Postmodernism and Postmodernist music

Postmodernism is broad, spanning over four decades from 1950-1990. The term can be applied to literature, art, philosophy and architecture, referring to a large collection of ideas and cultural trends rather than a specific artistic movement. Postmodernism’s origins are difficult to trace but it can be used to describe movements that arise from and reject trends in modernism. Postmodernism rejected the modernist’s utopian visions that were based on clarity and simplicity, its key principles being complexity and contradiction. It crushed establishes ideas about art and brought a sense of freedom to art often using humorous gestures and an absurd style.

The early period of postmodernism painting was pop art. Pop art is considered to be a postmodernist as it created a new, original art form, as well as combining both high art with low art. Andy Warhol was one of the first pop artists; his artwork was a combination of imagery and writing using Bricolage, which was a common characteristic in postmodern art. Similarly, postmodernist graphic design during 1970-1980 used vivid colours and wit. Magazine covers at the time such as I-D and Wet magazine during this time experimented with clashing colours and typography. Images were often handmade collages that were then photographed.

In the 1980’s postmodernism became a radical movement; everything became a statement with image being everything. This phases of post modernism included music and magazines as the post-punk subculture used cutting edge graphics in music videos. Music brought post-modernism to the public as celebrities such as Grace Jones and David Byrne used exaggeration to fashion their public identities. Grace Jones’ maternity dress created by Jean-Paul Goude and Antonio Lopez celebrated postmodernism with its angular fluorescent design. Other celebrities such as Boy George and Madonna also took ideas from postmodernism.

Now I want to look at an example of a postmodern piece of work that to me is the piece that most easily shows the thoughts of a postmodernist artist.

This piece of work is “The Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp. To a modernist, the receptacle is merely a functional, scientific instrument to dispose waste. Taking an object that is generally considered filthy and worthless, Duchamp converted it into an expensive art piece. He instilled value to an object most would consider valueless. Duchamp wanted to prove a point: by fabricating art and getting society to regard it as meaningful, we can increase its worth and value. This encapsulates the significant difference between a postmodernist and modernist society.

Postmodernist music

Postmodern music can be classed as different things such as music of the postmodern era, or music that follows aesthetic and philosophical trends of postmodernism. Postmodernism formed in reaction to the ideals and thoughts of modernism. Because of this, postmodern music is mostly defined in opposition to modernist music. One of the biggest examples of postmodern influence was in classical music in the 1960’s this came along with the advent of musical minimalism. Composers such as Terry Riley, Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti, Henryk Górecki, Bradley Joseph, John Adams, George Crumb, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, and Lou Harrison reacted to the perceived elitism. By producing music with simple textures and relatively consonant harmonies, whilst others, most notably John Cage challenged the narratives of beauty and objectivity common to Modernism. Another significant emergence of postmodern music in popular music occurred in the late 1960s with influences in psychedelic rock and one or more of the later Beatles albums.

A definitive description of postmodern music can sometimes be challenging for music scholars to pinpoint because many postmodern pieces of music borrow artistic elements from a multitude of sources. Some musicians can even have goals of redefining the criteria for initially assigning music its artistic value. One piece of postmodern music can be written in several styles from contrasting cultures. It can also have changing major and minor keys as well as unusual lyrics or sound effects. Instruments used for this music genre are quite varied, and postmodern musicians often embrace technology as a medium for their work.

Although postmodernism music generally refers to classical music, it also has shown major influences in popular music and other genres, such artists that show these influences are:

Bad Religion

Turning point

David Bowie

Black Flag

Michael Jackson

Madonna

Sex Pistols

Talking Heads

Frank Zappa

Have Heart

Defeater

Gallows

The Beatles

Jimi Hendrix

 

Next I want to talk about genres that I think were influenced by postmodernism and shows this in their music the most.

Punk

The rise of Punk reflected the crisis of the traditional white male working-class culture in the deep recessions of the late seventies and early eighties, particularly in Great Britain. It was developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. It still has a strong following today and many genres try living up to the punk attitude. It uses fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produced recordings and distributed them through informal channels.

In these pictures I am looking at the similarity between the two albums and why this was done. The clash blatantly reference Elvis with their album cover. This is a sort of homage to Elvis and Rock and Roll, but in a way that it mocks the past it references also. Elvis is shown playing a guitar and singing, but in the clash’s album cover the bassist Paul Simonon is seen destroying his guitar. The destruction of the guitar in my opinion was to signify the bands opposition to commercial music, as the guitar itself was most likely the best representation of commercial music at that time.

Melodic Hardcore

Melodic Hardcore first originated in the early 1980’s. It is a subgenre of Hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. It is defined with the fast drum patterns of typical Hardcore, shouting vocals and chiming melodic riffs. Drop D-tunings on guitars and bass is common for post-1990 melodic Hardcore to achieve a heavier sound than possible with a standard tuning. 180 to 210 beats per minute is a very common tempo for post-1990 melodic Hardcore.

The above photo shows Jeremy Bolm and his band Touché Amoré. He is the lyricist and front man for the Hardcore band Touché Amoré. This certain artist is famous for not writing any lyrics whatsoever for the bands release of “Parting The Sea, Between Brightness And Me”. Apart from the title of the album and using that line as the opener for the first track. He posted a photograph of the ledger he had purchased before he started recording to put down his notes and ideas. He believed in order to be truly authentic, honest and raw about what was going on in his life and how he felt, he had to scream from the heart and project his innermost turmoil to the audience in a way that would be believable an original, that its not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but had aspects of both a break and an extension.