...Postmodernism: Janelle Monáe...

After being extremely confused about this topic for a long time I decided to talk about it involving music... seeing as I love and understand music.

Modernism as I understand it is a very broad and over theorised term to describe a very old art movement. Postmodernism as I understand it is a reaction to the work of modern philosophers. Modernism was replaced by Postmodernism : which one can not even talk about in a dictionary. Basically saying that everything original has already been done, and that anything that is made now is just a copy or an influence.

"Music: An art form that has the potential to change the world"

Im going to talk about a music artist called Janelle Monae. Born December 1st 1985 in Kansas, Janelle Monae Robinson, moved to New York to study theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She later changed her plans to preforming on broadway to creating music, an art she had a true passion for.Her music has been described as Grippo: A type of music that combines styles from a wide and varying list of genres and combines them into one almost genre-less sound, music that has no borders or race whatsoever .

Her albums tell a futuristic sci-fi story of a cyber-girl named Cindi Mayweather who has been programmed not to feel any emotion. However she falls in love with a human, which is against the law, and she then goes on the run. The reason she is doing something new but is seen as postmodern is, even though she is defining herself while many other artists are letting the "era" define them, she has been influenced by many things. Listening to her music you can tell that she knows her musical history. With influences from Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and even Elvis. All the while keeping in with her own style and her own vision, telling her own story.

References -

• http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=postmodernism
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya6qYbkJb9U
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHVg0c

...Semiotics: Banned Aids Awareness...

This image that I found is a real life AIDS campaign poster that was released in France. As you can see, it shows a man having sex with a large scorpion and a woman receiving oral sex from an enormous tarantula. Sexy right?

I decided to talk about Semiotics with this poster, as I think the semiotics in this photograph are negative. The posters main point is to bring awareness to AIDS with shock value. The grotesque image of humans having sex with arachnids sticks in the mind of the viewer, but may not do the job that the advertisement was made to do. While it does its job of shocking the viewer the whole idea of using a large tarantula and scorpion is to show something that is poisonous and therefore dangerous to us and is something we want to avoid. The huge spider and scorpion register in our mind as something bad and frightening. But are people who have AIDS like this?

The poster uses little words to get is message across, only a small print at the bottom that translates to : "Without protection, you are making love to AIDS. Protect yourself", and itself could be considered propaganda as you could argue that while bringing awareness to AIDS it is also showing people who have aids in a bad light. Yeah they may have AIDS, but is having sex with them the same as having sex with a scorpion?

I personally feel that the intention of the poster is good, as it is bringing AIDS into the light in a way that people will remember, but at the same time, is saying that people who do have AIDS are poisonous, dangerous and essentially walking death. It reminds me of the old AIDS campaigns of the 80's which described it in such a way that made people believe that even being in the same room as an AIDS sufferer would be enough to pass on the disease.

References -

• http://www.wired.com/table_of_malcontents/2007/05/french_aids_cam/