[...] The Metamodern tone has been characterised as ironic sincerity.
It uses irony as a delivery mechanism for deep sincerity.
There’s no better example of this than Bo Burnham’s masterpiece of Metamodernism Inside [...] The opening song of the special is called Content.
This song epitomises ironic sincerity. When Inside was released, it had been 5 years since the release of Burnham’s previous special and so there was something of an elephant in the room.
How can you explain to the fans that love you why you’ve been away for 5 years? He could have opened with a heartfelt moment to apologise to the fans and explain that he’d been having some troubles with mental health. But he couldn’t do that because that would be cringe.
He could have given into the Postmodern straitjacket that limits this type of expression. He could have justified it as not needing to explain himself to his audience. He could have played it cool. But that’s not a great option either.
And so instead Burnham integrated it into the opening song. The song is hilarious, it’s catchy and it says sorry in a joking ironic way but one that overflows with sincerity. Genius.
He doesn’t say sorry please forgive me and I hope you like it. Except that he does but he wraps in a container of sweet, sweet irony that makes this earnest message wholesome rather than cringey.
And that is the very essence of the Metamodern tone. It’s acknowledging the cynicism of Postmodernism which sees in most forms of earnestness a sort of performativity. The ironic packaging acknowledges this, modestly mocking itself but in doing so it reveals an earnestness.
...What? Good comics can and do bear their hearts and souls on stage (see Mohammed Amer). Maybe I'm just a cranky old man, but if it's cringe to be genuinely heartfelt with an audience then maybe...
...What?
He could have opened with a heartfelt moment to apologise to the fans and explain that he’d been having some troubles with mental health. But he couldn’t do that because that would be cringe.
Good comics can and do bear their hearts and souls on stage (see Mohammed Amer). Maybe I'm just a cranky old man, but if it's cringe to be genuinely heartfelt with an audience then maybe that's a problem.
Good comedians do use irony to twist the knife a bit, and hopefully triggers something deeper inside that causes introspection afterwards.
I swear, it's just another layer of icing on the multitier irony/sarcasm cake in an attempt to seem deep.
Maybe thats why I find straightforward communication a breath of fresh air.
The whole "ironically wearing stuff from BP" from a bit ago also grated on me. Much like bigotry, ironic advertising is still advertising.
There has been an idea that has stuck with me for quite a long time about sincerity. It started when I read a quote from a japanese musician (probably Ryo of Supercell, given there is a song about...
There has been an idea that has stuck with me for quite a long time about sincerity. It started when I read a quote from a japanese musician (probably Ryo of Supercell, given there is a song about the topic) who said that the reason why their early work used Hatsune Miku was because they were too embarrassed to sing lyrics that were so sincere. At the time I thought it was really strange, but the more I thought about it the more it makes sense.
Sincerity is something that is incredibly important but for some reason it is also incredibly undervalued. It's especially important in the arts: it's easy to tell when you're being real and when you're not. Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is a pretty good example; it's powerful precisely because it's sincere. People are innately tuned to it.
Sincerity is innately valuable to people because it's also really difficult. To be sincere is to make one's self vulnerable, and that's always a risky thing to be.
Sorry for being misleading the quote in my top comment was out of context. Earlier in the article they talked about how ironic sincerity is already a familiar dynamics on social media. I think...
Sorry for being misleading the quote in my top comment was out of context. Earlier in the article they talked about how ironic sincerity is already a familiar dynamics on social media. I think 'cringe' was used in that quote only as a tongue-in-cheek way of referencing that.
I haven't heard of Brunham before and haven't listened to this song, so I'm wondering why someone would think they need to apologize to their fans. Did they make a promise they couldn't keep?
I haven't heard of Brunham before and haven't listened to this song, so I'm wondering why someone would think they need to apologize to their fans. Did they make a promise they couldn't keep?
In a world where people have intense parasocial relationships with people who create content online, the failure of a content creator to continually produce new content is experienced by the...
In a world where people have intense parasocial relationships with people who create content online, the failure of a content creator to continually produce new content is experienced by the content consumer as a breaching of the "relationship" between them. As such, there's an implicitly felt promise that their "friend"/(content creator) will be there for them. If someone drops off the map for years, that's felt like a friend just didn't call for years and then showed up again one day.
Not that it's good or healthy, but that's why there might be apologies even as the content creator doesn't have anything to apologize for.
Burnham's Inside is a musical comedy special about online cultures so a lot of the songs in it are framed using internet language. For example, there's a bit about excessive self criticism but in...
Burnham's Inside is a musical comedy special about online cultures so a lot of the songs in it are framed using internet language. For example, there's a bit about excessive self criticism but in the style of reaction videos, or another bit about being stuck inside and feeling depressed but in the style of a let's play.
The opening song Content is in similar vein, @MimicSquid's comment already addressed the underlying dynamics but in this specific case, it was done that way only as framing for the subject matter of the special.
The song includes lines like "[...] I made you some content - Daddy made you your favorite - Open wide - Here comes the content [...]" so I don't think there was any seriousness behind it.
In 2002, The Simpsons released a song making fun of themselves for running out of ideas. Is that metamodern?
In 2002, The Simpsons released a song making fun of themselves for running out of ideas.
They'll Never Stop The Simpsons!
Have no fears, we've got stories for years, like
Marge becomes a robot,
Maybe Moe gets a cell phone, has Bart ever owned a bear?
Not sure ;) For now if I were to follow a comparison as made in another video that touched on this: then I guess that song was still doing things the post-modern way unless the show make a story...
If post-modernism breaks the fourth wall in order to take you out of the story then metamodernism breaks the fourth wall to open the story up and invite you in because we love a good story.
then I guess that song was still doing things the post-modern way unless the show make a story out of it somehow.
From what little I can tell, people have been searching for "the next big thing" after postmodernism for a while now. Anyone knows any other proposals beside metamodernism?
From what little I can tell, people have been searching for "the next big thing" after postmodernism for a while now. Anyone knows any other proposals beside metamodernism?
we really have to stop describing art and philosiphy movements in terms of word meaning 'current'. In a couple decades, we will have meta-post-avant-modernism.
we really have to stop describing art and philosiphy movements in terms of word meaning 'current'. In a couple decades, we will have meta-post-avant-modernism.
Got curious about metamodernism and found this link via a simple Google search. Can anyone judged the quality of this site? Anyone have better materials on this subject that are still approachable...
Got curious about metamodernism and found this link via a simple Google search. Can anyone judged the quality of this site? Anyone have better materials on this subject that are still approachable by layman?
Edit (under construction):
Some links I'm collecting for my own self-learning
[this site] is a catalog of cultural products and artifacts that in some way bear an aesthetic signature that exemplifies metamodernism. We’ve culled these exemplars from film, television, music, literature, social trends, architecture, religion, politics, advertising, language and more.
This came across my radar the other day and talks about metamodernism in terms of the film industry. It was my introduction to the term metamodernism and it made sense to me
This came across my radar the other day and talks about metamodernism in terms of the film industry. It was my introduction to the term metamodernism and it made sense to me
...What?
Good comics can and do bear their hearts and souls on stage (see Mohammed Amer). Maybe I'm just a cranky old man, but if it's cringe to be genuinely heartfelt with an audience then maybe that's a problem.
Good comedians do use irony to twist the knife a bit, and hopefully triggers something deeper inside that causes introspection afterwards.
I swear, it's just another layer of icing on the multitier irony/sarcasm cake in an attempt to seem deep.
Maybe thats why I find straightforward communication a breath of fresh air.
The whole "ironically wearing stuff from BP" from a bit ago also grated on me. Much like bigotry, ironic advertising is still advertising.
There has been an idea that has stuck with me for quite a long time about sincerity. It started when I read a quote from a japanese musician (probably Ryo of Supercell, given there is a song about the topic) who said that the reason why their early work used Hatsune Miku was because they were too embarrassed to sing lyrics that were so sincere. At the time I thought it was really strange, but the more I thought about it the more it makes sense.
Sincerity is something that is incredibly important but for some reason it is also incredibly undervalued. It's especially important in the arts: it's easy to tell when you're being real and when you're not. Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is a pretty good example; it's powerful precisely because it's sincere. People are innately tuned to it.
Sincerity is innately valuable to people because it's also really difficult. To be sincere is to make one's self vulnerable, and that's always a risky thing to be.
Sorry for being misleading the quote in my top comment was out of context. Earlier in the article they talked about how ironic sincerity is already a familiar dynamics on social media. I think 'cringe' was used in that quote only as a tongue-in-cheek way of referencing that.
I haven't heard of Brunham before and haven't listened to this song, so I'm wondering why someone would think they need to apologize to their fans. Did they make a promise they couldn't keep?
In a world where people have intense parasocial relationships with people who create content online, the failure of a content creator to continually produce new content is experienced by the content consumer as a breaching of the "relationship" between them. As such, there's an implicitly felt promise that their "friend"/(content creator) will be there for them. If someone drops off the map for years, that's felt like a friend just didn't call for years and then showed up again one day.
Not that it's good or healthy, but that's why there might be apologies even as the content creator doesn't have anything to apologize for.
Yep. I know this happens sometimes and implied that we should reject it. But my question was more about the specifics of this case.
Burnham's Inside is a musical comedy special about online cultures so a lot of the songs in it are framed using internet language. For example, there's a bit about excessive self criticism but in the style of reaction videos, or another bit about being stuck inside and feeling depressed but in the style of a let's play.
The opening song Content is in similar vein, @MimicSquid's comment already addressed the underlying dynamics but in this specific case, it was done that way only as framing for the subject matter of the special.
The song includes lines like "[...] I made you some content - Daddy made you your favorite - Open wide - Here comes the content [...]" so I don't think there was any seriousness behind it.
In 2002, The Simpsons released a song making fun of themselves for running out of ideas.
Is that metamodern?
Not sure ;)
For now if I were to follow a comparison as made in another video that touched on this:
then I guess that song was still doing things the post-modern way unless the show make a story out of it somehow.
From what little I can tell, people have been searching for "the next big thing" after postmodernism for a while now. Anyone knows any other proposals beside metamodernism?
we really have to stop describing art and philosiphy movements in terms of word meaning 'current'. In a couple decades, we will have meta-post-avant-modernism.
Got curious about metamodernism and found this link via a simple Google search. Can anyone judged the quality of this site? Anyone have better materials on this subject that are still approachable by layman?
Edit (under construction):
Some links I'm collecting for my own self-learning
This came across my radar the other day and talks about metamodernism in terms of the film industry. It was my introduction to the term metamodernism and it made sense to me
Oh hey I watched that one too, it's what got me started on this quest looking for more!