As a musical style, postmodern music contain characteristics of postmodern art. It favors eclecticism in form and musical genre, and often combines characteristics from different genres, or employs jump-cut sectionalization. It tends to be self-referential and ironic, and it blurs the boundaries between "high art" and kitsch.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Postmodernism as a musical style 3 Postmodern musical artists 4 References 5 External Links |
As a musical condition, postmodern music is music situated after the modern age, during the present period of late capitalism, where music has become primarily a commodity and a culture, rather than a form of idealized modernist expression. Some authors have suggested that the transition in music from modern to postmodern occurred in the late 1960s, influenced in part by psychedelic music and the late Beatles albums. (See Sullivan at 217.) In the 1970s, the postmodern trend continued with the advent of disco, punk rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, and a newly-commodified country music.
The difference between modern music and postmodern music is that modernist music was characterized by a focus on musical fundamentals and expression. In postmodern music, however, the commodity being sold by record companies and pop stars is not the fundamentals of the music, but the cultural image surrounding the music, which reverberates through film, television, and other media.
As a musical style, postmodern music is a rejection of modernism. In classical music, modernist music was dissonant, elite, academic, and "original". In contrast, postmodern music is often consonant, derivative, and ironic. Moreover, in postmodern music there is no fundamental barrier between "high-brow" and "low-brow". It borrows freely from musical forms such as rock, world music, and folk music. It is also designed to appeal to the listener more than the academic, and therefore it is more consumer-oriented. In addition, some postmodern classical composers, such as Philip Glass, produced music in collaboration with "popular" musicians, and have produced numerous popular film scores. See, e.g., Minimalism.
To the extent that postmodern popular music can be considered different from classical postmodern music, postmodern popular music is also a rejection of modernism. Exemplified by such artists as John Zorn and Beck, postmodern popular is characteristically eclectic, derivative, and ironic.
Postmodern music as musical condition
Postmodernism as a musical style
Postmodern musical artists
References
Sullivan, Henry W. "The Beatles with Lacan: Rock ‘n’ Roll as requiem for the modern age." Series: Sociocriticism: Literature, Society and History no 4. New York: Lang, 1995. xiv.External Links
Postmodernism and its Critics
What is Postmodernism?