I thought of a few examples in music that I thought I'd share. Some of these may be way off, but then again, as Jameson points out, 'the concept of modernism is not widely accepted or even understood today'. The first example I thought of was the Clash, who Jameson mentions, but I remembered a story I read some time ago that brought in Bhabha's more globalized vision of the postmodern. There is an Algerian rock artist by the name of Rachid Taha, who tells a story of how he went to see the Clash at the Mogador in Paris as a teenager and handed them his demo. Before the gig at the Mogador, Rachid met the band, spoke to them for a few minutes and handed over a tape of Carte de Séjour songs. “I felt that they were interested,” remembers Rachid, “but when they didn’t get in touch afterwards I just thought that’s life.” “Having said that, when I heard ‘Rock the Casbah’ later that year, I thought that maybe something really had happened after all,” he adds with a wry mischievous smile." I thought this was an interesting take on how influence can be carried out in reverse, especially across borders (and only increasingly such with the advent of globalization).
Also, many of you may have seen the VMAs this weeekend, and I thought Lady Gaga's performance could be considered in the realm of the postmodern. There were definitely nostalgic elements in her performance with allusions to John Lennon, Princess Diana, and was very theatrical, reminiscient of 40s murder mystery and horror movies. As an artist, she very much blends high and low culture, as she performs pop music but infuses what she considers fine art. I would say she employs pastiche as opposed to parody, as the motive is not to mock but rather draws on a nostalgia for a different time.
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