Intertextuality

1. What makes the music video post modern?

Postmodernism is "a philosophical movement away from the viewpoint of modernism". The fact that we are placed in an alternate (almost futuristic) reality makes the video particularly post modern. Intertextuality is also featured throughout and this is a key characteristic to post-modern videos.

2. Analyse Intertextual References

This music video is bombarded with intertextual references:

28 Days Later: The theme of the music video is based on the film, '28 Days Later', the idea is that "there's been an epidemic, the world has gone crazy, as soon as the song came out, everyone got possessed and all they want to do is to shuffle, everyone is a shuffler."

Quest Crew: Quest Crew are a very modern/popular dance crew and they feature throughout the video, showing off some stunning dance moves/flips. They also coreographed all the dance aspects.

GQ CUTS: GQ Cuts is actually the hair styling business which provided styling service for the video shoot, it's not very noticable, but it's been included as an in-joke.

 Popular Culture (+synergy): iPhone's and Dr Dre's 'Beats' are very popular/cool nowadays.

Product Placement: This isn't a direct reference to intertextuality, however it's an example of advertising a product from a completely different market or 'text' (Cherry Tree Cola).

Character Intertextuality: Two well-known characters are featured regularly. Jesus is seen on many occasions to add humour, and the gold robot is the mascot of LMFAO and is featured in all their videos so this is a reference to other music videos.

3. What impact do the intertextual references have on the audience?

The intertextual references help to engage the audience, and also give them something to relate to. As soon as I saw the 'Beats' headphones I was like, 'Wow...I can't believe how global Beats are becoming' as they're now included in a music video.

They can also be a form of advertising, whether its an indirect reminder (e.g. the film, '28 Days Later') or direct advertisement (e.g. Cherry Tree Cola).