Music videos have been popular models for promoting artists and their music for years and have been a successful method of doing so. From Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (1983) to M.I.A’s ‘Born Free’ (2010) we can see the importance of music videos short film and how they impact pop culture.
Post-cinema allows the production of music videos to be experimental with the use of digital effects and CGI. Looking at the visuals from Chris Cunningham on Aphex Twin’s ‘Come to Daddy’ (1997) it’s evident that music videos encompass the art of filmmaking as the audience is enticed and fearful of its dark industrial setting, along with terrifying characters, prosthetics and striking digital imagery.
Referring to ‘Music/ Video. Histories, Aesthetics, Media’, speaking on Cubitt, ‘Cubitt’s account of the music video as the spectacle of the ‘event’ remains a useful way of understanding the allure of its image.’ (2017:32) It can be seen in the Come to Daddy video that matching the aesthetic of the audio creates a spectacle, by amplifying an element of shock factor. The original music is hectic and abrasive, in which the audio-visual experience has to match the ambience to create an all-encompassing emotion for the viewer.
This music video was culturally significant to the point of success that the original track was created to mock and parody the Prodigy’s 1997 hit ‘Fire Starter’ but instead hiked sales for Aphex Twin as the music was in circulation due to the music video hype. ‘I had to withdraw the record for a week, just so it would drop out again. I just about kept a lid on it.’ (Interview with Richard D. James, for Index Magazine 2001).
Post-cinema is an effective way to create hype around an artist and their music with a visually compelling story to compliment one element of their work, creating an audiovisual experience for viewers to appreciate.
Chloé Bloom
Digital Audiovisual Media Class Blog 
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