefaces in the opening credits, which is unusual for a WWII movie. This sort of filmmaking would be supported my Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextual references. But on the other hand someone like Jameson would criticise this, as he believes postmodernism is ‘vacuous and trapped in circular references’. Another example of where Jameson’s criticism would be in effect is in ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’. This film takes a laughable take on referencing popular films from the 80’s, the film is bad for the sake of being bad, this is why the idea of post modernism can be unconvincing. The films music in particular is reminiscent of the soundtrack used in popular 1980’s films like The Terminator. Both of these films are very similar in story but differ in quality of acting and screenplay, but they both make post-modern references to irrelevant media. Another difference between them is that Hobo with a Shotgun makes its references laughably obvious, whereas Inglorious Basterds drops them subtly, this is why Inglorious Basterds is seen as a good post-modern film compared to Hobo. It also means that traditional text-reader relations are challenged as some people will understand the references but other will not.

This leads on to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright, the film did badly at the box office and its references and target audience can explain this. As its target audience was young teenagers, and its references were from old films, video games, and music. For example there is a reference to the band ‘The Doors’, which most young people today will not be familiar with.  This means the films intention to be homage was lost because of its target audience.

Hyper-reality is also a part of post-modernism that could lead people to become negative about the idea. Theorised, by Braudillard, it is the idea that it is difficult to tell reality from a simulation. Examples of this come in video games, RPG’s like assassins creed where anything the user wants to do can be done, so it is just like real life. This game also uses real places from the past, this is what makes it post-modern as you can visit Rome or Venice, and see it as you would if you were there, but it is through a screen.  However we know that this is not realistic, whereas with the post-modern video game Desert Bus, we see an incredible level of realism, the game is so realistic it cannot be paused or restarted, and takes about 8 hours to get one single point. Also, if you crash the bus, you get towed back to the start of the game, which can take hours too. People against post-modernism will see this game as being very pointless and boring, but the post-modern view on the game is that it is true hyper reality and is literally the point of hyper reality games, as it is as realistic as it can be.

Kirby Ferguson theorised that ‘everything is a remix’, this means that he believes everything is post-modern, that everything is some way related or has some substance from something else that came before it. But surely by this logic post-modernism doesn’t exist? Ferguson also expresses his concern over the future, as everything will become a blatant copy of each other, and with more and more patent acts being issued no one can create anything anymore without being sued for it. Take Bridge Port Music for example, they sued an artist for a less than 2 second ‘sample’ in the song ‘100 miles runnin’. The sample is barely recognisable and makes the future seem bad for artists especially within the R&B genre, as they so often rely on samples with generic drum beats and patterns etc.

Another reason that is linked to music for people not being convinced by the idea of post modernism is that there are many famous songs that are taken from songs from the past. For example Kanye West’s ‘Goldigga’ seems to have been spawned through some older songs. Starting at ‘It must be Jesus’ by The Southern Tones and then from ‘I gotta woman’ by Ray Charles. Both these songs contain beats and symphonies that can be heard in Gold Digga, which supports Kirby Ferguson’s theory of everything being a remix.  

In conclusion, I believe that some people may not be convinced by the idea of postmodern media because they don’t see the humour in the intersexual references, or the over realism of video games and other aspects of post modern media. This may be for numerous reasons, but maybe because they see no point in referencing something old when you can just create something entirely new, which I think is a good point but then I also believe that it is good to pay tribute to older texts and reference things that perhaps a director (like Quentin Tarintino) is a fan of by using a homage. But then Jameson would say that postmodern media is trapped in circular references, so I think it is down to the viewpoint of each individual as to whether they see a point in post modernism, or they simply do not understand or care for the idea of it.