Fiona Wong 13EJC

Postmodern music video Orange Caramel My Copycat

Orange Caramels My Copycat is a contemporary example of a postmodern music
video. Firstly, as argued by some, a postmodern piece of work challenges the
conventions and this music video demonstrates this idea as the concept of the video
is quite different to the typical music video. For example, the music video consists of
many split screen scenes as it aims to involve the audience by trying to get them to
play spot the difference whilst watching the video. This type of interaction between
the audience and the music is relatively rare and could be considered as a feature of
a postmodern music video as it breaks the conventions of typical music videos.
Moreover, an important feature of postmodernism is intertextuality and in this music
video there is an intertextual reference to the childrens book Wheres Wally? which
is reinforced throughout the video from the very start to the end. The initial reference
to the childrens book is seen at the beginning before the music even starts. The
intertextual reference is revealed through mise-en-scene as the image presented on
the screen displays the three girls wearing red and white clothing and accessories
including a hairband and round glasses which indicates to the audience that they are
imitating the character Wally. This intertextual reference is further demonstrated in
the subsequent scenes where they imitate the concept of the book which consists of
a large crowd of people wearing similar clothing and the audience are required to
find the particular character within the crowd.
Furthermore, many theorists such as Albright note bricolage as being a feature of
postmodernism. This refers to the construction of something from a diverse range of
things. An example of bricolage in My copycat is seen on the dress of one of the
girls. The use of a long shot as well as a mid-shot and close up allows the audience
to identify the different images located on the dress. From these shots, the audience
can see that a range of different images and logos are placed on the dress to create
a patterned piece of clothing. There are different logos seen such as Starbucks,
Apple and Mickey Mouse and these indicate diversity as they are represent a coffee
company, an electronics company and a cartoon character.
An additional example of bricolage is seen in the scenes which are constructed of a
large crowd of people doing a variety of different things and wearing assorted
clothing. This is displayed with an aerial shot showing all the actions of the many
people in the scene. For instance, there is a group of dancers on a stage as well a
crowd of people watching them, someone playing bowling and another playing table
tennis. The majority of them are dressed in different clothing dancing to the song,
some examples include a policeman, a nun and a patient. As well as bricolage, this
could also represent randomness since the scene is created with a collection of
primarily unrelated things. Therefore, the music video could be argued as
postmodern as it conveys the conventions of postmodern music videos.
Additionally, the playfulness of the whole music video is a key reason why the music
video could be considered to be postmodern. From the colourful setting and
costumes to the theme of the music video surrounding games which engages the
audience, it clearly illustrates the feature of playfulness. Editing is used to
demonstrate this, for example split screens are used to allow the audience to spot
Fiona Wong 13EJC
the difference between the two similar scenes. Furthermore, the range of costumes
used in the music video indicates playfulness as there are people dressed as
animals, nuns, dancers and all sorts of characters you may not expect to see in the
same scene.
To summarise the music video My Copycat by Orange Caramel could be argued to
be a postmodern music video due to the multiple examples of the conventions of
postmodernism which are clearly shown in the music video including, intertextuality,
bricolage and playfulness.