Postmodern music is both a musical style and a musical condition. As a musical style, postmodern music contains characteristics of postmodern art?that is, art after modernism. It favors eclecticism in musical form and musical genre, and often combines characteristics from different genres, or employs jump-cut sectionalization. It tends to be self-referential and ironic, and it blurs the boundaries between "Ambient Jazz" and the kitsch. Daniel Albright (2004) summarizes the traits of the postmodern style as bricolage, polystylism, and randomness.

As a musical condition, postmodern music is simply the state of music in postmodernity, music after modernity. In this sense, postmodern music does not have any one particular style or characteristic, and is not necessarily postmodern in style or technique. The music of modernity, however, was viewed primarily as a means of expression while the music of postmodernity is valued more as a spectacle, a good for mass consumption, and an indicator of the sub groups identity. For example, one significant role of music in postmodern society is to act as a badge by which people can signify their identity as a member of a this particular subculture.

Postmodernism is a term describing a wide-ranging change in thinking beginning in the early 20th century. Although a difficult term to pin down, "postmodern" generally refers to the criticism of absolute truths or identities and "grand narratives." Perhaps the best way to think about postmodernism is to look at modernism, because postmodernism is generally characterized as either emerging from, or in reaction to it. Postmodernism has had large implications in philosophy, art, critical theory, architecture, literature, history, culture and media. The adjective postmodern (in slang abbreviated to pomo) can refer to aspects of either postmodernism or postmodernity..

Julian White

?