Bashy A2 Media Blog: Music Video Analysis: This is America:

Music videos originally started on television, on shows like Top of the Pops and MTV, but recently, since the start of YouTube in 2005, a massive uprising in the amount of music videos has occurred. Since anyone can upload to YouTube for free, anyone could make a music video. This essentially meant that for big artist especially, their music videos had to fight to be recognised, and so each music video would try and be as unique as possible, so that it wouldn’t get caught in the swirl of all the other videos being made and published. This meant that music videos were used as more creative pieces of work, and even were used not as a subordinate to the music, but as an equal or even higher level of work. They could be used to portray an artist’s style, genre or just to connote certain things about the artist from the images in the video. In the music video for the song This is America the music video is very clear on portraying “Childish Gambino” as an artist, but it is also very effective in portraying his beliefs as a person as well. For example, with reference to Dyre’s Star Theory, you can tell that in the music video, the multitude of the people in the video are black. This conveys the image that “Childish Gambino” is perhaps proud of his ethnicity and black culture.

This music video is absolutely jam packed with loads of hidden meanings and references, which makes it such an interesting and unique music video and certainly makes it a form of art regardless of the music. This music video addresses a few main issues within it. The first one that’s shown in the music video is guns and gun culture in the USA. The man who sat down to play the guitar to accompany the soft and the south African reminiscent music at the start of the music video gets shot in the head by Childish Gambino.

This is then followed by a dramatic change of genre in music. In the background, behind Childish Gambino, you can also see the gun being placed gently on a luxurious red cloth, and the man who was shot being dragged off out of shot.

This represents that America as a country cares more for the guns than the lives they consistently take. Directly after the gun shot, the words “This is America” are spoken in the music, and Childish Gambino words them out on screen as well. This is confirming that the gun shot, and the care for guns over the people is echoed throughout America as a nation. Childish Gambino remains eye contact with the camera after this as well, which shows that he has totally moved on unaffected, and has no concern for the victim he just murdered. Later on, in the music video, when the music changes back from the heavy hip-hop beat, a gospel choir appears on screen. After they sing a verse, Childish Gambino is thrown a gun, and he shoots the entire gospel choir without even flinching.

This part of the music video is referencing a Gospel Choir shooting in Georgia in 2015, when a man went into a primarily black church, and shot everyone inside. In the music video, Childish Gambino does this in such a ruthless and senseless way, representing the truly horrific nature of the mass shooting in Georgia. Also, again, the choir are not being shown any form of help or care, whereas the gun was still placed nicely on a red blanket, which again shows the people caring more about the guns, than the lives they take.

At the end of this section, you can see police cars as Childish Gambino moves away from the crime scene, and the policemen don’t arrest or even care about him, or the crime, which is referencing the fact that the police in Georgia didn’t treat the action as a hate crime and didn’t do anything about the mass murderer.

Also, another reference to the disfigured opinion on guns in America is in the middle of the piece. Childish Gambino starts getting on top of a car and smoking weed. He then configures his hand to represent a gun. All of the dancers who have been dancing around him the entire time decide that they are only now scared. Despite seeing real guns being used throughout the entire scene, especially by the primarily white police, they only decide to run when they see a black man pretending to hold a gun, which is a very strong message.

There are a lot of other small little references and hidden meanings in the music video as well. *For example, the horse that shows up in the music video is subtle, but fundamental in the music video as a hidden meaning. The horse is white and has a blacked out, cloaked figure riding on top of it. This symbolism is reference to the bible verse Revelation 6:8, which mentions death riding a pale horse.

Throughout the entire music video, you can see young people, and even children who are just seemingly desensitised to the violence they are witnessing. This shows how bad the problem with guns and violence is in America that the children aren’t even affected by it anymore.

Policemen lying on the cars is another example of how the police are almost useless in the situations involving guns, and how they either make situations worse or don’t even try to make them better.

*Another really subtle but very important reference in the music video is the “Jim Crow” pose. Almost a minute into the video, when Childish Gambino shoots the man playing the guitar, he poses in a strange position that is a reference to the “Jim Crow” pose. Also the man who was shot, and who was previously playing the guitar also looks like the father of a 17 year old who was shot in 2012 which is another reference to a shooting in this music video.

*The final reference I am going to talk about that is in the This is America music video is the reference to the “Minstrel Show” face. Race is a huge theme in this music video, and this is portrayed throughout. At the very start of the music video, when Childish Gambino is dancing to the soft and pleasant music, he makes an exaggerated smile or facial expression. This isn’t just Childish Gambino pulling a weird face, but it is actually a reference to the Minstrel Show”, which was a show where black people were presented to white people in a dis-formed, twisted and cartoon-like manor. Going back to Dyer’s Star theory, this reference above all shows how truly aware Childish Gambino is when it comes to racism.