The Importance of being idle postmodernism

Postmodernism

 

The music video for Oasis’ The Importance of Being Idle pays homage and parodies a lot of media texts. One of these texts is Billy Liar. Billy Liar is a play and later a film about an undertaker and the Oasis video matches this as the main character is an undertaker. A couple of the shots at the beginning of the Oasis video are carbon copies of shots from Billy Liar. The shot of the main character lying on a bed is almost identical.

 Kitchen sink drama

The Importance of Being Idle also pays homage to British kitchen sink dramas of the 50s and 60s. Both the video and the dramas are set in towns in the north of England. The Oasis video has a black and white filter to give it a similar feel and look to kitchen sink dramas and Billy Liar.

Oasis

The third thing that Oasis drew inspiration from is the promo for The Kink’s Dead End Street. The two videos are very similar and both feature a funeral theme. This can be seen as Oasis paying tribute to some of their musical heroes it can also be seen as a pastiche as the Oasis video is choreographed with a humorous dance routine and has some dark humour.