Pixies - Where Is My Mind?

Pixies
The song by the Pixies, 'Where Is My Mind?' is featured on their album 'Surfer Rosa', an album which has often been listed as one of the best rock albums of all time, as well as being an inspiration for Nirvana's 'Nevermind' and no doubt many others. The album mixes styles musically, such as pop guitar style and melodic, slower material as well as heavier stuff. As with many things considered postmodern, this would be an example of why the song and the album are said to be it. The lyrics to the song, along with the rest of the album, are surrealistic. The song was apparently written after Francis was chased by a fish in the Caribbean, which inspired the writing of it, a reference to which in the song could be, 'I was swimmin' in the Caribbean, animals were hiding behind the rocks, except the little fish...' The inclusion of Spanish lyrics in the Pixies songs is also an example of postmodernism, as it not only brings in aspects from other styles musically, but from culture, too. As well as being featured on Fight Club, the song was also used in films such as Mr Nobody and various television programmes.

Fight Club
The song is used at the end of Fight Club where the narrator and Marla are watching the buildings fall after being blown up, with the music and surreal lyrics fitting perfectly in the apparent beauty and destruction we see from the point of view of the two characters as they watch. The drum beat of the song fits hand in hand with the destruction, however the surreal, almost eerie in this usage, feel of it is fitting with the bizarre beauty of it.

TV advert
One of the versions of the Thomsons Holidays adverts uses part of the instrumental alone, changing the tone of the song almost drastically, especially in comparison to its use in Fight Club, and instead using it for a calm and warm tone. (Although whilst watching the buildings fall, it is true that the narrator and Marla were calm, but in a different way.) The second version of the advert has on the lyrics basically being spoken, only from the lines 'I was swimming...', as with the content of the advert being holidays it fitted in, though it wouldn't have if they didn't edit the song to change the tone of it. Again fitting in with postmodernism, the song has therefore changed meaning through the use of it in the advert as it is so different to the original and its use in things such as Fight Club- all of which actually have very little, if not then nothing, in common.