What to Look For

Looking for PostModernism in Popular Culture can be a daunting task, especially with the many facets of pop culture and a widely misunderstood meaning of PoMo.

First we have to define what we are looking for. What are the characteristics of pomo in popcul?
I did a Google search on it, and this is what I found:

Suspicion of Metanarratives-

Wiki def, again:

The meaning of metanarrative:

A metanarrative can include any grand, all-encompassing story, classic text, or archetypal account of the historical record. They can also provide a framework upon which an individual's own experiences and thoughts may be ordered. These grand, all-encompassing stories are typically characterised by some form of 'transcendent and universal truth' in addition to an evolutionary tale of human existence (a story with a beginning, middle and an end).

A suspicion of these grand explanations of the world is a leading characteristic of PoMo. In popular culture, any scene that is set that doesn't reinforce these metanarratives, or specifically in opposition to them.

Suspicion of "Truth"- There is no truth, only our perception of the truth, which changes from person to person. Because there is no perfect objective view, all perceptions of the truth must be questioned.

Language as thought- Have you ever heard someone say something so eloquently that you felt that no other combination of words could express that thought as well. That is language defining ideas.

Anti-Dualistic- there is no good and no evil, just stuff

Lack of Reason or Rationality- pshaww... rationality was soooo modern... Reason is used to support metanarratives, lack of it destroys those, but opens up options that reason excluded (ever watched Family Guy?)

Chaos- product of lack of reason, but oh so pretty and cool.

Fragmentation and Pluralism- the result of not having dualisms, instead of two, there are many.

From the Encyclopedia of Education Technology:

"The following few words and phrases--that are not necessarily definitions--may help to give the flavor of the postmodern condition:

Perceptual montage

Eclectic

Difference over Uniformity

Multiple interpretations
Multiple responses
Multiple discourses
Multiple options

Conversations that are:
open and honest,
have many answers,
and are never finished"

Musical Traits

Ahh, that reminds me. The most important factor that I will be looking for in my examination of postmodern artifacts is the shift from the modern mode of production focused on "author's intent" to one of "reader's perception." The best example I can come up with for this is advertising. There has been a shift in advertising from the modern "Let's have an ad that showcases how very fine our product is, and the people who see it will recognize that ours is the best" to "Let's find out what 18-25 year old females are looking for in this product, and base our ads off of that."

If these are confusing, just wait, as I go into individual artifacts, I will go over the ones that apply much more in depth.