Megan HughesMusic Video Analysis – NarrativeAphex Twin – Come To Daddyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-9UvrLyj3k

Target Audience & Needs

I would say that this type of music would appeal to young adults or even teenagers that are particularly fond of horrors. To use a stereotype I would say it’s most likely something emo’s would listen too. To watch a music video like this one or to listen to music like this song I think you would have to be really into the genre and understand it. Also, I would say it is nothing that a high working class person would listen to; it appears just as noise and a racket, almost unpleasant. On terms of gender or race, I don’t think there is any direct, specific link as it’s more aimed at people who would want to listen to the music because it’s not something you just listen to on the radio. As far as age groups are concerned I wouldn’t say that anyone really under the age of 16 would watch or listen to this music video because it is scary and repulsive, especially the use of characters.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

From watching the video and listening to the lyrics, it is easy to establish that the monster (who is singing) wants the old ladies soul and he has all these little, creepy man children to help him succeed so he is the ‘daddy’ of them all. The lyrics to the music video are very creepy and unsettling to say the least. Throughout the whole 5minutes and 50seconds of the video, all we hear repetitively is ‘I want your soul’ ‘I will eat your soul’ and ‘come to daddy’ in a very aggressive manor so not only is it disturbing for some people, it is also very irritating. However, I think that’s how it is meant to be, the lyrics are meant to sink in and haunt you

Megan HughesMusic Video Analysis – NarrativeAphex Twin – Come To Daddy

and play on your mind to fit in with the overall theme/genre of the video.

Tempo The overall tempo of the song was very fast, upbeat and aggressive. My own personal opinion of the song was that it was just a group of people making a racket and being very destructive and violent. The characters (mainly the little man children) were very active, for example, they were running around very fast and making a lot of noise trying to intimidate the woman… This links in with the lyrics as they are also very intimidating and loud and both the lyrics and video can be portrayed as violent.

Genre I would categorise this music video as a drum & bass type genre mixed with the very noticeable aspects of monster horror. Heavy metal was one of the first things that sprung to mind when I heard it as I hate this genre of music, however, I think it could also be classed as electronic/techno music because of how upbeat and alive it is.

Megan HughesMusic Video Analysis – NarrativeAphex Twin – Come To Daddy

Camera Technique Due to this particular music video being so fast moving and active, it’s a bit all over the place so there are a very large vary in camera angles and shots. Extreme close up shots are used to show the monsters terrifying face – the fact it is so close makes it more effective because it’s almost unpleasant to look at so it’s enough to repulse the viewers. As well as this, tracking shots and panning shots are used often to show the movement and interrogation of all the little men children, there is use of a two shot when the monster is screaming in the old lady’s face, there is use of a wide shot at the beginning of the video to show the audience the type of setting, there are lots of close up shots to show the audience the old lady’s facial expression as she is petrified, and more. The fact there are so many shots within the video makes it hard to keep up as it switches between views almost every second due to the editing.

Editing As briefly mentioned above, there is a very dominant cutting technique used throughout the whole course of the music video which helps to keep it alive and active. With it being partially a monster horror, this editing technique makes it more jumpy and exciting for the audience. The pace of the editing fits in with the pace of the tempo, therefore making the music video very fast moving over all. These 3 imaged below show an example of how the constant cutting changes the shot type each second:

39secs 40secs 41secsUse of Digital Effects The main thing that stood out to me with digital effects was the distortion of the monsters face; it was obvious some kind of

morph effect was used on someone’s face to make it look really creepy and unsettling. Another thing I noticed was the faded colours… throughout there was a constant low saturation with the colours, there are lots of greys and blues used within the video

Megan HughesMusic Video Analysis – NarrativeAphex Twin – Come To Daddy

which makes it look dull and gloomy fitting in with the theme. These colours also have a good link to the setting as it is portrayed as a cold, miserable day which links in with the blues and greys colour scheme as the colour blue links to coldness and ice and the colour grey links to anything miserable as it’s very dim and dismal. Another digital effect use is the repeated use of the same man’s face on all the little children, it adds effect to the video as you frequently see the same face but it almost takes over the video because it’s seen so often.