This is America - Childish Gambino

 Who is Childish Gambino?

Childish Gambino is the musical stage name of American actor, rapper, comedian, writer and producer

As Donald Glover, he has a number of mainstream Hollywood movie credits, including playing the young Lando Carlissian in 'solo: A Star Wars Story'. He is also the voice of Simba in 'The Lion King' remake.

Glover is also known as a successful TV work in the US and is double Emmy and double Golden Globe winner for 'Atlanta', a show he created and stars in.

Linking back to Richards Dyers star theory Donald Glover is an example of someone who crosses lots of different types of media. (wide exposure) similar to Elvis as they both appreciated the benefits of wide exposure, live and televised music appearances, acting roles, interviews, music videos etc.

Background information

This is America was released in the US on the 5th May, 2018 to coincide with Donald Glover hosting 'Saturday Night Live' one of America's best known TV shows.

In terms of genre, it is hip hop with very deliberate elements of Afrobeat.

The song's release was not previously announced but instead appeared online while Glover was on one of Americas most popular TV shows were he was promoting a film he starred in.

Textual Analysis Of Music Video

What is it saying about 

Race: Shows how people are treated in America. That it happens to everyone even religious people

Gun culture: That it is common, whenever you think it is fine someone dies but then it gets back to normal as it is the norm. That people should not have a gun

The police

There is a social media element to it using recent viral dancing. HIs dancing almost distracts the viewers from the violence happening in the background.

- The police objective is to not harm white people but target black people

- suggests that getting gun and machine guys are so accessible

- Him being shirtless shows he is vulnerable as well 

- he suggests we are a self obbssed society who care to much about what we look like through the lyrics and the clip of the kids watching down on him filming. 

- The kids are very present in the video, his point with this is meant to indicate that kids today are growing up around this environment. Where they have to ride their bikes to school through riots or just filming what happening.

- The mise en scene represents being in a deserted industrial warehouse is a comment what's happened to society that we do not make anything anymore 

- wrapped in a red cloth the gun which shows that the gun is worth more then anything else. It is representative of guns being treated with care and priority this contrasts with black lives.

- lots of elements relate back to African heritage (the school uniform, being quite traditional colours style as Americans do not normally have uniform, the dance moves from Africa.)

- The long 17 second pause in the song is respect for the 17 victims of the February shooting at a school in Florida.

- As well as all the cars being empty if you look closely all the cars doors are open. So as well as representing the job loss with the new cars it could potentially represent the black drivers who are asked to get out of their cars by police and shot

- The cars could gives you this impression of a stalled economic mobility of many black Americans.

- The kids filming could hold lots of meanings (Stephon clark who was shot dead because they thought he had a gun but was only a phone)

Childish Gambino "This is America" music video tackles many issues from the past and the present. Including powerful imagery about gun violence, race, heritage, police brutality and this is done both subtly and extremely obvious. 'This is America' was released in the US on the 5th of May 2018. The songs release was not previously announced but instead appeared online while Glover was one one of America's most popular TV shows, were he was in fact promoting a film he stared in. In terms of genre, it is hip hop with very deliberate elements of Afrobeat. Glovers intentions with this song was to create it as an anthem for the fourth of July.

The video touches heavily on gun culture and how society has changed. The music video is set entirely in a warehouse which could be interpreted as the country's foundation, built on systematic white supremacy and oppression. Although at the start it may look cheerful through the facial expressions and the guitarist playing an up beat tune. It then drastically shifts into an aggressive tone, after Glover shoots the guitarist. Our attention is on Glover as he is singing but when he shoots the guitarist our eyes follow the bullet to the guitarists head were you see he is covered in a white bag. This idea of him dying in a white bag links back to lynching. After Glover shoots the guitarist the gun is hurried away by a school kid wrapping it in a red cloth. The colour red itself symbolises life, anger and war but using it to take away the gun after it being used is a reference to Americans willingness to protect gun rights over people. It also suggests that guns are being treated with care and priority over people, as whilst this is happening the dead body lays still in the frame, this is to contrast with guns and black lives. The act of Glover giving the gun to the school kid suggest how giving guns to children is normalised nowadays. 

Through out the video Glover dances with the school children whilst all this chaos is happening around them. The school children are wearing this traditional school uniform relating back to African heritage. This idea of the school children dancing and enjoying their life despite their surroundings and how they are not bothered by it shows how children in society have grown up today. The dancing is a way of distracting the viewers from what is really going. Shaking the frame distorts and blurs the background making viewers miss what is really going on. Allowing us to focus on Glover doing these viral dances. This suggests that entertainment media is served as a distraction from the bigger issue at hand. Later on in the video Glover uses the lyrics "I'm so pretty" which links to this idea that we are a self obsessed society who care too much about what we look like when we should be worrying about peoples lives. During all the violence going on around Glover he remains shirtless which symbolises this idea that everyone is vulnerable even him and that he feels threatened.

During the video there are multiple references to real events and people such as the Charleston massacre, Jim Crow and the first horseman of the apocalypse. However a more subtle reference is the the long seventeen second pause in the song, is Glover paying his respect for the seventeen victims of the February shooting at a school in Florida. All of the previous references show how mass shootings and shootings are normalised today even if you are religious, it is now the norm. However with his seventeen second pause for respect almost shows viewers they should pay their respect. In the video as well there is a suicide during a moment when the school children are dancing and people are running around but the fact that nothing happens and everyone carries on suggests again how it is normalised and that Glover is touching on mental health issues that the black community face because of all this violence they are surrounded by. The fact that you do not really see it shows that it is not looked upon and is now not seen as a big issue.

Towards the end of the video Glover is in the same location but surrounded with cars. They are not cars which you would typically see in a music video they are old 90 era cars. This potentially could have a few different meanings. One could be the relation to job loss or possibly linking to a stalled economic mobility of many black Americans. I also think that it could be a reference to deaths, as if you look closely the cars are all empty and in America it is very common for black drivers to be shot outside their car. In this scene SZA an American singer features by sitting on top of one of the cars. Many fans were suggesting that her hairstyle looked very similar to Liberty and SZA then went on to post a picture on her instagram with the caption 'Liberty.' this implies that she is the American dream.

The final segment in this music video is a shot of Glover running away from the police. The interesting idea behind this is that he is running away from smoking not because he shot all those people. This brings in this idea that people are sent to prison for drugs over murder. The scene of him running away has brought in many parallels to the film 'Get out' and when the car scene starts to zoom out it links to the sunken place. Making the viewers realise they have been watching everything from the sunken place from get out.