Intertextuality in Media

There are several situations that I have been a part of that use Intertextual Performance.  Most of these involve somebody quoting a line from a movie or television show that everybody involved either knows or likes.  When Superbad first came out I remember hearing quotes from it all the time.  My guess for why so many people quoted this movie, is that because it was such a popular and funny movie directed at teens and young adults, that everyone who had seen it in this age group could relate to what was going on in the story line, thus quoting it in normal conversation as a way to evoke laughter.

Music also plays a big part in Intertextual Performance.  This is because when a music artist has a big following of fans, the fans seem to be able to relate to the music very well.  When the artist writes music and lyrics for his songs, normally they have something to do with him/her.  So, when fans listen to the words of their favorite artists songs, they remember and memorize them, keeping them close to themselves.  This is because the fans and musicians interact with each other through the music.  Most fans become attached to certain lyrics because they get what the artist is trying to say, or can relate to them as well.  This is why a lot of people memorize music and the lyrics, because it seems to fit in with what is going on with someone’s life at that period of time.

Music also has a huge part in Paratextual Knowledge.  It seems more common in hip hop and rap music, but a lot of the lyrics have to do with real world events that are actually happening.  Bands like Rage Against the Machine, Greenday, and System of a Down all do this a lot in their music, by writing music about their feelings on the american government.  Other hip hop and rap acts like Common, Dead Prez Club, and Mos Def talk about real world events like 9/11 or the oil spill.  These musicians know that by writing music that involves major events going on in the real world, that more people are going to know what their talking about in their music and hopefully pay more attention to the problem at hand in our current society.