Demented 4 Ever

To continue our study of visual rhetoric our professor told us that we would be looking at music videos. When she told us that, I had a pretty strong hunch at where this was going. Very few music videos jam-pack as much visual rhetoric in four minutes as Childish Gambino’s “This is America”. It manages to pair elaborate dancing, with scenes of intense gun violence and riots. Throughout the video Gamino and the video’s director, Hiro Murai, sprinkle all sorts of complex imagery that had people from all levels of expertise wondering what message the video (and by and large the song) were trying to deliver. Despite all the interest in this music video both Gambino and Murai have kept fairly quiet about the video’s meaning. Because of this, people have made countless videos dissecting every element in the music video in search of some sort of an answer. I’ve seen plenty of these videos, both when the music video first came out, but also this week in class. It’s also worth noting that this week in the film analysis class I am also taking we are studying mise-en-scène. Mise-en-scène is a theater term that was later adapted into studying film. It’s essentially a combination of all the visual elements in a film, including the setting, costuming, makeup, lighting, blocking, and emoting done by the actor(s). With the knowledge gained between both classes I felt that I could support my theory about what this video might be about. 

Before I get fully in depth I have to say that a lot of my theory is based on that of the Youtuber Shawn Cee’s theory. Shawn Cee speculates that “This is America” is Childish Gambino’s way of pointing out his (as well as other musicians’) role as a distraction from all the violence in the United States. The more I watched the video the more I started paying attention to the choreography. Throughout the music video the choreography style is constantly changing. It took me a while but I finally realised what it reminded me of. When I was in high school during the mid 2010s, there was a trend where people would record videos of themselves doing dance moves from each decade to show how dance trends change over time. I’m not by any means an expert on choreography, but there are certain dance moves I recognize, and I soon realized that dance moves from most time periods are covered. From the minstrel era, to the dance trends of the 2010s, with stops in between like the 1920s juke-joint style swinging seen when the school children first show up, and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air-like dancing he does right before he guns down the choir. When you juxtapose these violent images alongside this you create a message that America has always been violent, and in turn has used music and dance as a form of distraction. 

The reason I say ‘distraction’ comes down to Gambino’s placement in the video. With only a few exceptions, Gambino is always the one closest to the camera, and the only one who is always in focus. Also, he and the school children are usually the only ones facing the camera. Basic film theory states that the average audience will focus first on whatever is closest to them and whatever is facing them, especially if they are moving. The school children take this another step further by acting as a sort of wall. They are always shown surrounding him and mimicking his every move. All this movement takes away from what is going on in the background. Much like the school children, we are focused on the celebrity in front of us. 

Gambino isn’t just playing himself though. Shawn Cee as well as others have pointed out that in the beginning of the video the body language and facial gestures of Gambino resemble Jim Crow and other minstrel characters. He stumbles around, almost puppet-like. His facial expressions are constantly rotating. He always starts expressionless before morphing his face into some sort of caricature, which only lasts for a second before he reverts back to his expressionless face. I notice a similar thing in the videos of minstrel actors like Al Jolson when they sing they randomly bulge their eyes out. When you look at old advertising that used minstrel characters they usually have strange expressions on their faces (think of the Coon Chicken logo and you realise it’s one of the faces Gamino is making. So to me the beginning of the video resembles entertainment in the old south, which makes sense to me because some speculate that Gambino is wearing confederate pants in the video. However this is just half of the costume. Though he is shirtless he is also wearing gold chain necklaces, which give the appearance of the modern celebrity, perhaps this is a way of connecting modern musicians with those of the past. Besides Jim Crow, Gambino’s choreography resembles other popular artists like Michael Jackson and Lil Wayne. In a way he is commenting on his own role in this as a member of the music industry.

 I remember listening to a rap station about a month after this song came out. July was just around the corner and I remember the radio DJs discussing how this was the perfect song to dance to during a 4th of July barbeque. In a way it was kind of fitting that even though the song and music video is about violence in America and that   music is used as a form of distraction, that we would take this song and have ourselves become distracted during the holidays.