Recognised in the media, it can be easily recognised that post-modernism has implemented upon the way within which media texts are created, distributed and interpreted within our consumer society.

Jean Baudrillard is a theorist who responded to the notion of postmodernism. He believes that the media has fuelled change in contemporary values, enforcing greater recognition and appreciation of diversity. He also iterates that all cultural forms have been observed and recognised by advertising and media institutions, while social assets have been collapsed into a commodity; simulations are created by post-modern culture ensuring maintained interest, achieved through the presentation of a false or exaggerated society.

In support of Baudrillards theory, such representations can be seen and interpreted amongst various media and consumerist products, including film and music.

Pulp Fiction, 1994 is an example, where the director has embedded particular assets to provoke a sense of reality and make the audience realise particular treatments, still relevant within our contemporary society. The feature of diverse ethnicities and culture illustrates a changing society, where differential personal values are becoming embraced and appreciated, building enrichment to a communal group. This is seen within the film, presenting this movement positively. Chronological order is disregarded in Pulp Fiction; an unconventional stance selected by the director to challenge typicality and expectations. This embraces the viewer, provoking thought based on experience, while suggesting change and striving for subjectivity in media. With this, Pulp Fiction embeds intertextuality through the reference of external entities, often extracted from the media, that viewers are expected to recognise and understand. A revolutionary stance of playfulness, the implementation of intertextuality brought irony while inducing depth, which further engages the viewer. Notions behind such production choices inspired many media texts to follow.

The above video features a shot from Pulp fiction highlighting a hyper-real state. A box is drawn out by the actress, which then appears on screen. This is unconventional and deliberately brings the viewer back to reality, breaking a conventional reality shared between film and real life.

Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, 1982 is another example documenting post-modern references. Questioning how science has affected our increasingly technological world, and in some cases, how it has failed us. It investigates opposing values to ‘revolutionary’ and glorified entities, projecting negative implications to our ‘evolving’ society. It shines a light on ways of life, with the mentality that the world is “polluted with industry”, and overcrowding. The film then subjects escapism, questioning possibilities beyond reality through an altered perception. Blade Runner question what it means to be human and live on earth, stylistically transcribed in a post-modern nature. This is particularly evident due to the blurring of boundaries between human and machinery, investigating whether emotions can be programmed, or humanity can be manufactured.

The application of post-modernism values are also commonly expressed through music, due to its eloquent potentials.

An iconic status symbol, David Bowie is recognised as a personification of postmodernism, inspiring a wave of artists and figures throughout the media. He utilises ironic playfulness surrounding typical conventions to expose abstracted perception, and reform a twisted or distorted sense of reality. He questions reformed truths, and blurs the line between reality and fiction, inducing an invented state of hyperreality. His association with the post-modern movement is due to his frequent deconstruction of values to portray a general lack of acceptance surrounding universal truths.

Breaking down Bowie’s content suppresses stronger ties to a post-modernisms nature, where he utilises lyrical messages with expressive image to create an experimental film in the form of a music video. These became incredibly symbolic, recognised for his creative boldness and strong desires to translate his thoughts and feelings; his desires to break free from a restrictive, close-minded society.

An example of such can be seen in his track titled “Lazarus“, within which he reinvents his image to portray himself in an unconventional, expressive form. This indirectly seeks reference to his lyrics “This way or no way. You know, I’ll be free” referencing breaking out of a reality, out of the world, out of its restrictions. He uses masks in many of his videos and stage presences to induce drama, shock, and distortion with his own image. This brought publicity, with expression, utilising physical resource to induce an altered image. At the time, this was unique in the scene; Bowie’s personal inspiration to musicians of the the post-modern, contemporary era.

The above image presents bold experimentation surrounding the concept of Bowies masks, produced by Mark Wardel. The feature of red pigmentation was deliberately selected with metaphorical reference to the famous Disney cartoon, Snow White, inspired by ‘the man who fell to earth (1976) featuring David Bowie. Within this, Bowie features as a character who cannot deal with the increasing pressure ascending up a lift, so his nose bleeds. The result of Wardel’s outcome created a highly symbolic, eye-catching image with strong clarity and inferable reference. It was known that within Bowie’s era, it was common for many famous musicians to use drugs to heighten their experiences and escape reality, resembled by the blood from the nostrils in these masks. Wardell explains he used the blood to symbolise “stress and pressure”, portraying the relatable struggles of making it through every day life, indirectly backed by Bowie’s desperation to obtain some form of escapism.

This was influential for many artists relevant within the music scene today.