This Is America Video Analysis
This Is America Analysis
In this post I will be analysing Childish Gambino's music video 'This Is America'.
At the very beginning of the song it opens up with a wide shot, which implies that the video defies similar conventions of a rap video. It takes place in a large warehouse with plain colours. Another element that has plain colours is the outfit that Childish Gambino is wearing, this symbolises times from slavery, this hints that the video will perhaps show and tell the narrative of black culture and what deprivation they had to go through. Gambino then shoots the man that is playing the guitar very brutally, this instantly shows a way to call attention to something that the artist is communicating that is very serious. When he assassinates the guitarist, I notice that Gambino strikes an intentional pose that is fairly similar to T.D Rice who created the character Jim Crow. Jim Crow created the blackface minstrel show that was a form of entertainment for white people to watch and basically mock black people.
This video has many meanings on different levels. One of those levels are the lyrics that Gambino has used which are ironic. For example; "we just want to party", however, clearly as I have seen, this video isn't about partying, it is the complete opposite, but Gambino used this to imply that there's an expected image of black people that all they want to do is party and get money which isn't the case.
Throughout the whole video I can see a number of different choreographies that have been selected from viral dance moves created by the black community and have been picked up by the public. Nevertheless, what is interesting is the artist's different facial expressions that are really telling, because it moves from a deadly, serious expression straight to expressions that are humorous. These expressions are possibly there to let the audience know that what they are seeing is not the only thing that is happening meaning that blacks are expected to perform in a certain way.
Gambino then enters a room where there is a choir joyfully singing. The image of the black choir is clearly a reference to the 9 members of the church shooting in South Carolina, who were murdered by Dylan Ruth, a white man. Gambino dances into the room very innocently only to then murder the whole choir by shooting them once again, and just like the shooter Dylan Ruth, he walks away with no consequences.
After this, he returns to dancing with the group of children who are wearing school uniforms, this implies the devastating school shootings in America that you can't count because of how many there has been. Throughout the video, the chaos increases more and more, especially of what occurs in the background. In the background, we can not only see mobs, cars on fire, people running back and forth, however, the audience will focus on the foreground without noticing what is happening in the background which also implies meaning to the black community.
There's a moment during this chaos where the camera pans overhead towards a group on young people who are on their phones surveilling what is happening. In a part of the lyrics he says "this a celly, that's a tool", which is showing that cell phones is the tool that captures what is happening around you and anybody can have one of them.
Later on it switches back to Gambino and the kids dancing once again. However, this time in the background I could see a man riding a white horse which seemed quite odd until I found that it could be a reference to the lynching of african americans in the south, which was a violent mean of social control. The person on the horse in the video is wearing a type of hood covering his/her head which shows the control the white people has over the black community over centuries, even within the entertainment industry.
When it comes to the scene of Gambino dancing on the car, it immediately reminds me of the image of Michael Jackson dancing on cars in several of his videos. As well as this, SZA the singer is pictured sitting on one of the many cars that seem to look abandoned from the 1980-90s, this could imply the birth of hip hop culture.
In the very last scene of this music video, we can see Gambino running from something in a dark alley from behind. The camera then switches to infront so we see his facial expressions. I eventually see that it is a mob running after him. What struck me most in this scene was as Gambino emerged from the darkness the first thing I see are his eyes which are full of terror. The message he might have wanted to share was so how many black men and woman are brutally killed by police, however, no one ever sees it happening until they are told. Therefore, in this shot you can picture the fear that most african americans have before death.
In conclusion, the most powerful statement I witnessed was that we see a black man clearly with a look of terror in his eyes which is the main part I find very moving. In general, I feel that this music video is mainly protesting against all of the police brutality there is in America nowadays.
Music Video -
As an introduction to music videos and their conventions, we were given a task which is to analyse Childish Gambino's music video 'This is America'. Childish Gambino's real name is Donald Glover who is both a musician and an actor. This song is over a year old now, however, the subjects brought up in the lyrics and video does still have an impact on audiences trying to figure out what message he was trying to deliver within the song and music video.
As an introduction to music videos and their conventions, we were given a task which is to analyse Childish Gambino's music video 'This is America'. Childish Gambino's real name is Donald Glover who is both a musician and an actor. This song is over a year old now, however, the subjects brought up in the lyrics and video does still have an impact on audiences trying to figure out what message he was trying to deliver within the song and music video.
At the very beginning of the song it opens up with a wide shot, which implies that the video defies similar conventions of a rap video. It takes place in a large warehouse with plain colours. Another element that has plain colours is the outfit that Childish Gambino is wearing, this symbolises times from slavery, this hints that the video will perhaps show and tell the narrative of black culture and what deprivation they had to go through. Gambino then shoots the man that is playing the guitar very brutally, this instantly shows a way to call attention to something that the artist is communicating that is very serious. When he assassinates the guitarist, I notice that Gambino strikes an intentional pose that is fairly similar to T.D Rice who created the character Jim Crow. Jim Crow created the blackface minstrel show that was a form of entertainment for white people to watch and basically mock black people. 
This video has many meanings on different levels. One of those levels are the lyrics that Gambino has used which are ironic. For example; "we just want to party", however, clearly as I have seen, this video isn't about partying, it is the complete opposite, but Gambino used this to imply that there's an expected image of black people that all they want to do is party and get money which isn't the case.
Throughout the whole video I can see a number of different choreographies that have been selected from viral dance moves created by the black community and have been picked up by the public. Nevertheless, what is interesting is the artist's different facial expressions that are really telling, because it moves from a deadly, serious expression straight to expressions that are humorous. These expressions are possibly there to let the audience know that what they are seeing is not the only thing that is happening meaning that blacks are expected to perform in a certain way.
Gambino then enters a room where there is a choir joyfully singing. The image of the black choir is clearly a reference to the 9 members of the church shooting in South Carolina, who were murdered by Dylan Ruth, a white man. Gambino dances into the room very innocently only to then murder the whole choir by shooting them once again, and just like the shooter Dylan Ruth, he walks away with no consequences.
After this, he returns to dancing with the group of children who are wearing school uniforms, this implies the devastating school shootings in America that you can't count because of how many there has been. Throughout the video, the chaos increases more and more, especially of what occurs in the background. In the background, we can not only see mobs, cars on fire, people running back and forth, however, the audience will focus on the foreground without noticing what is happening in the background which also implies meaning to the black community.
There's a moment during this chaos where the camera pans overhead towards a group on young people who are on their phones surveilling what is happening. In a part of the lyrics he says "this a celly, that's a tool", which is showing that cell phones is the tool that captures what is happening around you and anybody can have one of them.
Later on it switches back to Gambino and the kids dancing once again. However, this time in the background I could see a man riding a white horse which seemed quite odd until I found that it could be a reference to the lynching of african americans in the south, which was a violent mean of social control. The person on the horse in the video is wearing a type of hood covering his/her head which shows the control the white people has over the black community over centuries, even within the entertainment industry.
When it comes to the scene of Gambino dancing on the car, it immediately reminds me of the image of Michael Jackson dancing on cars in several of his videos. As well as this, SZA the singer is pictured sitting on one of the many cars that seem to look abandoned from the 1980-90s, this could imply the birth of hip hop culture.
In the very last scene of this music video, we can see Gambino running from something in a dark alley from behind. The camera then switches to infront so we see his facial expressions. I eventually see that it is a mob running after him. What struck me most in this scene was as Gambino emerged from the darkness the first thing I see are his eyes which are full of terror. The message he might have wanted to share was so how many black men and woman are brutally killed by police, however, no one ever sees it happening until they are told. Therefore, in this shot you can picture the fear that most african americans have before death.
In conclusion, the most powerful statement I witnessed was that we see a black man clearly with a look of terror in his eyes which is the main part I find very moving. In general, I feel that this music video is mainly protesting against all of the police brutality there is in America nowadays.
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