Postmodern artist: Metronomy

I have chosen Metronomy as the focus for my postmodern band.

Metronomy - The English Riviera: Shortlisted for Mecury Album of the Year 2011

Metronomy are a 4 man band who are hard to define, from their early work you would consider them to be more Electro Pop. However as they have become more established and more recognised I personally would now consider them to be Indie/Indie Pop. As their music varies so much, this is one of the reasons why I would consider them to be postmodern.

Metronomy have released three albums of original material, Pip Paine (2006), Nights Out (2008)and The English Riviera which was released in April last year.

Their music consists of instrumental electronic music and more recently, with the release of their second album Nights Out, vocal electronic pop music. Joe Mount also releases remixes under the name Metronomy, and has remixed many artists including Gorillaz, Roots Manuva, Franz Ferdinand, Klaxons, and Goldfrapp, etc.

Another reason why I would consider Metronmy to be postmodern is from the extremely varying influences composer and lead singer Joe Mount says he is inspired from. In an interview for free music magazine Loud and Quiet (Linked to the article) he says this; “I’m influenced by people who’ve written, recorded and produced things all on their own, like Prince,” explains Mount. “Musically, though, I’m inspired by all sorts: a lot of electronica, like Autechre and Funkstorung, and pop music and bands too, people like David Bowie and The Ramones, and these weird old folk records my parents had, like Blowzabella.”

(Note. I have linked the various artists featured in the quote above to their relevant YouTube searches to allow you to listen to some of the inspirational music Joe Mount listens to)
Below is Electronic Pop duos' Autechre Dropp, and Funkstorungs' Moon Addicted to give you an idea of the bizarre are inspiration Joe Mount looks for.

Below is a selection of Metronomys' work, with Danger Song being their earliest release in this list - where you really get the impression of Metronomys' original electro pop roots.

Jonathan Kramer: postmodern music theory

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.

Postmodernism and Music

Postmodernism and Music V2

Basterd Essay

Basterd Essay

Creativity

Task 1
Taking each of these words in turn, apply them to the pieces of coursework you have created at AS and A2;

• Originality: For our A2 project, creating a music video, we were original in a way that we didnt follow the conventional way that the majority of people seemed to go about this. We followed an unconventional style performed by Nickelback with his Rockstar video, for our Dancing In The Moonlight (Toploader) video.
• Imagination: When you watch our Dancing In The Moonlight video, you cant see much evidence of imagination. However I feel that our imagination came from the type of video we wanted to produce. For example we diverted away from the typical video everyone else seemed to want to produce.
• Inspiration: During the planning and research part of our A2 project for our music video, we sought inspiration from many different avenues about how to go about our video. After watching many videos, we drew our inspiration from Nickelback's Rockstar video (Shown below).

• Ingenuity:
• Inventiveness: Inventiveness was probably an element which predominantly came in during the AS project of creating a magazine (cover, contents & double page spread). This is because it took a creative skill to get the right pictures for your magazine using the limited resources abailable to us.
• Resourcefulness: This element was about using the resources available to us effectively. This meant planning our projects well, and how we would go about using the equipment available to us. I.e. producing a shot list for our music video.

How creative do you think you've been?
Overall, I have seen an improvement from my AS & A2 projects as to how much I have expressed my creativity. At the start of AS my thoughts were that I didn't have much of a creative skill, however looking back, I now see that as more a reluctance on my part as a fear of thinking what I produce would be 'rubbish'. The media course has taught me that the work you produce may not be as good as another person's, however if you have used your resources effectively, and have justified the way in which you have worked, then your work can be as creative as the next person.

What has prevented you from being more creative?
Looking back at my AS project, I feel that it was probably my reluctance as explained in the previous question. However especially for the A2 project, it is defiantly the financial restraints which prevents any project from being more creative.

Has a set menu of tasks made it easier to be creative or would you have preferred a free choice on what you could make? Were you pinned down too much by the task, or did it free you up to be creative withinthe boundaries of the task?
I wholeheartedly feel that having the set tasks for both AS & A2 project has made the process a whole deal easier. This is because if you had to chose from the many tasks available, then you would waste many lessons/days on deciding what option may be best suited to you. So having the set choice takes that element away, and effectively says you WILL create a music video, which also is possibly the best option suited to our school with its resources available.

Creativity

Creativity

Creativity: Album Cover

A great shared site for creative random art with some effort is on Flickr with the shared CD meme pool. This is a game where you create a CD cover for an imaginary band and upload it to Flickr; the trick is you have to create it from 'found' materials, again following a set of rules.

1. Generate a name for your band by using WikiPedia's random page selector tool, and using the first article title on whichever page pops up. No matter how weird or lame that band name sounds.
2. Generate an album title by cutting and pasting the last four words of the final quote on whichever page appears when you click on the quotationspage's random quote selector tool. No matter what those four words turn out to be.
3. Finally, visit Flickr's Most Interesting page -- a random selection of some of the interesting things discovered on Flickr within the last 7 days -- and download the third picture on that page. (Even better: Click on this link to get a Flickr photo that's licensed under Creative Commons.) Again -- no cheating! You must use the photo, no matter how you feel about it.
4. Using Photoshop (or whatever method you prefer), put all of these elements together and create your very own CD cover, then upload it to the CD memepool

My version: