Lady Gaga's music video for "Telephone" uses extensive intertextual references to the films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill to appeal to audiences familiar with those works. She references iconic elements of the films' titles, costumes, vehicles, and characters to create nostalgia. While these references broaden the video's appeal, some critics argue postmodern works that rely heavily on copying other texts lack originality and can confuse audiences without direct experience of the sources.
2. Intertextuality in music videos are usually a lot more explicit than in any other media text,
with the exception of advertisement. Many artists use intertextuality of popular media
texts as this can help boost views and popularity for the artist. This is because by making
familiar references to the audience can create a nostalgic feel, especially for older
generations.
John Stuarts describes music videos as ‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’, which
is the basics of intertextuality.
In 1968 Barthes said ‘the death of the author’ and ‘the birth of the reader’ as a ‘texts unity
lies not in its origin but in its destination’. By this he means that there are no longer such
thing as an original text as everything nowadays is postmodern and a copy of something
else. It is also suggesting that interpretation very much relies on the audience, they are
the ones who have to create meaning.
3. Intertextuality & Lady Gaga
Throughout Lady Gaga’s Telephone video she plays homage to two of
Tarentino’s films, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Kill Bill’. The first reference used is
right at the start of the video where orange and red text has been used
for the title which is a reference to the 50’s time period due to the font
and also a reference to Tarontino’s Pulp Fiction Poster where it includes
the same font and colours.
By using titles at the start of the video is following the same conventions
to those of a short film as you wouldn’t usually expect to find them at
the start of a music video which is also emphasised by the fact the video
is over nine minutes long compared to the usual four.
4. • Throughout the video intertextual references ae used from the main characters in both
films, when Lady Gaga refers to Beyonce as ‘Honey B’ which is the same name as the
character from Pulp Fiction.
• Another reference to Pulp Fiction Is the café scene is filmed, where the two main
characters are talking about robbing the café.
• Lady Gaga uses a direct reference to Tarontino’s Kill Bill using the exact same ‘Pussy
Wagon’ truck that was used in the film, but it also directly addresses the sexuality in the
music video and how women are idolized.
• When Lady Gaga is in the café a reference again to the character Elle Driver is used, who
in the film dresses in a white nurses costume like the costume Lady Gaga is wearing,
however instead of an eyepatch she is referencing the song by using a telephone.
5. • At the start of the video she also uses hyperreality, where her character and herself are stood next
to each other, playing around with the idea of what isn’t real is real.
• Towards the end of the costume Beyonce is wearing is very similar to that of Wonder Woman, who
was seen during that era as a model for the feminist movement, which shows she is going against
the female stereotypes in music videos, almost like she is calling herself the modern day Wonder
Woman.
6. How well does intertextuality work?
By using these intertextual references Lady Gaga is creating pleasure to the audience viewing the video
on one level, but for those who have actually seen the films and understand the references feel nostalgia
and also feel clever for knowing them.
It widens the audiences depth of knowledge as those who don’t understand the references are more
likely to go away and watch those film.
Because she has also featured Beyonce it creates synergy between the two artists which widens her
audience due to Beyonce fans wanting to watch the video.
A criticism of postmodernism is that it can become repetitive due to the fact people are taking ideas
from other texts and just mixing them with even more copies, meaning it is not unique. Jameson
criticises postmodernism as he believes that the lack of centre can be an unstable and confusing and
unstable world which he describes as a ‘culture that cannot remember its history’.
