Using Summer Camp and DJ Danger Mouse, explain how some artists can be called postmodern.

 I think there are certain aspects that make Summer Camp and DJ Danger Mouse postmodern, with various aspects different to others. Postmodernism is a rejection of modernism. Modernism is the idea that everything is created newly, everything is original and nothing is used from the past. Whereas postmodernism embraces the past and uses it regularly. Some postmodernists use the idea that things created are a remix because we are always using ideas from the past and combining them with ideas we have now, therefore nothing is ever completely new.

One was in which I believe DJ Danger Mouse to be postmodern is his excessive use of sampling to form a remix. His most famous piece of work was an album he created in 2004 called The Grey Album. He combined songs from Jay- Z's The Black Album with The Beatles White Album. Charles Jencks has described postmoderism as "fundamentally the electic mixture of any tradition with that of its immediate past: it is both the continuation of Modernism and its transcendence". I think this theory can apply to the song 99 Problems found on the album. The Beatles album was released in 1968 but Jay Z's album was released in 2003 but, many years after. This shows a clear range in between the past and present. These are combined together to essentially form an "electric mix" that is postmodern. The song could be seen as 'cool' because it uses bricolage. It combines two completely different genres, from hip- hop/ rap of the 2000's or 60's pop/ rock. These two combinations shouldn't work but strangely go together well.

Summer Camp on the other hand don’t use previous tracks to create remixes, they create new songs (with the obvious use of inspiration from the past songs). However, despite not copying/ sampling other songs they do still take something from the- that being their ‘image’. Summer Camp have built themselves this image of an 80’s looking duo, using footage from this era in their music videos as well as images of people to represent them. This could be seen as the band paying homage to the 1980’s. They have respect and passion for the era that they want to try and recreate it themselves, and I believe that they do succeed. Another aspect is how their 80’s image could be postmodern is the hyper-reality it creates. The band have given themselves an image of an 80’s band with similar styling and not showing who they really are. This gives the consumer the idea that this is what the band looks like, and if you hadn’t done any research into them, then you would believe this.

A similarity I have discovered between DJ Danger Mouse and Summer Camp is their websites. DJ Danger Mouse created an album with Sparkle Horse called Dark Night of the Soul. The album featured singers such as James Mercer of the Shins, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes and Iggy Pop. They created a website designed for the album. The website consists of interactive images that look like they have been cut and pasted. These images could represent DJ Danger Mouse's idea that everything is cut up and put together- an idea that postmodernists have that everything is a remix.

Summer Camp have used a similar idea with their website, but with video footage. The background for the pages consists of 1980’s video footage. However, the reasoning behind this could be different to DJ Danger Mouse because once again they could be paying homage to the 80’s because that footage is greater than what they could create.

It appears that to be ‘cool’ postmodernists strongly believe that you must use ideas from the past and clearly show this, but the criticism is, how long will it be that you sample too much from the past that it’s not acceptable to claim it as your own? An example of this is DJ Danger Mouse’s album with Sparkle horse. He was unable to release the album because of copyright claims made by record label EMI. Therefore him and Sparkle Horse decided to release an album case including all artwork but with a blank CD. However, this CD was able to be recorded onto, so DJ Danger Mouse 'hinted' that the album could be downloaded from the internet onto the CD so they'd have their own copy of the album. This album could be seen as a pastiche to the music industry because it has sampled or copied songs too much that it has become ridiculous and DJ Danger Mouse has shown how easy it can be done. However, some could see it as a homage because he has been inspired by the songs he has sampled so much they he wants to change them as little as possible.

The risk in remixing and sampling to appear ‘cool’ is that as and artist you might not seem postmodern and people could see you as simply copying. If it’s copied too much, it’s for certain that it won’t be your work and you’re not being postmodern.