Flight Of The Conchords

Post-Modernism in 'Flight The Conchords'

Episode Name: 'Prime Minister'

South Korean Karaoke
The episode features many references to music the first of which being a reference to South Korean karaoke. The song that is referenced is 'Wang Shi Zhi Neng Hui Wei' by Taiwanese artist 'Liu Jia-Chang'. The video is meant to look as much like a real karaoke video as possible with different shots and imagery constantly changing in the background along with Korean and English lyrics across the bottom.




Demon Woman
During the episode there is also a reference to the song 'Demon Woman' by 'Cliff Richard' where the same music and video style are used however the lyrics of the song are changed to fit with the story line of the episode.



Lady Smith Black Mambazo
At the very end of the episode there is a reference to 'Paul Simon' and African choir group 'Lady Smith Black Mambazo'



The Matrix
In this episode there is also a reference to the film 'The Matrix'. At the start of the episode the prime minister is speaking about the film and how he wonders if he himself is in the matrix. This is then referenced again at the end of the episode where he jumps of a building in an attempt to free himself from the matrix.

Simon and Garfunkel

One of the biggest references in the film however is to the artists 'Simon and Garfunkel'. During the episode the two main character become a Simon and Garfunkel tribute act which then forms the story line for the episode. At the end of the episode Art Garfunkel himself makes an appearance.

Define Postmodern Media With Examples

The term 'Postmodernism' is a very broad term. Postmodernism can be anything that rejects the ideas of traditional modern media such as being original or following typical media conventions. Postmodern media is though a very popular form of media which can range from a very subtle usage to a very obvious use. Postmodern Media is used in many different forms ranging from film to music.

In the film industry postmodernism has become an increasingly popular form of film. An example of one of the biggest and most famous users of the idea of postmodernism is Hollywood director 'Quentin Tarantino'. Tarantino has produced a total of 8 films with each one of them containing elements of postmodernism. One of the biggest ways in which Tarantino does this is by referencing other films and media in his own films. This is used in almost all of his films and is not as obvious as you might think. Tarantino makes references to media that is in a completely different genre so that you don't expect it. One of the most common genres that he references is 'Spaghetti Western' this is most prominent in his recent war film 'Inglorious Basterds'. The film begins with references to the film 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly' where the same intro plot is used and there is use of almost identical camera angles and shots.

Another film that uses postmodernism is 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' In this film however the postmodern references are not as subtle as they are in Tarantino's films in this film they are deliberately meant to be noticed. 'Scott Pilgrim' makes references mainly to various video games. Using conventions of a video game in a film is in itself a very postmodern idea as they are two very different types of media. The film references many retro games such as old Nintendo games this again is very postmodern as this would contrast with the majority of the film's target audience which would be teenagers and young adults, this is because the majority of the references made are to games made before the target audience was even born so they would have never had experienced these game and thus would not understand the references.

Postmodernism is also commonly used in the music industry ranging across many different genres. Rap and Hip-Hop commonly contain elements of postmodernism with artists such as 'Kanye West'. Kanye like many other artists in the Hip-Hop genre use sampling which is a form of referencing much like in the film industry. In his song 'Gold Digger' Kanye used a sample from the 1950's blues song 'I Got a Woman' by 'Ray Charles' which in itself is a sample of the 'It Must Be Jesus' by 'The Southern Tones'. This shows the possibilities that the use of postmodernism can create as though postmodernism a song that was about the power of Jesus has gradually been turned into a song about women who look for rich men. So is postmodernism a good or bad thing?

Postmodernism doesn't stop at referencing and sampling, another type of postmodernism is hyper reality. What makes this type of postmodernism so important is that it is happening in the word around us in places that you would often visit. Hyper reality is almost fooling you into believing something that probably is correct at all but you are made to think it is right. One of the main culprits for this are fast food establishments and restaurants. For example when you visit a 'McDonalds' restaurant you would look at the picture of the food and order it in the belief that what you would receive is as it on the picture, this as we know however is not true as what we receive is never as good as what is shown in the picture, so why then do we accept that? If for example you ordered an item of clothing and when you received it the item looked nothing like the picture you would send it back, which begs the question of why we accept it when it comes to food. This is all a result of hyper reality.

To conclude I have very mixed views on the idea of postmodernism as it can be used for what I feel is a good thing of re-using older media through the use of referencing however this makes me think that there would be no such thing as originality.

"Postmodern media manipulates time and space" To what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied?

Postmodernism media is a type of media that rejects the common and 'normal' concepts of media. It is limitless and has no set rule. It can range from a text that has no depth or meaning to a text that is full of depth and requires you to dig deeper into it such as with the use of referencing. But how does postmodern media manipulate time and space?

A recent media text that would be seen as postmodern is 'Quentin Tarantino's film ' Inglorious Basterds'. The film is set during World War 2 and follows the journey of a small group of Jewish Nazi hunters who plan on wiping out the Nazis and ending the war. The use of postmodernism in this film could be seen as manipulating time, this is because the film has a completely fictional story line and plot however it is set during the real world events of World War 2. This could be seen as manipulating time as the events in the film would change the course of history and alters the events of World War 2 to make it nothing like it was in real life. The film manipulates time again as the soundtrack for the film contains pop music from the 1980's which is 40 years after the film is set meaning that the music would not have been invented yet. You would then think that this would be easily spotted and look out of place in film this however is not the case as the music fits in very well and goes almost unnoticed, this then makes the audience think the music is normal for that time period and thus changing their ideas of that time period.

The Hollywood blockbuster film 'Inception' is another film that manipulates time and space, that is almost the main theme of the film. The film revolves around the idea of entering peoples minds through there dreams. As the film progresses the idea of multiple dreams is introduced where they travel to dreams within dreams. To keep track of how many dreams they have entered the song 'Je ne regrette rien' plays in the background and gets slower depending on how many dreams within dreams they have entered. As they enter these dreams time gets slower and slower until a second in the real world can become hours in the dream world. This is an example of manipulating both time and space. During the film the main character played by 'Leonardo DiCaprio' loses track of what is a dream and what is the real world. This is shown when he is meeting with his wife and we see flashbacks of her life. His wife completely loses track of what is a dream and what is a reality and ends up killing herself. At the end of the film the main character is able to go back home to his children, when he arrives he spins his spinning top toy which he uses to keep track of dreams and reality. If it is reality the spinning top will stop spinning and fall over however when he spins it at the end the movie cuts to the credits before we see if the top stops spinning which leaves the audience whether the whole film was set in reality or whether it was a dream.

Another film that could be seen as manipulating time and space is the film 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'. The main theme of the film is to combine the virtual world which is seen in video games and the real world. This is most prominent during the films fight scenes where things you would usually find in a video game are seen. This includes things such as a high score counter, coins from defeating enemies, combo counters etc. The films also uses a comic strip theme using concepts you would find in a comic book such as words appearing to describe actions and any sounds that happen. When characters are introduced in the film a stats or bio box shows up next to them giving background information on them, this is much like a character selection screen in a video game. Could all of these combined show that the film could in fact be set in a video game and not in the real world at all?