To what extent could “nice guys finish last” by Greenday be considered a postmodern music video?1/2

Nice Guys finish last is a video made by punk rock band Greenday. I think the video is part postmodern and contains a few features of postmodern videos.

According to Baudrillard Post-modernism refers to the idea that culture has moved beyond Modernism when culture was being improved constantly because no one has any original ideas because nearly everything has been created already and all that’s happening now is the fusing of cultures. Baudriallard theorised that modern societies were organised around production of goods whereas postmodern societies are based around simulation.

The first very noticeable thing about the video, which makes it post-modern, is it is a pastiche of American Football. There is keen attention to detail such, as the logo of the fake team is very similar to a team called the Green-Bay Packers, there is scenes with a coach giving them a half time team talk, fans outside the stadium in elaborate costumes (which is a common feature in American Football fan culture) and one of the band members being tackled by a fan offstage and then having a replay showing how the fan tackled him as if he just tackled a player in a actual game. It is a pastiche because it isn’t mocking American Football but just uses elements that are commonly found in places such as the NFL. The latter of those is also Bricolage another feature of postmodernism because it combines elements of punk rock and American Football. Another example of this is when Billy rolls down his sleeve and looks at writing on his sleeve, like a quarterback would do looking at plays his coach has written down for him (an American football feature) but instead it has the songs he’s performing (the punk rock element)

This links back to Baudriallards theory because instead of using a video that nothing is original in postmodernism because instead of making a video that conforms to the convention of Greenday’s genre of punk-rock which tends to be rebellious and alternative. Instead they make a video, which borrows elements from a completely different thing, which means nothing in it is original hence making it post-modern.

Another element of postmodernism is Hyper-reality. According to Baudriallard A reality is first replaced by a “Simulacra” or sign when that loses its relation to reality it becomes a simulation and when that simulation of actual reality has replaced the actual reality then it becomes a hyper reality. A lot of celebrities get caught in this “hyper reality” and the people who consume their entertainment think they can relate and are more obsessed with their celebs realities than they are with their actual real lives.