Music videos as a postmodern textChrissie Bishop

Aspects of a post-modern music video• Emphasizing pastiche• Parody• Irony• Playfulness• Fragmentation• Discontinuity • Intertexuality• Paranoia • Bricolage

Post-modern artists and videos• Lady Gaga

• Lady Gaga is the absolute epitome of post-modernity. Jean Baudrillards idea of hyper-reality stated that we cannot separate the images that we are shown from what is the reality. In relation to Lady Gaga, her name is a clear symbol of hyper-reality as it allows her to have two personalities as she is never referred to as her real name, Stefani Germanott. Furthermore, with the creation of a hyper-real version of herself, she is able to keep attention away from the reality of her everyday life.

• Intertextual referencing is another key aspect into Lady Gaga and this factor is used in almost every one of her music videos. In relation to the ‘Telephone’ video, Gaga calls Beyonce ‘Honey Bee’ which is indirectly a reference to ‘Honey Bunny’, a character in Quintin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’. The label of ‘Pussy Wagon’ on the car that they are driving is taken from ‘Kill Bill’ where the same phrase is used. These intertextual references give the audience something to relate to, but also makes the original content and boosts her image.

• Lastly, bricolage is another major influence on Lady Gaga’s persona ad it could also be argued that the way she dresses alone is a bricolage due to the fact that she is so eccentric and creates a totally unique image. Bricolage could be denoted in her video ‘Paparazzi’ where she uses the iconic signifier of a cup and saucer and continues to style herself around those items. This has since before an iconic signifier of Lady Gaga.

‘Telephone’ – Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce

“Honey bee” - in Quintin Tarantino’s

‘Pulp Fiction’

“Pussy Wagon” from ‘Kill Bill’

‘Paparazzi’ – Lady Gaga