Postmodern TV Show - The Darkness

The Darkness

What is postmodernism? And what was modernism?

Postmodernism isn’t really a single theory at all; it’s more a set of ideas used to describe the way in which culture and cultural artifacts (art, music, fashion, film, TV, literature and even architecture) have been produced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. When we talk about something like a film or painting or a piece of music being postmodern, we are usually giving it certain qualities which some thinkers see cropping up again and again in the culture of the world around us.

Modernism is the name we give to some of the defining characteristics of culture in the first half of the twentieth century. During this time there was a whole explosion of ideas about the way art, music, film and literature should be made.

 

Postmodernism is often associated with a revolt against authority and signification and a tendency towards pastiche, parody, quotation, self-referentiality and eclecticism.

Postmodernism …

… is ironic – the assumption that the audience knows one thing about a cultural product but then says another.

… is playful – it may subvert or break the rules of particular styles or genres.

… is nostalgic – a desire for retro culture.

… chops things up and rearranges them (styles, narratives, genres).

… borrows from other styles (intertextuality, eclecticism and pastiche).

… makes fun of other genres, texts and narratives (parody).

… concentrates on the small details rather than the big picture, and looks to avoid anything that provides an answer to all life’s questions, for example religion, politics and ect. (This is called the destruction of the Grand Narrative.)

1) Revolting against authority and signification. We might see them as a reaction against ‘serious’ bands like Coldplay or Radiohead, whose earnestness and political agenda mark them out as ‘legitimate’ and thus mainstream artists. The Darkness make a kind of music which harks back at least 15 or more years to artists like Kiss, Van Halen, Aerosmith and Whitesnake, who made big, dumb loud rock music and never really had any kind of agenda (political or otherwise) to push.

2) Pastiche and parody. A pastiche is a work of art which incorporates several different styles borrowed from several different eras in order to make a new product. Deliberate nostalgia about the way they project themselves. Whether or not The Darkness are parodying the heavy metal bands of the eighties and the glam-rock bands of the seventies. We might see this as an ironic statement though, as it seems to give a knowing nod to the stage shows of such rock giants as Iron Maiden – who often had giant monsters and skeletons patrol their stage shows – and Judas Priest, whose stage set was sometimes made to look like the deck of a spaceship.

3) Performance rather than product. One postmodern theorist, Ihab Hassan, has suggested that one of the things that distinguishes postmodern texts from modernist ones is their tendency to focus on the process or performance involved in making an artefact rather than the artefact itself.

 4) The simulacrum. Jean Baudrillard - postmodern culture is dominated not by original arte
facts and texts, but by copies of them. Indeed, one of his main arguments was that in today’s world these copies (or simulacra) are so good, that the original becomes obsolete and disappears. Thus, The Darkness, who appear to be a copy of many other bands without being a copy of any one band specifically, fulfil the status of simulacra.

Permission to borrow?

The Darkness & their fondness for making what we might term ‘semiotic raids’ on other texts. They plunder all sorts of bands, CDs and videos for signs and images that they adapt and make their own.      Take a moment to compare the three album covers : the first is from The Darkness Album Permission to Land and the other two are from Hard Rock albums from the 1970s – Boston’s 1976 debut album and Destroyer by Kiss from the same year.

 

We can demonstrate this idea of the ‘semiotic raid’ by looking at these three album covers. It’s clear, for example, that the cover of Permission to Land in some way echoes or references both these two covers from the seventies – the idea of the space ship (which in the Boston cover is actually an inverted guitar) and the use of dark purples and blues to signify the idea of darkness or night. In all three of the covers, the name of the band is foregrounded in the centre of the cover, and written in an extravagant font. For The Darkness and Boston, the font in which their name appears is reminiscent of the kind of writing you might see advertising a circus or show, suggesting entertainment rather than seriousness.

Get your hands off my catsuit

It isn’t just the covers of albums though, that reveals this postmodern tendency to make raids on other texts. Even the way the band look deliberately references other bands and musicians (texts in their own right?). Take Justin Hawkins, and his passion for the all-in-one tight-fitting catsuit – an item of clothing he is rarely seen without. This was also favoured by the frontmen of two bands to whom The Darkness owe much; namely Freddie Mercury of Queen, and David Lee Roth of American stadium rockers Van Halen. Even the bass player of The Darkness, Frankie Poullain makes reference to Freddie Mercury in his choice of facial hair.

They are either a combination of pastiche and parody, or a homage to them. It is probably the case that The Darkness themselves see their work as a combination of the two.

Postmodernism and Media Studies – what does it mean for you?

audiences might well choose to read something ironically, by being seen to enjoy something which is considered old fashioned, or tacky or odd. postmodernism isn’t necessarily obvious.

Afternote: at the time of writing, rumours abound of a collaboration between The Darkness and Welsh hip-hop crew Goldie Lookin’ Chain, on a cover of Aerosmith and Run DMC’s Walk This Way. Postmodernism in action!