Childish Gambino’s “This is America” music video is a whirlwind of lyrics, images, and themes that at first glance are hard to piece together, but after a while start to make a whole lot of sense. When I first watched the music video, I’m not going to lie, I was completely confused, and I was left with an overall feeling of, “what the heck just happened.” I watched it three more times, and now I think I’m beginning to understand the genius behind everything the music video pieced together. From the dancing to the lyrics, Gambino created a video that represented America and its troubling past and present.
Childish Gambino dances throughout his video. His movements are overall very interesting, but looking at them first glance, they could be considered awkward and perhaps even funny. The choreography is not random. The dancing is an odd way of a distraction to the crazy and hectic actions that are made throughout the video (such as killing people or fighting each other in the background). As if to say, that things are happening but being swept under the rug. I don’t mean that Gambino is trying to sweep these hard topics under the rug, quite the opposite, I think he is trying to show us just how easy it is for people to get distracted from the issues occurring all around us. The way he decided to convey this message is effective because the video is just so crazy that it forces you to watch it again because you want to know what exactly he was going for. It was also effective because the music video wasn’t really in your face, it was subtle in the way it went about bringing up these harder topics which makes them somewhat easier to digest.
The lyrics in the video also took me a minute to kind of understand the real meaning behind them. I specifically find the lyrics “We just want to party, party just for you, we just want the money, money just for you.” I feel as if these lyrics could be easily glossed over, but for some reason they really stuck with me. I think Gambino used these lyrics to convey the feeling that we all want equal rights, opportunities, and everything in between yet America still hasn’t truly allowed that to happen. There are more lyrics that convey this similar message throughout the song. Overall, the lyrics were effective in conveying the message because they were fairly straight forward without explicitly saying the idea flat out.
I want to leave you with some questions. Do you think you would change any of the lyrics to make the message more clear or do you like the subtle subtext Gambino uses? Do you think that Gambino was effect in sending his message the way he did in his music video?
Caroline Survives and Thrives 
I really like how you commented on the fact that he and the schoolchildren were dancing to distract from the chaos that was happening behind them. I think it’s also interesting to think about how the dances he continues to do throughout are taken straight from Black culture as well. Do you think this changes the meaning of what you said or deepens it–maybe considering how it’s not only easy to distract from the larger issues behind the dancers, but it’s easy to take the parts of Black culture we “like” (dancing, music, style) and ignore the hate and prejudice that goes on in the background?
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Hi Caroline! I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of Gambino’s “This is America” because you went through your thought process and reactions, while giving your interpretation. It really made me feel like I was there talking to you about it, which made it super engaging as part of your audience. I loved your interpretation and attention to the lyrics of Gambino’s song! I totally agree that people would over look them and not take in what they truly mean, especially with the elaborate video. The questions you left at the end really made me think about the video again and again and what I think and could pick out. Can’t wait for your next post!
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Hey Caroline! I really like your title and think it is super creative. It ties in really well with what you were writing about in your blog post: specifically, how the music video can be hard to interpret and understand the deeper meaning of, but that there is a bigger picture (despite the crazy dancing and upbeat music). I also really like how you mention the dancing because that is something I noticed as well. Do you think there are other reasons the crazy dancing was implemented other than to show that deep-rooted issues are being swept under the rug? Overall, loved your blog post and the casual tone of it. You have a strong voice and it is interesting to read!
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Hi Caroline. I enjoyed reading your post! I completely agree with you that the messages within this video were very hard to digest after watching it just once. I found your idea that Gambino was trying to expose how little attention these terroristic events receive to be very similar to my own interpretation of the visuals he included. I also think that the chorus lyrics have a significant impact in displaying the similarities in intentions of all races, which could easily be heard as filler lyrics. Overall, I view your interpretation of “This is America” very similar to my own, and the questions you leave the reader off on are great food for thought. Thanks for sharing!
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