Jonathan Kramer - Postmodernism Music Theory.

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. Is not simply a rejection of modernism or the way it pushes progress forward, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. Is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. Does not respect boundaries between distincive sounds and procedures of the past and of the present
4. Challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. Shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. Questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. Avoids totalizing forms (genred structures) (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. Considers music not as independent but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. Includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. Considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. Embraces contradictions
12. Distrusts binary oppositions (no good or bad/ right or wrong)
13. Includes fragmentations and discontinuities (no complete)
14. Encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. Presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. Locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.

Modernism vs Postmodernism

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

Postmodernism is a response to and rejection of modernism. Modernists wanted to look to the future and ignore the mistakes of the past, Postmodernists argue that it is not possible to only look to the future and not look to the past because you'd be repeating the mistakes which stops progress. Postmodernists often create texts by chance for fun rather than design them for a purpose. All the text will often go against media conventions, mixing genre, breaking down boundaries "there is no genre less text" and ignoring traditional narrative structures, like Jean Francois Lyotard's Grand Narratives. By using work from previous media texts Postmodernists are able to create something new either to respectfully pay homage to it or to mock it for comedy as a Pastiche. However a criticism of their use of intertextual references is that the audience have to know the source or understand the issue otherwise they won't understand the context of the joke. For example comedy programmes like The Simpsons and Family Guy are constantly making intertextual references to other texts. The criticism is that this makes it less accessible as a movement because it won't connect to the people who don't understand the reference. This is why some people are not convinced by postmodernism. 


Another criticism of postmodernism is that to what extent is using intertextual references copying what has already been done? A good example of this is Dan Black's Symphonies who used the theory of Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition to create his music video taking everything bar the lyrics from previous texts. He makes it very clear that he is using intertextual references which are easy to spot to make a point that nothing is original, which brings up the question to what extent is this his own work. Some people are concerned that originality will become completely lost and through postmodernism we will be reusing the same references and jokes over and over again. 


To add to this the use of hyper-reality in everyday is making things less meaningful. For example, video games take something that could be real but isn't and make it real for a computerised version of ourselves which is then exaggerated but still seems realistic. Call of Duty, for example, takes an ordinary person and turns them into a solider who has an unlimited amount of lives and can choose the battleground and difficulty level. Thepostmodern game Desert Bus points out the ridiculousness of "realistic" video games because it is actually realistic; in real time a bus journey to Las Vegas and back with the possibility of breaking down which results in having to be towed back in real time, the game can't be paused just like reality can't be paused. Although this highlights the lack of reality in other video games some people would argue that it is pointless because the whole point of hyper-reality in games is to escape reality and become someone else who can do things that an "ordinary" person can't e.g. a solider, play in a rock band, manage a football team.

Using conventions from real media texts.

Music magazine

Front cover:

• Features artist in centre - mid shot
• Masthead at top
• Rule of thirds
• Coverlines
• Important info in larger font

Contents page:

• Highlighting key articles
• Page numbers
• Clear layout
• Images of key articles
• Topics grouped together
• Adverts

Double page spread:

• Heading
• Subheading
• Pull quotes
• Photo captions
• Image + text
• Interviews Q&A
• Info on band - recent news

General:

• Colour scheme
• Consistent style across the pages
• Fonts
• Representation in photography

Music Video

• Lip sync
• Narrative
• Performance aspect
• Connection between lyrics, music and visuals
• Representation
• Concepts

Brian Eno - The Death of Uncool.

"No one is interested in one particular genre anymore, people take bits of what they like"


15 randomly shuffled songs from my iPod:


Music Playlist at MixPod.com

DJ Audacity

Example of a pro-sumer 16 year old kid from Norway making songs by remixing songs.
The info from his Facebook page:
          "From his room. DJ Audacity began producing at the age of late 15. With a passion for music since he was a child he found his calling making YouTube hit mixes that went viral with remixes of "Listen To Your Heart". His popularity has quickly risen gaining over 23 million views on YouTube in just a few months."





For this remix he took songs that had no obvious connection and made something new. He used the chorus from this country song



And mixed it with Haillie's Song by Eminem which is about his daughter.




And the lyrics of Bedrock by Lil Wayne and Gudda Gudda



This is a good example of a pro-sumer creation because he is just a teenager, mixing music at home using songs that have already been made. Using digital technology he is able to create something new then publish and advertise it on sites like YouTube and Facebook where he has received millions of views
http://www.youtube.com/user/RealDJAudacity
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialDJAudacity?sk=info

Changing News.

The way we get news has changed completely due to the internet, stories are now discovered and spread faster than ever due to the interaction of the viewer. Through sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and many more people are able to find out about recent stories and pass them instantly which in some cases makes it quicker than watching the evening news. For example the recent death of Whitney Houston was passed on instantly from the moment the news broke through the use of retweeting and reblogging information spreading the information to viewers all across the world. 

Tumblr post

Tweet retweeted 100000+ times

Also the use of the hash tag on Twitter allows most popular topic to be picked up which  who on the Trend bar at the side of everybody's Twitter dashboard. For very popular topics like celebrity news the top trending tweets are the same in every country.