Essay -Week 3

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Having read John Storey’s remarks on postmodernism in Cultural Theory and Popular 
 Culture , it is easy to associate the characteristics he mentions with everyday life in 2017. In this 
 essay, I will highlight which presented arguments led me to conclude that we are still living in 
 postmodern times. 
 Although the first signs of postmodernism appeared in the 1960s, the main 
 characteristics of the movement seem only to have been strengthened since then. Storey 
 points out a quote from Susan Sontag, which says “the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ 
 culture seems less and less meaningful”. We can see proof of that, as the main winners of the 
 most prestigious music award nowadays, the Grammys, (such as Beyoncé and Adele) are artists 
 that are listened by greats amounts of people and not only an exclusive elite. 
 With the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify, we can also see a 
 diminishment of “the great divide”, a term Storey borrows from Andreas Huyssen to express 
 the “categorical distinction between high art and mass culture”. For an accessible monthly flee, 
 rich and poor alike gain access to a huge array of movies, series, documentaries and music. 
 Social media complements this phenomenon by allowing fandoms to thrive, sharing contents, 
 theories and memes (with spoiler alert tags), independent of race, age, income or nationality. 
 While analyzing Jean-François Lyotard’s discourse, Storey highlights the following 
 statement: “Postmodernism is said to signal the collapse of all metanarratives with their 
 privileged truth to tell, and to witness instead the increasing sound of a plurality of voices from 
 the margins.” Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other on-line platforms gave minorities a way to 
 express themselves and convey their cultures for the whole world. And although Donald 
 Trump’s election might be a sign that appreciation for diversity is not on an all-time high, 
 Hillary Clinton had a nearly nationwide advantage when only millennials were considered in 
 the polls. 
 Storey highlights yet two other authors. Baudrillard’s use of Disneyland to example 
 hyperrealism and Jameson’s “culture of quotation” are extremely current and ring extremely 
 close reinforcing the vision that we live in a postmodern world. The recent hit movie La La 
 Land, was made using many references of previous movies, as were Star Wars and Kill Bill and 
 many others, as pointed in the documentary “Everything is a Remix”. 
 As many of the characteristics described in Storey’s chapter about postmodernism 
 seem extremely familiar, is easy to conclude that the globalizing, sampling, ever-more-diverse 
 world that we live may easily be considered postmodern. 
 ------ 
 Diverse, commercial, integrated, globalized 
 Tentar inserir globalização 
 commercial art as real art and real art as commercial art’ 
 Storey’s text itself may be considered a remix of previous arguments by different 
 authors, and this essay may be considered a remix of Sotrey’s text. 
 Remixing and la la land 
 Globalization? 
 use citations and paraphrase him! 
 Shock – maddona – lady gaga – miley cyrus – nicki minaj 
 Sources: 
 USA election millennials map analysis: 
 https://mic.com/articles/157558/here-s-what-the-electoral-college-map-would-look-like-if-onl 
 y-millennials-voted#.PpPv3nVM8 
 La La Land references: https://vimeo.com/200550228 
 Everything’s a Remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc 
https://mic.com/articles/157558/here-s-what-the-electoral-college-map-would-look-like-if-only-millennials-voted#.PpPv3nVM8
https://mic.com/articles/157558/here-s-what-the-electoral-college-map-would-look-like-if-only-millennials-voted#.PpPv3nVM8
https://vimeo.com/200550228
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc