Music Video: Theory

How does This is America meet the key conventions of a music video?

•  There's alot of camera movement, a clear focus on performance as well as an explicit narrative piece; there's also intertextual references to the news.

What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?

•  Perhaps, it's making a comment on the temporary reactions to the murder and how the general public can easily be distracted from the horrors and injustice of America through entertainment and maybe, a comment on how the media focuses on the side of America that is easier to swallow - the hollywood movies, the reality tv and uses that to cover up the institutionalised racism that plagues the country. 

Write an analysis of the video using the key theories [Gilroy, Hall, Rose & Dyson]

•  This video supports Gilroy's point about how music is a way for Black artists to articulate diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture through it's narrative. The scene where Donald Glover is dancing in front of the sheer destruction of black people which mirrors how the capitalist structure of society 'turns their back on' black people and those of a lower class [Hall], which is perhaps a reference to recent and ongoing news stories. Childish Gambino, has used his platform to start a discourse on how black people are treated in contemporary America. Glover also conforms to the three archetypes suggested by Stuart Hall, throughout the music video, We see him take the role of the 'master', with an unnamed extra being the 'slave' [1995, Hall] at the beginning, we also see him take the role of the 'Native' as he shoots the gospel choir midway through the music video. His main role is to be the 'clown' or entertainer as he constantly dances and puts on a performance for the audience. This video however subverts the idea of commercial hip hop as the video conventions and hegemonic reading suggests this video is to give insight into the lives of black people rather than to be profitable. This leads to it supporting Dyson as it gives a perspective on contemporary politics involving race issues as well as how Trumps' America has caused a spike in racially motivated attacks particularly by police officers and those in power, Childish Gambino speaks on this and displays it through the narrative within the music video - particularly through the background action as Gambino takes centre stage, perhaps a comment on how the audience becomes distracted by the entertainment values and other things America has to offer, in order to avoid the 'hard to swallow' aspects of society.

What are the three interpretations of the video suggested in the guardian article?

•  Childish Gambino is 'playing Jim Crow', he's .duping us with dance' and he's 'taking on the police'

What alternative interpretations are suggested in the 'below the line' comments?

•  It's 'just music', or it displays how 'deadly' being black in America actually is, and also the acceptance/desensitisation of violence and racially motivated crimes by the media - the idea that this happens whilst people move on and live their lives in conjunction with black people losing theirs.