Maroon 5 Sugar

L.O: To identify the

postmodern elements of the
music video
 Digimodern Promotions
Previously we looked at digimodern promotions. These are
promotional texts that rely on the audience to disseminate them
through sharing on the internet.
Qualities that give digimodern texts a high shareability value are
sentimentality, humour and hyperreality this hyperreality can take
the form of:
the blurring of the boundaries of the textual form (eg when its a promotion
but looks like a genuine or real text like I hate Thailand)
the blurring of the boundaries when using real peoples reactions in a
situation when they dont know its a promotion
when the audience is not sure where the dividing line is between reality
and imagination

Real peoples reactions that help trigger our desire to share: being
scared, being shocked, being surprised, crying through happiness
etc.
 Digimodern Promotions
All of these qualities that digimodern texts utilise have been copied from
viral videos.
Institutions realised that by mimicking aspects of personal videos that go
viral they could develop new marketing opportunities. Thus it is the
codes and conventions of internet culture that are being utilised.
Audiences enjoyment of humorous or sentimental moving image clips is
nothing new e.g. Youve Been Framed and questions of hyperreality were
evident there too some of those videos on Youve Been Framed seemed
like they could have been set up.
The internet has given a new lease of life to such videos digital
technology means anyone can now upload videos that have the potential
to go viral without having to go through the gatekeepers of programme-
makers.
We have focused our attention on digimodern promotions rather than viral
videos as these promotions are more of a media text in that they were
conceived and produced by institutions with the aim of reaching an
audience with a specific message.
 Digimodern internet promotions and viral videos
have a unique ability to reach a huge audience
an audience size unimaginable for media texts on
other platforms.
Thus its unsurprising that some media texts are
now utilising the codes and conventions of
internet culture in order to increase their own
shareability.
This could be seen as a form of intertextuality.
When we looked at Lily Allens video it was pomo
because it used intertextual references to the
codes and conventions of hip hop videos. Maroon
5s Sugar is pomo because it uses intertextual
references to the codes and conventions of
internet videos and digimodern promotions.
This is beneficial because it has a very zeitgeist
 Published on Jan 14th
2015
Shares: 2,596,548
Views: 1,014,804,316
It is a music video
which intertextualy
references the codes
and conventions of
internet videos in
order to trigger the
digimodern response
of sharing the text.
 Year 13 vs Ms
Wrobel
How is the video
postmodern? Look
at the notes you
have and see if you
can get more than I
did!
 Blurring of the boundaries & hyperreality. It is similar to
TOWIE were supposed to think its real but we have our doubts
Intertextuality with internet videos - Merging conventions of
internet culture and music videos intertextuality with vlogging
(eg direct address to camera) and digimodern promotions
Constructing verisimilitude: handheld camera at the start,
conspicuous zooming (shaky camerawork with obvious zooming is
always used to represent real footage), fake overlay of camera
features (eg battery life symbol and red recording button)
Arriving at the first wedding more handheld and conspicuous
zooming
Real peoples reactions (?) with some diagetic sound
(screaming, exclamations of shock)
Weddings sentimental the awwww factor of internet videos
and digimodern promotions
Creation of humour overweight black guy looking shocked
Sweet, funny, everyone having a good time increases
shareability.
 Intertextuality & Recycling Culture: It is a homage
to the film Wedding Crashers - David Dobkin, who
directed the film was specifically asked to direct the
video
Hyperreality used for promotion
Read the wiki notes.
Is some real and some fake? They sure must have
had a lot of very well positioned cameras and
extremely good lighting in those venues
What do you think?
Does it matter if its real or not?
In our hyperreal modern world, reality seems to
have lost its importance.
 Writing about this video
Point: Maroon 5s video for Sugar combines
postmodern and digimodern features
Example: It exhibits the postmodern feature of
hyperreality in that we dont know whether what we
see is real or not and it utilises intertextual features
of internet videos and digimodern promotions such
as sentimentality, humour and real peoples reactions
(weddings, constructed humour of the black guy and the
bride, groom and guests reactions)
Explanation: The video can be seen as intertextual as
it combines elements of internet culture with a music
video. Critic- Kirby
Link: This is effective because