Postmodernism and intertextuality in music sampling: Collaging of sound in The Prodigy’s “Breathe”

Postmodernism can be a pretty intimidating word. It gets thrown around a fair bit in the academic world and even within popular culture but a lot of the time its definition is vague and ambiguous. In this video, I will try and remove the stigma surrounding the term by explaining it in the simplest way I can. I will do this by exploring the relationship between postmodernism and popular culture through the specific example of The Prodigy’s “Breathe”

To simplify our understanding of the term, we first need to break up the word Postmodernism. Modernism was a period in the early decades of the 20th century where art and literature were evolving to become “chaotic and fragmented” and “allusive and indirect in what it meant” - Laura Winkiel, 2017. This period can be illustrated by artists like Picasso, whose art was known for being quite abstract with symbolism and semiotics that could be quite confusing. 

Postmodernism, on the other hand, is simply the period that came after modernism. Postmodernism is regarded as the period of the 21st century, which means we are living in the postmodern era right now. 

Postmodernism is the mood of the present where ideas of art, music, literature and any other forms of creative expression are constantly being reimagined and presented in new ways. Postmodernism basically chews up art and culture, then spits it out and moulds it into something new and beautiful. Postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault explains it as the questioning of relationships between knowledge and power 

As Foucault explains, “The exercise of power perpetually creates knowledge and, conversely, knowledge constantly induces effects of power”, which reflects the idea that power and knowledge are intertwined

Jean-François Lyotard, another influential postmodernist philosopher, famously defines postmodernism “simplifying to the extreme” as “incredulity towards metanarratives”. This means a refusal to believe constructs and concepts put forward in the world. Loytard believed the main role of contemporary artists was to challenge these overarching "metanarratives" that dominate the cultural and social discourse of their time - Christopher Butler 2002.

Postmodernism blurs the lines between what is considered high culture and popular culture, and emphasises style over substance. He also discusses that this new fluidity between different forms of culture has led to difficulties in defining or categorising precisely what these certain forms refer to. In music, the use of sampling, which involves taking bits and pieces of music from various sources and combining them, has become a popular way to break down boundaries between previously separated genres of music and create new and unique sounds that defy easy categorisation. Sampling is a reflection of postmodernism's breakdown of both traditional music norms and distinctions between different forms of popular and high culture.

The song, Breathe, by the Prodigy exemplifies these concepts of postmodernism in popular music through their use of creative sampling and the appropriation of cultural references, blurring the lines between high and low culture and challenging the metanarrative of authorship and creativity. 

The song became known in the 90s for its unique sound, becoming the group's second consecutive number-one in the UK. The track blended elements of techno, rock, and punk music, pioneering the "big beat" genre within electronic dance music. 

Something that made the Prodigy stand out from a lot of other bands of their time was their ability to collage sound in a way that transcended genre. Their music often combined samples from diverse sources, including other music genres, movies, and TV shows. As a result, their extensive influence can be seen in subsequent generations of electronic and alternative artists, as well as collective attitudes within British youth culture.



The song starts off with a chopped and reinterpreted version of the James Bond theme song. The song has also been slowed and added overdrive to create a completely different sound that the average listener could not decipher from the original track.

The drumline was taken from a Thin Lizzy song Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed (1976). Sped up and completely altered to make a new-sounding beat, yet still retaining certain similar aspects. 

The sample at 11:00 imitates an increasingly loud drone. This sample comes from a track by Please titled Sing a Simple Song. This sample creates a sense of tension build up before the end of the bar.

These are just a few examples of Postmodernism within the song.



Postmodernism is a way of thinking about art and culture where the viewer's interpretation of a piece of art is crucial to its meaning. It's not just about what the artist meant when they made it, but also what the viewer thinks and feels. Glenn Ward highlights this in his book Understand Postmodernism. He says that when you call something postmodern, it's not just because it has certain qualities that make it postmodern. It's also because of the way you think about it, and how it connects to other things in the world.

The song uses parts of other songs to make something new. This is called intertextuality or sampling, and it's a postmodern idea. The Prodigy’s “collage of sound” with their use of intertextuality challenges the idea of authorship and makes it hard to know who really owns the music and who has the right to use it. However, as Tara Rogers argues, in On the process and aesthetics of sampling in electronic music production, “sampling is a creative process…capable of encompassing a complex web of historical references and contesting dominant systems of intellectual property and musical ownership.” It also means that the meaning of the song can be different for different people. When you listen to "Breathe," you might think of different things than someone else. This is because postmodernism says that meaning is not fixed and can change depending on who is looking at it.

In conclusion, understanding postmodernism and intertextuality in popular culture through music sampling can be likened to a puzzle where each piece represents a different interpretation and perspective. The Prodigy's use of samples from other songs is like taking pieces from different puzzles and using them to create a new and unique picture. In this way, postmodernism and music sampling challenge traditional ideas of authorship and ownership, as the final product is a collaborative effort made up of various pieces from different sources.