Postmodernism and Pop Culture
This chapter was full of excellent material that I found quite interesting. I love the fact that Sturken and Cartwright point out that “the concept of the modern has been used over and over again by societies since as long ago as the late fifth century,” to explain that “to be modern is not to be contemporary, but to fit within the framework of modern art movements…” This provides a good definition of what modernism is, because the term is somewhat misleading, as “modern”: is a constantly shifting concept. As time passes, things change, and a new style becomes en vogue, which somewhat of a synonym to modern, yet is not what is meant by the modernist movement.
It was also fascinating to see the factors that have gone in to bringing these cultural forms to fruition. For modernism, it was industrialization, urbanization, and changes in technology that made the style relevant. Technology gave the tools, and industrialization and urbanization provided the audience. The framework responsible for creating the post-modern movement has been the diffusion of technology to the masses, allowing us all to become producers. As the chapter pointed out, we can no longer escape culture, we are all part of it every day.
With this shift in our role, a few interesting patterns emerged, like Sturken and Cartwright refer to as “the copy, pastiche, and institutional critique,” and “addressing the postmodern consumer.” Because of our shifted role and constant participation, content creators in the postmodern world adapted. The book talks about the “twentieth-century world of endless reproduction,” as producers discover things that subjects like and try to recreate them. CSI is the perfect example. There are so many different versions of that show that they ran out of major cities to name it after (see CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, and I think there are a few more with titles that reference something other than the location because they started running out of them.)
The storylines and concepts of the original, highly successful CSI have been reworked into different versions so many times, that it is no longer clear which is the original. In order to figure that out, you need to figure out which one happened to air first, but beyond that, there is really no way to tell where it all began or where it will end.
Another thing producers of content have begun to do is recognize us as viewers, addressing us directly via parody or other elements the book defines as metacommunication. This is their way of trying to wink at us and let us in on the joke saying, “we know you know, now we’re all in on it together.” Since they can no longer fool us, they figure they may as well include us, which causes us to lower our guard. Advertisers have been doing this for ages via their use of humor in ads. TV shows have begun to do it now as well. Fox’s “The O.C.” did it quite frequently by having the main characters watch “The Valley,” a teen fad soap/drama that followed the same Dawson’s Creek formula as “The O.C.” The characters would constantly make jabs at “The Valley,” as a way of making fun of their own show, showing that it didn’t take itself too seriously, so viewers shouldn’t either. Instead, it was all in the name of good fun and entertaining the viewers. Unlike modernists that tried to distance viewers from the content, postmodernists have tried to bring viewers into the fold.
This has led to the absolute profusion of pop culture into our daily lives. In International Relations the week before spring break Warren Christopher came in to guest lecture. When I was calling back home to tell my family about the experience, my little brother chimed in and said, “Hey, I know that name. He’s the reason there’s no more war.” My brother is an avid Simpsons fan, and has Tivo-ed just about every episode that has ever aired. Apparently, in one episode, the bartender, Moe, mentions Warren Christopher in that context. So my younger brother knows about a major political figure because of a Simpsons reference, which shaped the way he thinks about him. He isn’t Warren Christopher the Secretary of State, or Warren Christopher the political figure…he’s Warren Christopher, the guy Moe the bartender said is responsible for ending war.
HESS has sort of done the same thing. It can no longer be Christmas without the unveiling of a new Hess truck, and the company knows this.
That is why their little jingle includes the “time of year” line. Even more remarkable is the way Hess trucks have become engrained in our culture, copied and remade multiple times over, turned into icons…yet what they really are are marketing tools for a gas station. Most people I know are more familiar with Hess as a truck than Hess as a gas station, and I actually had no idea there were Hess stations until I was probably in the 5th grade. The toy truck became a fixture of our culture and our daily lives, at least annually around Christmas time, showing the intense interaction between art, commerce, and advertising characteristic of the postmodern world.
This chapter was full of excellent material that I found quite interesting. I love the fact that Sturken and Cartwright point out that “the concept of the modern has been used over and over again by societies since as long ago as the late fifth century,” to explain that “to be modern is not to be contemporary, but to fit within the framework of modern art movements…” This provides a good definition of what modernism is, because the term is somewhat misleading, as “modern”: is a constantly shifting concept. As time passes, things change, and a new style becomes en vogue, which somewhat of a synonym to modern, yet is not what is meant by the modernist movement.
It was also fascinating to see the factors that have gone in to bringing these cultural forms to fruition. For modernism, it was industrialization, urbanization, and changes in technology that made the style relevant. Technology gave the tools, and industrialization and urbanization provided the audience. The framework responsible for creating the post-modern movement has been the diffusion of technology to the masses, allowing us all to become producers. As the chapter pointed out, we can no longer escape culture, we are all part of it every day.
With this shift in our role, a few interesting patterns emerged, like Sturken and Cartwright refer to as “the copy, pastiche, and institutional critique,” and “addressing the postmodern consumer.” Because of our shifted role and constant participation, content creators in the postmodern world adapted. The book talks about the “twentieth-century world of endless reproduction,” as producers discover things that subjects like and try to recreate them. CSI is the perfect example. There are so many different versions of that show that they ran out of major cities to name it after (see CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, and I think there are a few more with titles that reference something other than the location because they started running out of them.)
The storylines and concepts of the original, highly successful CSI have been reworked into different versions so many times, that it is no longer clear which is the original. In order to figure that out, you need to figure out which one happened to air first, but beyond that, there is really no way to tell where it all began or where it will end.Another thing producers of content have begun to do is recognize us as viewers, addressing us directly via parody or other elements the book defines as metacommunication. This is their way of trying to wink at us and let us in on the joke saying, “we know you know, now we’re all in on it together.” Since they can no longer fool us, they figure they may as well include us, which causes us to lower our guard. Advertisers have been doing this for ages via their use of humor in ads. TV shows have begun to do it now as well. Fox’s “The O.C.” did it quite frequently by having the main characters watch “The Valley,” a teen fad soap/drama that followed the same Dawson’s Creek formula as “The O.C.” The characters would constantly make jabs at “The Valley,” as a way of making fun of their own show, showing that it didn’t take itself too seriously, so viewers shouldn’t either. Instead, it was all in the name of good fun and entertaining the viewers. Unlike modernists that tried to distance viewers from the content, postmodernists have tried to bring viewers into the fold.
This has led to the absolute profusion of pop culture into our daily lives. In International Relations the week before spring break Warren Christopher came in to guest lecture. When I was calling back home to tell my family about the experience, my little brother chimed in and said, “Hey, I know that name. He’s the reason there’s no more war.” My brother is an avid Simpsons fan, and has Tivo-ed just about every episode that has ever aired. Apparently, in one episode, the bartender, Moe, mentions Warren Christopher in that context. So my younger brother knows about a major political figure because of a Simpsons reference, which shaped the way he thinks about him. He isn’t Warren Christopher the Secretary of State, or Warren Christopher the political figure…he’s Warren Christopher, the guy Moe the bartender said is responsible for ending war.
HESS has sort of done the same thing. It can no longer be Christmas without the unveiling of a new Hess truck, and the company knows this.
That is why their little jingle includes the “time of year” line. Even more remarkable is the way Hess trucks have become engrained in our culture, copied and remade multiple times over, turned into icons…yet what they really are are marketing tools for a gas station. Most people I know are more familiar with Hess as a truck than Hess as a gas station, and I actually had no idea there were Hess stations until I was probably in the 5th grade. The toy truck became a fixture of our culture and our daily lives, at least annually around Christmas time, showing the intense interaction between art, commerce, and advertising characteristic of the postmodern world. 
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