Artist Analysis

Post Modernism

"Post modernism is a shortcut to mass audiences"

Post modernism is when you take something almost archaic and make reference to it in a modern era. To put it in simpler terms, post modernism is when something becomes new by referring to the old.

In music, genres styles go in cycles 

1) Experimental - attempt to establish trends 

2) Cannon - Works within those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding 

3) Post Modern - makes fun of these trends e.g. parodies

An example of this is the 'Boy Band' genre. If the Beatles were the original boy band who made pop music and all had the same haircut and outfits fitting into their brand identity then this was experimental as it had never really been done before. After them came bands like the beach boys, take that, boy zone, etc following a similar type of trend. This is called cannon. Eventually the idea of boy bands became so generic that bands such as Busted almost parodied the concept by being slightly more out the box of what a conventional boy band was meant to be. After that there was a drought in boy bands and the cycle began again with the birth of One Direction who were the typical manufactured boy band. 

Many artists take post modernity and use it to make intertextual references to older forms of media most commonly films. This is a massive shortcut to mass audiences as it grabs the attention of older audiences who are likely to understand the intertextual reference giving them a heavy feeling of nostalgia thus making them warm to the song and video a lot quicker than if it was something they had no emotional connection to.
It also grasps the attention of younger audiences as nowadays it is fashionable to take an interest in the 'classics' this can be in the form of music, tv shows, films and fashion.

This theory was made evident when Iggy Azalea heavily referenced the 1995 teen film 'Clueless' in her music video for her 4th single, Fancy. As a result of this colourful nostalgic music video it has 816,263,268 views on youtube and was no.1 for seven weeks and in the top 10 for 17 consecutive weeks.The video pays pastiche to the film with lyrics such as "I'm so fancy" which can be said for the girls of Clueless as they love shopping and looking very stylish.

Intertextuality

3 TYPES OF INTERTEXTUALITY:


1. Homage - Imitation is the highest form of flattery
Example:  The smashing Pumpkins pay respects to George Melies silent film The Voyage to the Moon which is widely credited as the first science fiction film and beginning of special effects. In their music video for Tonight, Tonight they follow a similar narrative to the film.

2. Pastiche - Using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another
Example: Shania Twain emulates Robert Palmers music video for Addicted to Love but uses men as her background singers as oppose to using females like in the original music video, ironically to empower women and objectify men

3. Parody- Making fun of something else
Example: Eminem-Lose It
The artist uses make cultural references and makes a mockery of famous celebrities and events in his music video for Lose It.

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

Goodwins theory highlights common aspects found in music videos depending on their genre for example genre characteristics and visual style.

This is made evident in Bryson Tiller's Somethin' Tells Me official music video in the first scene video having an expensive sports car and highly sexualised female models standing around, a generic shot for a rap / RnB music video

The music video goes against common music video expectations as the narrative begins to reveal that although the females are in bikinis being sexualised, it's actually their job as models and the main artist is playing a photographer, explaining all the sexualised models, as opposed to playing himself and having multiple women obsessing over his rich and famous persona.

There is a notion of looking in this video with it constantly cutting to scenes of the artist looking and pictures and taking pictures of the models. There also seems to be a distant relationship between the lyrics and visuals with it often cutting to shots of stereotypically beautiful and sexy women as Bryson says the line "we aint gon' last baby" suggesting he is singing to these beautiful women who he may not be able to keep happy in a relationship due to his busy schedule and the females high maintenance.

The demands of the record label are evident in this video with close ups of Tiller looking attractive in a red dimly light room which has connotations of sex and romance.






Because this music video was made in 2017 and the concept of a music video has been around for decades now, this allows creatives to be a lot more experimental and not follow the conventions assigned to a specific genre when directing their music videos. The influence of the artist is also a lot more evident as opposed to before when an artists image would be heavily dominated by their record label.

Now lets look at an older video made in 2005 of the same genre as Brysons single.

50 Cent's Candy Shop music video starts of with an expensive sports car pulling up to a scene, very similarly to the first shot in Tillers Somethin' Tells Me music video. There is a close up of the artists shoes as he gets out of the car and is dressed in diamond chains, earrings and rings. This is extremely conventional shot of a rapper as they're seen as very flashy and materialistic. He is greeted by multiple women all dressed in lingerie. This is sexualising women and paints them as being obsessive of the rapper due to his money and fame. It then cuts to a scene of a stereotypically beautiful woman dancing on a bed in attempts to seduce the artist. This is a stereotypical narrative for a rap video.

There is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics and when he says "I'm the love doctor" he's being caressed by a woman in a sexy nurses outfit.

The influence of the record label is very powerful in this music video with there being many shots of the artist, who's playing himself, dancing by himself and flashing his expensive clothes and jewellery. In these shots he may also be topless, which is furthermore trying to sell the artist.

Another way in which this video follows Goodwins music video analysis is having a dance sequence which was very popular in mainstream music videos in the early 2000s. To make it even more generic the dance sequence is being performed by sexualised females in hot pants and a top revealing their cleavage