Trying to overanalyze it all means you have never been in this situation. That tension has been at the heart of countless pop-culture flashpoints: Kendrick Lamar losing the 2014 Best Rap Album Grammy to Macklemore; Lemonade losing 2017’s Album of the Year Grammy to Adele’s 25; the dramatic Oscars finish between Moonlight and La La Land in 2017. The sad truth is, these unfortunate altercations are simply putting a deeply embedded issue under a much brighter spotlight. The video expertly tackles not just the warped landscape of the United States, but touches on cultural points from the past that have led us to where we are now. After all, Gambino and the director could have chosen any location to shoot the video, so why a warehouse? We see Gambino accompanied by school children who dance with him. “This Is America’ reflects the desire to use every one of our available platforms to punch at America’s conscience. Shootings involving black men and police officers became a prominent focal point of social media outlets. Want to write about Arts or other art forms? Others have pointed out that the white bandanas over their mouths could be seen as a symbolism of a white supremacist system attempting to muzzle police brutality.

Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video). People on social media have largely drawn two conclusions, the first being that the empty cars represent the news stories of black men killed by police during traffic stops. He’s a talented dude, loved his time in the great ‘Community’ but then got into his Childish Gambino stuff. “This Is America” is probably his darkest piece yet and can now be counted among other songs such as Joyner Lucas’s “I’m Not Racist” as biting commentaries on the tough questions regarding race relations, classist divisions and violence 21st century culture. That would be a more accurate description of the US.

You also see throughout the video how guns are handled. One minute he is building a pillow fort with Abed in Community. It wasn’t just cheap tricks to sustain an audience’s attention.

The final lines inform us of Gambino’s feelings regarding the status of African-Americans today, “You just a big dawg, yeah, I kenneled him in the backyard, No probably ain’t life to a dog, For a big dog.” Here Gambino twists the shallow lifestyle with the use of the slang term into what he claims he feels. ‘It comes out of two different sound worlds. All the while, he is often directly addressing the camera (and the viewer) with each moment of intense eye contact. Older model empty cars populate the video.

What is so fabulous about this music video is that there is room for another fifty articles analyzing this music video. I remember watching this for the first time and was hoping I would find a detailed analysis such as this. There’s certainly a lot of layers that can pulled back from this video. I love Childish Gambino’s ability to turn a phrase. It is a vary powerful echo as to how America currently handles its gun violence; no matter how many people end up grieving, the topic returns to protecting the gun and its “rightful place” in the hands of the common people… despite the potential tragedies that play out over and over. Only in this instance, the 17 seconds of silence is done in reference to the 17 people who lost their lives in the Parkland, Florida school shooting. In a nation where social issues are often ignored in favor on individuals focused on the material, problems could continue without any changes enforced. With symbolic word choice and specific musical dynamics, Gambino seems to focus on gaining a strong emotional response with both his voice and images. It’s not hard to understand. It’s almost as if the … As writer Blue Telusma points out, this isn’t just Glover casually making a goofy face, but a nod at racism from the minstrel show era. Childish Gambino has shown us what America seems to be allowed to be. Gambino and his featured artists make it even clearer regarding the lack of priorities in our society in following verses, “Grandma told me, Get your money, Black man.” This demonstrates a generational message many African-Americans may feel. From that perspective, this indicates a choice. Some on social media believe that the greyish white warehouse could represent the structure that America is built on, one of white supremacy. It operates independently with the writers collaboratively building and maintaining the platform. musical moniker Childish Gambino on Saturday Night Live this weekend — and the four-minute

The lyrics continue with more narrative focus by our narrator, “Look at how I’m livin now, Police be trippin now, Yeah this is America, Guns in my area, I got the strap, I gotta carry em. Despite many great leaps forward in the Civil Rights movement, most prominent in the 1950’s and 60’s, there are still various issues that remain sadly prevalent in the 21st century.

There may be some who state that these problems are exaggerated, but those voices probably aren’t too steeped in personal experience. c) I think there’s a Chomsky/Adorno critique: you can’t be clean in a dirty world/we’re all complicit. We start with a visual analysis of this video, and it’s a fun discussion to jumpstart their thinking. So far, it’s been viewed more than 51 million times. The video could be suggesting that the society’s collective view of the topic is, in fact, out of focus. Glover is a creative mind in his own stratosphere — the 34-year-old has writing and acting credits on Community, along with three albums and a critically acclaimed show, Atlanta, on FX. The historical context is there as well, hinting that the roots of the issues have had lasting implications linked all the way back the origin of the slave trade. Perhaps the heaviest weight is in the final verse of the song, “You just a Black man in this world, You just a barcode…Drivin expensive foreigns.” This reinforces the dynamic between the pursuit for material gain being the dominant focus of black men, though it has done little to help provide a life of true freedom and prosperity. I enjoyed reading your article but if You would compare different artist from same music class it would be more philosophical and interesting to read. If you don’t show something in compact form, it will not be known by those who aren’t a part of the situation. Eric Skelton interviews the video’s choreographer, Sherrie Silver, about the direction she was given and the role of dancing in the video, which featured a variety of styles from around the world, including South Africa’s Gwara Gwara dance. He starts dancing with them, but then mows them all down with a machine gun. “He shows how mass shootings are normalized in America, even if you’re shooting up a place of worship.” 4. The man on a horse that goes past like General lee when they are rioting. This is one of the first of many repetitive phrases, creating an almost hypnotic suggestion. This type of dancing could have another meaning as well. How The Masked Singer Needs To Change After Making Show History With Bizarre Elimination, Tom Holland's Spider-Man 3 Is Bringing Back Jamie Foxx In An Unexpected Way, Gavazov and the Eastern European Art Scene, Crying Clowns: Comedy’s Relationship with Mental Health, How Trump Won: Heroes, Villains and Surviving the Apocalypse, Women, Culture and Politics: Buffy’s Critical Bite, Hamilton and the Construction of Post-Obama Americanism, Theatre Beyond the Ground: Staging a Defiance of Gravity from Aeschylus to Živadinov, Is Fiddler on the Roof a Tragedy? This final line is both haunting and damning in what it states regarding race relations.

The murders show what life is actually like on the streets right now for average black dudes in America. By Sadiya Ansari I’m not sure what I’m meant to be getting from the more violent sections of the video – the reduction of the murders of black people as entertainment? A reading list to help you untangle the meaning behind Childish Gambino's latest offering.