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Postmodernism in Popular Music
Postmodernism in Popular Music
Defining ones work is akin to defining ones self; the culmination of the
complexities of a text into a single term is near impossible, yet we attempt to
define works of art into an all encompassing genre which is expected to
succinctly characterize and catalogue the diversity which exist within these texts.
Our attempts to term or generalize music styles for example has that very effect
of making ones art generic the connotations of which can be seen by the
artist or author of the text as an insult as generic seems to be an antonym for
creativity. However the terming and categorization of texts are as important for
the artist as their audience. The process of creating music like any other art form,
although creative, is not autonomous. We are influenced by our pasts, our
histories and our predecessors in our chosen field whether we are aware of it or
not, and more importantly, whether we choose to admit it (Bourdieu, 1977). For
the popular musician there is a commercial necessity to acknowledge these
influences and term your own work accordingly in order to appeal to a specific
audience- an audience who browses through websites or CD shops sorted by
these generic labels. Alternatively you could relegate the task of terming your
work to your audience, or to musicologists, but for the artist, the
acknowledgement of influences in the creation and thereby categorizing of new
works allows for the Postmodernism of popular music and the hybridized music
genre.
Music can never belong (to me). It is always already other always
located elsewhere (than here), in the matrix of dialogically constructed
codes and historical debris responsible for specific forms. Its interiority
has been turned into a myth of origination and possession. This is a hard
argument for cultural property-owners to accept, but taking that step isparadoxically- a precondition for any possibility of superseding musical
alienationThe price of any reconciliation between subjectivity and
(musical) nature is an acknowledgement of the irreducible mediated
sociality of both; for to belong to music (to a music) must mean not
some pseudoatavistic regression but a reflexive acceptance of the selfs
dependencies.
system, those that individualize the new genre being relatively few. In other
words, creative purity does not exist. To be able to term a work as existing in the
system of Music is reliant upon a social acceptance of the definition and some
commonalities to previous works in the field, therefore the terming of a new
works genre must constrain to the realms of existing genres and their sub-sets as
it relates to them. This introduces the concept of hybrid musical genres, a trend
arisen from the necessity to acknowledge ones allusions whilst still maintaining
some semblance of complexities in ones new work.
New York band Brazilian Girls are described by their audience as belonging to
the genres of Reggae/ Electronica/ Jazz/ Bossa Nova (Myspace.com), however
they are listed under the genre category of Rock & Alternative on commercial
music websites whose purpose it is to sell to this prospective audience
(music.aol.com) and on their official website they consider themselves to be
Electronica/Experimental/Pop (www.braziliangirls.info). This is an example of
disparity in genre terminology proving that although an artist may purport to be a
certain combination of genres, an audience may not entirely agree, and a
commercial entity would rather be less specific and label anything that isnt a
clearly defined genre as Alternative. The hybrid genre could be seen as a
postmodernist structure in that its admittance of its non-originality is defined in its
willingness to refer to its influences- which could be seen as an attempt at
humility on the part of the popular musician (in comparison to a modern elitist
view of art i.e. it just is).
computer and electronics with only vocals and maybe a few hundred
instruments added. This is a very time consuming way to make music (it is
one of the reasons it takes such a long time to make a Koop album), but it
is the only way to create the surreal Koop sound
(Coup de Grace, 2010)
Koop and their music are an example of pastiche, a blatant harking back to
music styles of the past, although pastiche in this case suggests nothing new is
brought to the table. However Koop are quick to defend their work against being
termed as solely retro but rather attribute their use of modern technology in the
creation of their work as a defining factor against simply a blank parody of past
styles saying, Weve gone from creating experimental sampler-soundscapes to
discovering a way to produce classic songs via samplers. And instead of the
using the retro label placed on them by their critics, Koop suggests that they are,
more than anything Hyper modern, stating that, Music is always developing
with the technical inventions. Our music couldnt be made fifteen years ago.
(www.soulismsofficialblog.wordpress.com)
Koop like Brazilian Girls- face the same issues of defining their style by existing
genres when incorporating styles of the past as although many aspects of their
music deal with past music styles which creates their distinctively nostalgic
sound. There is however no escaping the influence of the present- be it lyrical,
melodic or technological which leaves the hybrid genre term as an obvious
means of defining their work. Jazz Pop is a term used by Koop to describe
themselves, which is an interesting way to term ones work. They are admitting
their references of Jazz and the popular, but they have also avoided appropriate
contemporary popular music genres in their description (i.e. Electro)- essentially
avoiding the issue of time and the original (being popular Jazz of the 1940s
onwards). By labelling their genre as such they are effectively creating a hyper
reality which Jean Baudrillard (1983) terms as the characteristic of
postmodernity- where the distinction between real (original) and simulation
collapses into each other with the result of reality and simulation being
For the second part of my project I was to integrate these new standards into a
contemporary electronic music setting using modern production techniques whilst
trying to maintain their original retro songwriting sensibility. My intent in the
creation of these recordings was to create nostalgia associated with popular jazz
song form in a contemporary music production style. My main reference in this
aspect would be artists like Bjork and Royksopp whose works refer to or
incorporate the feel of past genres whilst still maintaining creativity that is allowed
by Electronica and similar technological production based music genres. The end
result being like Goodwins postmodernist ideal- a work that is an
acknowledgment of pastiche as a feature of the work, but not as simplistic as a
pure parody. The most challenging aspect for my work is defining it by genre- the
predominant quantifying terminology of popular music. Postmodernism requires
an acknowledgement of the artist to their predecessors and taking cue from
Koop and naming my work Lounge or some other sub-set of Jazz would be
challenged instantly. Alternatively taking Royksopps lead and only naming the
modern influence of Electronica is in a sense a denial of historicity. For the
postmodern musician who in a sense recreates history, hybrid genre labels go
ways in encompassing both musical influences as well as the artists own
creativity in a culminating term.
After carefully studying my work and analysing my influences I only recently
settled on a term to describe my postgraduate work this year - finally settling on
Electro-Lounge as my hybrid genre. Electro refers to the means and methods
of recording and production that is entirely synthesiser/ digitally based recording,
and Lounge is referring to my songwriting practice that are heavily influenced by
popular jazz styles of the 1950s and 1960s. This label is only a term from the
authors perspective, and can and will be challenged by audiences and a
musicologist analysis. As one who is at various times belonging to all three
groups (author/ audience/ analyst), I cannot be too precious about the
terminology of my work and I understand that genre labels are temporal, however
my view of postmodernism in popular music requires giving credit where it is due
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Bibliography
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