Childish Gambino’s video for This Is America is being lauded as a work of art. It’s great to witness a music video causing such a flutter in America and not just on social media. I cannot remember a video being discussed so much, not since Robin Thicke and his topless women, yet not a whisper on the Afterword.
A lot of thought has gone into the video, more so than the song itself I would think. It is entertaining, gripping, surprising, upsetting viewing featuring Donald Glover, Childish Gambino himself, in a mesmerising central performance. The music is an intriguing mix of African and Hip Hop styles. It is well worth a watch or two or more if you haven’t seen it. Having seen it, it’s difficult to imagine the song as a stand alone piece of work. This Is America needs the visual images to work.
I’m told there are hidden meanings and metaphors. The trousers he wears, the way he dances, the facial contortions, the care for the firearms after use, the gospel singers, the burning cars, the running, the mobile phones, the white horse are all deliberately deployed to convey specific messages. Glover, to his credit, has no intention of explaining anything about it.
I find it has greater impact on me and I enjoy it more if I take it on face value. Does it help now that I know the dancing refers to Jim Crow or the South African freedom dance, the gwara-gwara? After a few viewings, maybe so.
However, my advice is to lie back, relax and let it all sink in. This Is America? Oh deary me. Looks like an apocalypse. Stunning. Now, what’s all this *hidden* symbolism about?
The question remains; is it art? And, if so, is it great art? Is it a masterpiece?
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/childish-gambino-this-is-america_us_5af05c12e4b041fd2d28d8e9
Mavis Diles says
I think it’s a masterpiece. Feels like a full stop on pop culture and, more significantly, a call to action to get people engaged with politics.
Artery says
This is an intelligent piece of film making. I am very glad that somebody is commenting on the state of America. To call it a masterpiece is possibly over stating it, but I am glad it is widely appreciated.
My wife just saw me watching it and had heard it being discussed on Radio 4 yesterday.
Paul Wad says
I like Donald Glover. The best all rounder in the entertainment history since Sammy Davis (sorry Brucie). There’s nothing he can’t do.
The video’s ace, even if I don’t really understand it. He dances a bit like me trying to stand up straight when I get out of bed. The songs ace too. Looking forward to his final album (as Childish Gambino), but wish it wasn’t.
Tiggerlion says
A new series of Atlanta starts tonight (BBC2 10pm). Really looking forward to it.
Martin Hairnet says
Wow. That is pretty impressive. Glover’s knowing performance is stunning. I think the song stands up on its own, but it’s woozy, disorientating tempo changes work perfectly with the visuals.
Arthur Cowslip says
I’m afraid I don’t like it!
I’m sure it’s a noble statement, whatever the statement actually is, but the whole thing just seems so laboured and so pleased with itself that any sense of joy and funk has been sucked out of it. I got into Childish Gambino through through “Awaken, My Love!” (truly joyous and funky with real soul and humour) but the more I hear of his other stuff the more I think that was just a fluke, a one-off.
Sorry, it’s not for me.
Tiggerlion says
They serve different purposes, of course. This Is America has very serious intent. Awaken, My Love is much more fun.
Arthur Cowslip says
I think I prefer the fun….
As Mini points out below as well, you can get a point across and still have a tune!
Tiggerlion says
Awaken, My Love is definitely more fun. However, I do hope he gives credit where it’s due and pays half the royalties to George Clinton, who has recently and very sadly announced his retirement on the grounds that he is ‘all funked out’.
As for a tune. This Is America is essentially Trap Muzik (Glover is from Atlanta where it originated, relying on triples and doubles on the hi-hat and a kick in the bass) with African rhythms and some Gospel music. I don’t think you are meant to whistle it.
minibreakfast says
I’m all for fit young blokes dancing and strutting with their tops off, but it’s not exactly a banger is it?
Janelle puts her message across less obtusely and more tunefully.
But whatever floats your boat I guess.
Tiggerlion says
I like the fact he is shirtless but not *fit*. The pursuit of buffness is almost a religion in itself and just as oppressive. He gives hope to all us non *fit* men.
I confess to watching Pynk more often than is safe for a man of my age but I’ve watched This Is America even more.
Arthur Cowslip says
You don’t think he’s ‘fit’? Wow. High standards!
Moose the Mooche says
Kinell!
*seals self in tank underground so as to be completely invisible forever*
Tiggerlion says
By the standards of shirtless men in music videos, he is decidedly unripped. Give me a month and I could give him a run for his money.
Moose the Mooche says
Can’t hear you in this bloody tank.
Martin Hairnet says
I’ve been hearing that residents of Hull – and other northern powerhouses – have been kept awake in the wee small hours, as army tanks roll down deserted streets, in training for England’s imminent invasion of the EUSSR. Well, when I say tanks, there is actually only one tank, which has to be shared with the various army divisions scattered around the country. And when I say invasion, I really mean an attempt to get the tank on a modified pedalo for a quick day trip to Boulogne. Purely for reconnaissance purposes. All being well, back to Blighty before dusk for the donkey rides.
Freddy Steady says
⬆️
@martin-hairnet
Splendid stuff!
Martin Hairnet says
I do think Glover creates a unique and compelling atmosphere with this video. His movements and expressions are febrile and skittish, like those of a man making his way to the gallows. This is much more than just another dig at the American dream. This is America as dysfunctional and diseased.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I think Mini’s ears have been turned to cloth by listening to too much Charity Shop Lite. This is simply the best thing I have seen/heard in yonks. Thanks Tiggs, in my isolated little world this would have no doubt passed me by.
minibreakfast says
Not at all. Janelle raps plenty too, which isn’t something you can whistle along to, but her flow is much more engaging than the above.
Without the video it’s nothing to write home about.
Nice bod though, even if he’s not Tigger’s type 😏
Tiggerlion says
The music and the video go together. Both are enhanced by the other. The whole thing is a complete audio-visual experience. Mind you, that’s true oh Monae’s work, too.
The main difference is that Monae makes me feel warm and fuzzy, whereas This Is America leaves me appalled and enthralled.
minibreakfast says
Ah well, if the music isn’t good enough to stand alone (like JM’s) it’s not for me.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
And I suppose the opposite for me given that despite a handful of attempts I am left completely umoved by Janelle…
minibreakfast says
You are the (inverse) yardstick by which I measure my wrongness, so that’s a relief. 😉
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I think that’s a compliment although I may just be Wrong…
Moose the Mooche says
Inverse Yardstick…. hurrrrr
MC Escher says
What makes it a masterpiece, and who is calling it that? Seems to me a standard modern song with a video featuring some shocking violence.
It must be the subtext of which you speak (that I would not have understood if not for your preamble)
Tiggerlion says
There are people calling for it to be revered in a museum of African-American culture. That, I put to you, is a white, bourgeois construct. This Is America is pitched at the short attention span of the Internet and very successfully so (100 million views in a week). Its jerky style and the contrast between fore and background invite repeated views but it will have reached far more people than any number who go to galleries and museums. Glover operates out there, in the ether, across the whole world not in a musty old building.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-carnage-and-chaos-of-childish-gambinos-this-is-america
Mavis Diles says
Although I am not qualified at all and probably completely clueless, I have never seen anything remotely like this before. It juxtaposes an almost comic delivery with the violence that is often glorified in music, and then it adds at least another layer with the reverence with which the gun is treated. Then it basically shows a cultural betrayal playing out where he shoots a blues singer, a gospel choir, revels in as a rapper, and then goes on the run. There are samples of African music – cultural theft. He’s saying we’ve sold ourselves out by following a bad script. This is only scratching the surface. The music and video are not intended to be two different things stuck together either.
Maybe it’s all a load of nonsense but I don’t think so. I’ll stick with masterpiece, but time will tell.
Tiggerlion says
The murders are especially chilling. The first victim appears to be the Blues guitar player who bears a striking resemblance to Trayvon Martin’s father. Martin aged 17 and unarmed was shot by a Hispanic neighbourhood watchman. Glover affects a Jim Crow pose as he pulls the trigger, Jim Crow traditionally being a white man blacked up. The slaughter of the choir clearly evokes the Charleston murders carried out by a white supremacist but it is Glover, a black man, who commits the crime in the video. The guns, cradled in lush red towels, are cared for with much greater respect than the victims. More disturbingly still, Glover nonchalantly continues dancing as though nothing had happened.
The ambiguity of the role of the protagonist is unsettling all the way through This Is America.
Martin Hairnet says
The set, and the shocking violence, reminded me a little bit of Reservoir Dogs. What is the story about the trousers? I spotted them straight away, as reassuringly retro, with the button fly. They’re not Confederate uniform trousers are they?
Tiggerlion says
They do resemble the Confederate uniform. Another view is that he is channeling Fela Kuti who was often shirtless with button cotton trousers.
Locust says
I’ve seen and listened to it many times this week, and I think it’s brilliant, not least musically – can’t agree that it doesn’t hold up without the images at all! Best hip hop I’ve heard since “To Pimp a Butterfly” (DAMN was very good, but a bit too chewy for my teeth). And the video is perfect for the track (but only time can pick out a “masterpiece” IMO) and making people discuss important and interesting issues can’t be a bad thing.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
As ever very wise from our Northern Correspondent
Arthur Cowslip says
I didn’t like To Pimp A Butterfly either. I’m a man out of time, sigh. I miss Grandmaster Flash, De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers.
Moose the Mooche says
Same here. Especially the STILL TOTALLY UNDERVALUED Jungle Brothers.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Jungle Brothers not undervalued in this here Languedoc… just behind That Tribe Who Are Still Searching
Moose the Mooche says
Staright Out the Jungle is now 30 years old… still sounds tremendous.
WO-SA! WO-SA! WO-SA! WO-SA!
Tiggerlion says
I put Done By The Forces Of Nature up there with Low End Theory. Its problem was it was released at roughly the same time as Three Feet High And Rising, so nobody noticed and nobody remembers, except us.
Paul Wad says
You should listen to Brother Ali’s All The Beauty In This Whole Life. That’s my favourite since To Pimp A Butterfly.
retropath2 says
Didn’t like it.
Tiggerlion says
Thank you for your considered opinion.
Sewer Robot says
I’m still absorbing This Is America but I thought the B.A.N. episode of Atlanta was one of the most eyecatching tv achievements of last year. After six episodes you think you’re coming to grips with the shape of the show and then you’re dropped straight into the formula tv discussion “Montague” and you only know you’re on the right channel when the familiar character Paperboi appears. Then you go the ads which are, of course, also part of the show
Tiggerlion says
New series starts tonight!
Tiggerlion says
I was wrong! It’s a repeat.
DAMN.
MC Escher says
I’m a bit of a traditionalist: I like listening to music rather than watching it. Adding a film to a song devalues it. As mini says above, if the song relies on its video (which this one really does – it’s not much of a tune, is it?) for its effect then it can’t be that great.
Tiggerlion says
There are songs to listen to and there are videos to watch. Sometimes, like this time, you can do both at the same time. There’s merit in all three. Potentially.
minibreakfast says
Despite getting a DVD with the CD, I still haven’t watched the film of Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
Moose the Mooche says
These records are so much better when accompanied visually by Mr B’s drama serials 🙂
minibreakfast says
True! Right now Eno’s Music For Films is sounding great against a backdrop of Midsomer Murders.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Just wonderin’ – do you and your fella ever actually ,like, talk to each other?
minibreakfast says
All the time, but less so between the hours of 8-10pm.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Twas a whimsical question, just can’t imagine sitting in the same room next to Comtesse Wrong with me headphones on whilst she watches Monty Don – that would never ever ever happen and those videos are fake, fake I tell you, never ever happen, never
minibreakfast says
As long as you remained on tea/coffee making duties I bet she wouldn’t even notice, let alone care.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
What is this tea/coffee of which you speak? Is that the same as “My wine glass seems to be empty?”
Tiggerlion says
You should watch Lemonade, mini. Even if I wasn’t a heterosexual male hardwired to find a curvy female attractive, I’m pretty sure I’d be impressed with Beyoncé’s bat-wielding abilities.
Paul Wad says
Now you see I’m the other way round, I don’t really care much for Beyonce’s music, but I love one of the videos. Can’t remember what the song is, but blimey!
Harold Holt says
Germaine Greer disagrees apparently (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/08/germaine-greer-criticises-beyonce-sexual-display-nudity)
minibreakfast says
You can trace the beginning of the decline in the quality of Lady Gaga’s music to when the accompanying videos started to take precedence.
Moose the Mooche says
See also Johnny Hates Jazz.
Paul Wad says
And, as I found out the other day, David Fincher directed the video to Shattered Dreams.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44062444
Zanti Misfit says
I think it’s bloody brilliant!
Evokes these:
Zanti Misfit says
While we’re here?
retropath2 says
This I do, even with the knowledge around it being actors etc.
Moose the Mooche says
You mean he didn’t actually shoot that guy in the chair?
Fake news!!
Tiggerlion says
It’s well constructed but, how shall I put it, a little idealistic. If only we talked to each other, it’ll all end in a man hug, just like reconciling the Russians and the Chinese.
Moose the Mooche says
That was on Wasp Club!
Zanti Misfit says
Naive? But essential
I love the end of that Joyner promo because It’s completely unexpected and audacious!
Black Celebration says
You see, I like this a great deal – the Joyner Lucas one.
But I am not into the Childish Gambino video. I didn’t like the gun violence scenes. Once that happened, I was on edge – and shortly after the gospel choir bit I realised that this really isn’t my thing at all. I felt the same about “Bitch better have my money!” by Rihanna. Another video that got a squillion views but made me feel very sad about the world.
Back to Childish. I think I am missing the context – the tune didn’t stick with me and it seems and the artist’s previous work appears to have passed me by.
Tiggerlion says
You are a fine man, BC. I like you a lot.
This Is America probably works best if you are Black and American. However, I think Glover’s target audience is anyone who cares to watch. And, he means to put you on edge.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
From The Island (and 6.5 million others) to Tiggerlion
https://youtu.be/m1xkLqd1wdU
Tiggerlion says
I would personally like to thank you for that, Lodestone.
It was surprisingly effective sung ‘live’ with just the dancing schoolchildren.
Thank you.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Thank me not, thank him Whose Name Cannot Be Mentioned
Tiggerlion says
OK.
THANKS, BRI!!!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
You mentioned his name! It is a great performance though, isn’t it?
Mike_H says
Liked the film and the message but not so much the music.
Ahh_Bisto says
“Awaken, My Love!” was one of my favourite albums of 2016. It had me playing my Sly & The Family Stone all over again and reminded me that there’s still a lot of mileage to be had in that soul/rock/funk crossover from its peak era in the late 60s-early 70s. So I already had Mr. Glover in my sights.
This is America is performance art and as such the visual and the musical are inseparable. In fact the SNL version of the song just confirms that it is performance art. What’s so dangerous about Donald Glover isn’t the video or its content so much as the fact that he doesn’t fit neatly into either an artistic category or even an ethnicity category. Yes, he’s black but he’s projecting different shades and themes of being black of which This is America is but one perspective. You’ll be seeing him next as Lando Calrissian in the new Star Wars film so there’s another iconic black perspective to view him with. Donald Glover is dangerous because he uncomfortably reminds anyone who likes to put people and ethnic groups into boxes that art and artists don’t always choose to work within the confines of those boundaries. Glover is someone who can represent his colour through his art but can do so in a way that doesn’t put a limit on his artistic ability or his artistic reach simply because he’s black. He’s dangerous because to those with prejudice he can represent both his colour and represent any artist of any colour who wants to do their own thing and do it successfully. He’s dangerous because he’s a black polymath successfully performing in a world and commenting on a world where many people just want to see black victims and black stereotypes.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Top post!
Arthur Cowslip says
Yeah, but you still can’t hum the tune!
Moose the Mooche says
I think you may be my Dad.
DrJ says
I think TIA is great, I must’ve watched it about a dozen times. Glover did a great job on Saturday Night Live last week doing the rare double-duty of host and musical guest. He performed a second new song on the night, which is much more light and summery:
https://youtu.be/H3x-LVkYhlA
DrJ says
And as for the comedy, here’s a sketch where someone *finally* takes Oran “Juice” Jones down a peg or two…
Tiggerlion says
I think of myself as an R&B fan but I only vaguely remember Rain. I looked ‘Juice’ up. Just one hit single and one moderately successful album way back in the Eighties. I’m surprised the SLN audience knew who he was. Still made me laugh, though.
Wilson Wilson says
I enjoyed Mr Gambino’s performance on SNL enough to watch the sketches he was in too. By god, they were poor. Is it always so bad?
mrxsg says
That was so good, I had to put it on the large screen and watch it twice!
Tahir W says
How come everyone here knows the ‘meanings’ of all these parts of the video? I don’t. Why does the old blues guy get shot? Why did the choir get offed with one shot?
It holds my attention, I guess, but I’ve never thought of music videos as being a genre of which there can be a masterpiece. I usually don’t watch them because they tend to have too many flickering and flashing images of gyrating bodies, etc., whose main function seems to be be to distract attention from the general meaninglessness of the whole thing.
Don’t you have to have an art form before you have a masterpiece of it? Maybe a more modest claim might be that this one, or some other, is doing a good job of shortening the distance between pure fluff and a nascent art form? Still some way to go in my book.
Tiggerlion says
The blues guitarist is Calvin The Second, who looks very like Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, the unarmed teenager shot by a neighbourhood watchman in 2012. Is it really him being shot? His head is hooded but he does have the feet of a black man. There are too few bullets fired to kill all of the choir, an act recalling the Charleston church murders, but let’s give him a bit of artistic license. Also, the man doing the killing is black, not a white supremacist.
Video art is an actual genre. You can go to art galleries and view them. They are created by people who think of themselves artists and are happy for them to be confined to a building. The most famous I can think of is by Sam Taylor-Wood called David Beckham Sleeping. It was displayed in The National Portrait Gallery in London and it is a film of David Beckham sleeping. For hours. There is no music but you can hear him breathing. I’ve seen it. Or some of it.
Nevertheless, video art is an emerging form. This Is America is way better than any I’ve seen. Hiru Murai would describe himself, I think, as a film director even though he’s only done music videos and some TV episodes. I’m not sure he sees himself as an artist nor would Donald Glover. It is being described as *art* by people who write articles in arty newspapers & websites.
I agree, still some way to go.
Mike_H says
By calling it art, yer bourgeois white liberal establishment neutralises any danger in it and renders it safe for their consumption.
Or something.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
You can look up the “meaning” on YouTube. Without it I would have never seen the white horse Tiggs mentions, the way the dancers mimic Soweto Jive etc etc. Without YouTube I’d be one ignorant motherf***er….
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Here you go. https://youtu.be/9_LIP7qguYw
Lodestone of Wrongness says
That Judy Garland clip is terrifying….makes one want to weep
Tahir W says
Wait a minute! It’s a parody. It’s an anti-music-video video. OK I like it now.
Moose the Mooche says
Frank Zappa’s Be In My Video was funnier… and catchier.
Tiggerlion says
Yes, yes, YES. But did you spot the suicide?
Tahir W says
No I didn’t
Tiggerlion says
Me neither.
Paul Wad says
Maybe some of the choir shot themselves. Would explain the lack of bullets from the machine gun.
Lando Cakes says
I’m not sure if I *like* it, however this is a remarkable, unsettling piece of work.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
You can look up the “meaning” on YouTube. Without it I would have never seen the white horse Tiggs mentions, the way the dancers mimic Soweto Jive etc etc. Without YouTube I’d be one ignorant motherf***er….
Tiggerlion says
Did you spot the man jumping to his death?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Hey, cool. Never done a double post before…
Moose the Mooche says
You haven’t lived.
Hur
Tiggerlion says
Yes, yes. But did you spot the suicide?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
What suicide?
Tiggerlion says
Scroll down this page:
http://hbr.co.ke/the-many-messages-in-childish-gambinos-rotw-jam-this-is-america/
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Ah, that suicide. Hope there was a mattress there.
Moose the Mooche says
It’s not suicide if there’s mattress. It’s just boyish enthusiasm.
MC Escher says
But will it change anything? Really? It’s a pop song, and not even one that crowds can chant as they make their way up Pennsylvania Avenue, either.
Do you remember how ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ stopped racism in the USA almost overnight? Yes, me neither.
Tiggerlion says
Trump’s presence & speech at the NRA dashed all hope of any real change around gun laws. It’s going to take a lot more effort on the behalf of activists and, sadly, a lot more deaths before anything is done.
Lando Cakes says
Wow, – that 17 seconds of silence near the end – one for each victim of the parkland shootings, apparently.
Tiggerlion says
The silence is the most chilling part of the video.
Blue Boy says
Must admit this had completely passed me by til today when someone at work mentioned it. Powerful, careful, thoughtful stuff. I’m of the generation that generally is suspicious of music videos, viewing them essentially as adverts for the thing that really matters, namely the song itself. But this is something else – a work where the visuals and the music are intimately entwined and result in something greater than the sum of the parts. Is it art? Of course it is. And indeed far more interesting and memorable than any number of video art pieces I’ve seen in a gallery – for every film by the likes of Bill Viola, Tacita Dean or Sam Taylor-Wood there are a thousand taking up your time which are dull, utterly hollow and badly executed video art. Not things that could be said about This is America.
Tiggerlion says
Bill Viola said, “I am interested in what the old masters didn’t paint, those steps in between.”
Here’s one of his pieces, called The Raft:
Pizon-bros says
I commonly doubt my senses and my taste when I am watching a video-clip and I prefer to listen to the song without anything visual first, this disqualifies lots of songs that were a success in the eighties, nothing new for many of you. The song belongs classically in music the fourth art (even if Serge Gainsbourg believed it was a minor kind of art), dance belongs in the sixth and video-clip in the eighth or seventh. Childish Gambino’s song doesn’t bring me anything, but the sum of all the arts involved do.
I suppose that Glover wanted to reach people that commonly are rebuted by texts which are too cleverly written to be understood.
The visual part can be watched like a movie for children, one simple story for children and references that adults understands as well (and that children never gets).