in the Indiankathaktradition. In Cunningham’s video, such a synchronicity is
brought to bear on the very different musical style offered by British trip-hop.
An even more important reference for the aesthetic in play here is the
“scratching”practice developed by the modern DJ–by which the original tem-
porality of the music is overruled in a rhythmic performance whereby the re-
cord is moved manually (a technique which is now often simulated electroni-
cally). From this DJ culture has also emerged a VJ (Video Jockey) culture,
shaping an aesthetic congruent with what Cunningham offers inOnly You.
The close relation between the scratching tradition of the DJ and the mutable
temporalities effected in post-production is explicitly commented on in Dave
Meyers’video for Missy Elliott’sWork It(), through cross-cutting between
a DJ scratching and bodies moving to his rhythm, as if indicating that the DJ
operates as a master puppeteer.Work Itfollows up on several Missy Elliott
videos that utilize mutable temporality in synch with the music.
TRFand the Aesthetics of Post-Production
In the music video forThe Rise and Fall, we can also observe a mutable tem-
porality, and the presence of a master puppeteer, as it were, who conducts the
movements in a way that is anchored in the music, as well as in a logic of body
gesture. But there is also another logic at play that involves a different aspect of
the aesthetics of post-production.
When making his song, Craig David sampled a main theme from Sting’s
hit,Shape of My Heart. Thus, Craig David’s song positions itself already with-
in a logic of cultural production defined through borrowing and re-circulation.
Moreover, his use of an Auto Tuner to overrule the original phrasings in his
vocal performance–which affords a human and intimate feel, touched by the
algorithmic logic of the machine–ensures that both aural and visual elements
are inscribed within the aesthetics of post-production. How, then, is the mutable
temporality inscribed inThe Rise and Fall, and in which ways are body move-
ments overruled by the master puppeteer?
In the song, Craig David sings about the dangers of fame, how he can“lose
it.”We see him in a pub, where he gets two beers at the bar, and sits down with
Sting at a table. Sting is singing the chorus part at the beginning of the song, as
inserts of other pub guest looking at and discussing them illustrate the effects of
fame. Among the other characters in the pub, there is a bartender with dread-
locks about to pour some coins into the cash register, a female waitress on her
way to a table with a tray full of drinks, a group of people playing darts and
another group having fun playing pool. A lot of slow motion is used, which
Mutable Temporality In and Beyond the Music Video 167