Analysis of lady gaga telephone

My analysis of Telephone by Lady Gaga, to see whether it is postmodernist or not.

1. Analysis of Lady Gaga Telephone

2. Is Telephone by Lady Gaga an example of postmodernism? Postmodernism is shown in music videos by breaking down conventional barriers between genre and style, starting in the 1970s and it is when the divide between fiction and reality became blurry and when it could be said that the media became ‘strange’. Examples of music videos being postmodern would be when they have components of other pieces of media in them, an example of this from Telephone would be that Lady Gaga and Beyonce drive in the ‘Pussy Wagon’ which is the main and well known vehicle from Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill. To answer the question is Telephone an example of postmodernism, I would have to say yes, because of the examples that i will be showing throughout the rest of this powerpoint .

3. This part of the video is using the font and text style of Quentin Tarantino, specifically with his film, Pulp Fiction. Though later on in the music video there are other tropes from Tarantino movies, one being the presence of the ‘Pussy Wagon’ which is the main car driving in the both the music video and the majority of Kill Bill. This is an example of intertextuality as Gaga is referring to Pulp Fiction in these opening titles. The font in these opening titles could also be seen as font from a classic spaghetti western, this would also tie in with the way ‘Telephone’ has been written, with the ‘o’ of phone being made to look like either the rings of an old telephone or the chamber of a revolver. This is an example of pastiche as it is imitating work from the period when spaghetti westerns were popular.

4. In this scene Gaga is wearing chains around her body, and is also wearing sunglasses which have got lots of burning cigarettes on them, this is an example of when style is being emphasised more than the meaning of the style or the song itself, even though the song is not being sung in this scene. The cigarette sunglasses and the chains could have many different meanings and these could all be disputed among different people. The kiss between Gaga and this other woman could be seen as Gaga trying to break society's anti-gay outlook on life.

5. Thought this could be disputed as not a postmodern idea, but Gaga does not have the correct phone for the time of the release of this music video. Released in 2010, the phones that were being used at the time were the first evolution of smartphones, they had touch screens and the only phones that still used physical keyboard were Blackberrys , not whatever phone Gaga is holding. There is also the Virgin Mobile product placement.

6. At this point in the song, the song has been edited to repeat frames, it matches up with the lyrics as Gaga is singing about how she is breaking up on the phone and the song does what would normally happen if you were to break up on the phone. This is an example of postmodernism because it is showing how the reality of the video is being distorted and it partly takes you out of the immersion of the video.

7. This part of the video once again breaks the immersion of the video, because it starts to look like a photoshoot because the shots are quickly edited as if Gaga is posing for a camera after each cut, and also the same effect from the last slide is put into effect, there are times when Gaga quickly whips her head back but then it restarts from where her head was up and it whip down again.

8. Through the introduction of Beyonce into the song and music video you can see that the genre of the video is merging and changing, it was just a pop video but now it has a mix of pop and RnB.

9. Use of the famous ‘Pussy Wagon’, this is another example of intertextuality because this was a very prominent prop in the Kill Bill movies, which were directed by Quentin Tarantino.  

10. Is it Postmodern ? After analysing the music video, I would have to say that the video is postmodern as it blurs the lines between reality, genre of music.