Music Video: Theory
Childish Gambino, the musical stage name of writer and performer Donald Glover, has just released a critique of American culture and Donald Trump with This Is America.
1) How does the This Is America video meet the key conventions of a music video?
The music video meets the key conventions of a music video as it contains music, lip-synching, dancing, props (such as cars, music instruments, guns, etc.) and a slight narrative.
2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?
The music video is very cleverly sending out a message of what America has become. Racism and gun violence has become such a normal phenomenon in America that people can be happy and doing their daily business but then they end up getting shot or hurt. The fact that all the characters getting shot were black emphasises how this crime is mostly targetted at black people. The music video is almost a cry for a help, a message to the public to inform them how bad the situation is and that change must take place.
3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson.
The music video's opening scene consists of an establishing shot of the garage (where the whole music video is shot) and we see a guitar placed on a chair. There is a black man who walks to the chair and starts playing the guitar. Although it is not recognisable at first, it is interesting to note that Glover can be seen standing behind one of the pillars of the garage. This is a reference to how criminals are always lurking in the corner and how no one is ever really safe.
Glover dances in a very distinct way, this is an intertextual reference to the Jim Crow laws which highlights how, even though these laws have no been abolished, black Americans still feel suppressed in society. The man sitting on the chair has suddenly got a wrap around his head, he sits and waits to be shot. This could be a reference to the slave trade and how black people still have a feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day. (Gilroy)
Stuart Hall's race representation in the media can be applied to this music video. Hall suggested that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies and he outlined three black characterisations in American media.
1) The Slave figure- This can be the man at 0:51 who gets shot.
2) The Native- this mostly fits in with Glover's character. He is the criminal.
3) The Clown/Entertainer- This role can apply to all the dancers in the music video, including Glover.
Tricia Rose suggested that hip-hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice. This music video is a perfect example of that as it is a way for Glover to send out a message for himself and his black peers or anyone else affected by the gun violence in America.
Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.
4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?
The article suggests that one of the opening scenes is a parallel reference to Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system (essentially a series of anti-black laws) that operated between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Donald Glover uses grotesque smiles and exaggerated poses which is a way of making a parody of Jim Crow. See the resemblance below.
The article also suggests that the dancing throughout the music video was specially choreographed to be distracting so that the riots happening in the background became invisible. The video’s choreographer, Sherrie Silver, retweeted a comment, perhaps in agreement, from someone who argued: “Childish Gambino’s dance moves distracted all of us from the craziness that was happening in the background of the video & that’s exactly the point he’s trying to make.”
The last point the article suggests is that Glover is sending a direct message to the police. The lyric “this a celly / that’s a tool” has a powerful double meaning. Fans have pointed out that on the one hand it refers to the case of Stephon Clark, shot dead just weeks ago by Sacramento police, who assumed he was armed but only had an iPhone on him. Glover distils the distorting way black men are seen by police with “tool”, meaning gun. In the video, the camera pans up to black men filming the chaos on their phones. As other commenters on Genius have pointed out, Glover could also be saying that phones can be actual tools for documentation.
5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line'?
One comment stated, "It gives me the picture of the US acceptance of violence and murder that I get from the news in the British media." This is the harsh reality of what the US has become.
Other comments suggested that the video is also aimed at black culture. "What I got from it was the parts of Black musical culture that America celebrates (the bluesman with the guitar/gospel choir) mixed with the parts it doesn't. I don't think it's aimed only at racism, but also at Black culture...“Grandma told me: get your money, black man”...
Other hidden meanings in the video:
The music video meets the key conventions of a music video as it contains music, lip-synching, dancing, props (such as cars, music instruments, guns, etc.) and a slight narrative.
2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?
The music video is very cleverly sending out a message of what America has become. Racism and gun violence has become such a normal phenomenon in America that people can be happy and doing their daily business but then they end up getting shot or hurt. The fact that all the characters getting shot were black emphasises how this crime is mostly targetted at black people. The music video is almost a cry for a help, a message to the public to inform them how bad the situation is and that change must take place.
3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson.
The music video's opening scene consists of an establishing shot of the garage (where the whole music video is shot) and we see a guitar placed on a chair. There is a black man who walks to the chair and starts playing the guitar. Although it is not recognisable at first, it is interesting to note that Glover can be seen standing behind one of the pillars of the garage. This is a reference to how criminals are always lurking in the corner and how no one is ever really safe.
Glover dances in a very distinct way, this is an intertextual reference to the Jim Crow laws which highlights how, even though these laws have no been abolished, black Americans still feel suppressed in society. The man sitting on the chair has suddenly got a wrap around his head, he sits and waits to be shot. This could be a reference to the slave trade and how black people still have a feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day. (Gilroy)
Stuart Hall's race representation in the media can be applied to this music video. Hall suggested that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies and he outlined three black characterisations in American media.
1) The Slave figure- This can be the man at 0:51 who gets shot.
2) The Native- this mostly fits in with Glover's character. He is the criminal.
3) The Clown/Entertainer- This role can apply to all the dancers in the music video, including Glover.
Tricia Rose suggested that hip-hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice. This music video is a perfect example of that as it is a way for Glover to send out a message for himself and his black peers or anyone else affected by the gun violence in America.
Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.
4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?
The article suggests that one of the opening scenes is a parallel reference to Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system (essentially a series of anti-black laws) that operated between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Donald Glover uses grotesque smiles and exaggerated poses which is a way of making a parody of Jim Crow. See the resemblance below.
The last point the article suggests is that Glover is sending a direct message to the police. The lyric “this a celly / that’s a tool” has a powerful double meaning. Fans have pointed out that on the one hand it refers to the case of Stephon Clark, shot dead just weeks ago by Sacramento police, who assumed he was armed but only had an iPhone on him. Glover distils the distorting way black men are seen by police with “tool”, meaning gun. In the video, the camera pans up to black men filming the chaos on their phones. As other commenters on Genius have pointed out, Glover could also be saying that phones can be actual tools for documentation.
5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line'?
One comment stated, "It gives me the picture of the US acceptance of violence and murder that I get from the news in the British media." This is the harsh reality of what the US has become.
Other comments suggested that the video is also aimed at black culture. "What I got from it was the parts of Black musical culture that America celebrates (the bluesman with the guitar/gospel choir) mixed with the parts it doesn't. I don't think it's aimed only at racism, but also at Black culture...“Grandma told me: get your money, black man”...
Other hidden meanings in the video:
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