Dan Black: 3

To what extent does the combination of video and song in Symphonies conform to Charles Jencks' view that 'Post-Modernism is fundamentally the eclectic mixture of any tradition with that of its immediate past...' ? (All AO's)


I think that Dan Black's video reflects Jencks' view very well. It is a music video but not a simple music video that has been 'originally' created, in other words it does not have any typical conventions of a music video other than music is playing and there's a motion picture to it. The video is made up of many film openings or specific clips from films to form an intertextual music video. Most of the films are not recently made, more around the 1960's - 80's. This is combined with the backing track from Rihanna's recent song Umbrella (2007) which contrasts the immediate past with older past. 


All of the elements of the video include addition, substitution, deletion, and transposition. For example sequels of films are made, they are similar to the original film (often they have the same storyline but in a different location e.g. Home Alone) but some details are changed. Home Alone is not a postmodern film, as postmodern films have to have a meaning of why they are made.