Summer
camp and 2 Many DJ’s are postmodern. Postmodernism is firstly a rejection of
modernism. What modernism suggested was that everything was new, If one artist
recorded a song with entirely new lyrics It would be brand new (Which It would)
but If another artist recorded a song using exactly the same lyrics or even
part of the lyrics that song would be seen as new. A postmodernist would
believe that the two songs are connected and that nothing is new. Kirby
Ferguson says "we've
seen many great ideas, but we look for inspirations in different medias and
later translate it into interactive experiences...We have seen so many music
videos...When we're making new project we just look for the spark that
transforms all those inspirations into something new and immersive.” Just because an artist may do a
cover of a song doesn’t mean they’re postmodern; Jonathan Kramer uses 16 points
to decided whether a band is postmodern or not and these include. Includes
quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures and
challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles. This means some artists
aren’t postmodern; these Include people like Justin Bieber and manufactured
artist such as everyone coming from X Factor.
Summer Camp is an English duo making
synth-pop music of the 80’s style. The band is made up of Elizabeth and Jeremy.
When they first put out music critics mistook them for being a Swedish group
along the style of ABBA, this is because they didn’t show any pictures of
themselves and their first music video for Round the Moon used ‘found footage’,
this is footage that has no copyright and therefore anyone can use it in their
own work. Because of hypereality when we did finally see the band (in their
music video for Better Off Without You) we were surprised to see they weren’t a
Swedish group or even what I expected them to look like a mix between crystal
castles and Sleigh Bells. They seemed to just be plain and normal. This for me did affect their music as we use
music for the visuals as well as the music. They are considered post modern if
we look and use some of the sixteen points as described by Kramer, they use
point number 11 about a band using contradiction; Summer Camp use images and
videos from the eighties to create their style but put them to a modern song to
contradict themselves. They are also been considered as ironic because as I’ve
said when they first created the band they didn’t clearly say what nationality
they were so led people to believe they were either American or Sweedish and
using these countries and their music it made them ‘cool’ but when they reveled
themselves as British their good reviews disappeared and replaced by ones
claiming they’re just playing with ‘cool’ music and this gave them the status
of being ironic. Using these points you can see why people would class them as
postmodern but it is also possible to see why people wouldn’t as you could just
class them as ‘playing at music’ and because they used found footage for one of
their music videos they aren’t committed to the industry.
Another artist who can be described as
postmodern is 2 Many DJ’s they are a DJ duo that create mashups of songs; they
have 13 albums out using the same songs on each just each album is mixed
slightly different. Their most famous is Pt 2 which you can legally download
from iTunes but some aren’t so readily available or legal to download. Because
they use mash ups none of their songs will sound the same for 3 reasons the
first being that its not their own music so they music produced cannot be
called bad only the way its mixed together, also when they do the mash up they
take completely different songs from different genres like in their song No Fun
/ Push it from Salt N Peppa and Iggy and the Stooges. Finally they can choose
any song so they’re not limited to using instruments they own meaning they
could hypothetically create any sound they want. In addition they questions
the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values because they use songs
they are not not considered ‘cool’ and then make them ‘cool’ by using modern
samples and their use of visuals as in their live shows they start by ‘’showing
the mash up happen’ and then use the album artwork of the songs and animating
them to make them more fun. Moreover one of Kramers points that link strongly
with 2 Many DJ’s is they considers technology not only as a way to preserve and
transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of
music as they mix their song electronically on a laptop and then add
electronically created sounds, even if it be a drum beat, and samples that can
be found in Garage Band on a Mac.
For the future is do see us all becoming pro-sumers
this is because it is so possible to people to create their own music as
software is so readily available and cheaper not so any kid with a mac could
create the beat used in Rihanna and Jay-Z’s hit single umbrella. A postmodernist
would consider the death of uncool as the way forward; this is nothing is
uncool and everything will have an audience and because people are always
trying to find the freshest sound some of these new genres and music taste will
turn mainstream and be in the top 40 one day.
In conclusion; an artist may cover some of Kramers
points and not be postmodern at the same time and postmodern artist do not have
to fit every one of the 16 points. And the future is unknown but whatever it is
we will be able to link it to the present and to the past.
