Music video theory

This is America-Music video

1) The music video This is America meets a lot of the key conventions of a music video despite it having an underlying narrative its trying to tell. Its very performance orientated with Childish Gambino being at the forefront of the video and staring at the camera intently (direct address). The video even has backup dancers/singers in the background.

2) The music video comments on gun violence and deconstructs Americas false reality of being a place of safety. Throughout the video the black community seems to be minding they're own business but get shot down for no reason whilst the people in the background seem to just clean everything up and act like nothing happened. This video presents these problems of racism and gun violence through the narrative in the music video.

3) 

  • Gilroy The black Atlantic- Throughout the video it could be claimed that the black community doesn't have a place of belonging since whatever they do or wherever they go they get discriminated on. This relates to Gilroys theory of black diasporic identity.
  • Stuart Hall- Childish Gambino could be seen as "the clown/entertainer" if we apply Stuart Halls characterisation of black characteristics in media. He's there to tell the audience a narrative but at the same time it could be argued that hes also entertaining consumers.
  • Rose and Dyson- This is America supports Rose's idea of hip-hop giving audiences insight into the experiences of young black men and giving them a voice or platform to express they're problems. However this goes against her view that currently hip-hop is being exploited and corrupted by capitalism 
4) The three interpretations are:
  1. Hes playing Jim Crow
  2. Hes duping us with the dance
  3. Taking on the police
5) Some of the alternative explanations for the music video are:
  • "Its just music" This most likely means that its entire purpose was simply to entertain consumers and that its priority was always to be a performance rather then talk about the issues revolving around America.
  • "Childish Gambino shows his humanity by showing and condemning random violence" From this persons perspective they believe that the artist is trying to demonstrate how dangerous America is for the black community and that hes trying to shed light on this issue. 

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