This Is America is a song by Childish Gambino that came out in America on the 5th of may 2018. Childish Gambino is just the musical stage name of Donald Glover. He is an American actor, rapper, comedian, writer and producer. The genre of the music is Afrobeat HipHop trap.
The first establishing shot we see is a chair with a guitar on it in a garage. This gives away very little of what the video will later entail however relates the video to the music. The music at the begging is very upbeat and bright. We then see a man walk into the zooming shot and pick up the guitar. As he sits and begins to play the instrument the song picks up and we actually hear guitar playing. The focus is on him and the background is blurred (low depth of field). This attracts the viewers attention to the man until the camera moves and we see Donald in the background. We do not see his face as he is turned and facing the other direction. This creates a sense of mystery and confusion about what is going on. This then moves our attention over to the artist. His movements synchronise to the beat of the music making it very satisfying for the viewer to watch. It also connects the video again to the music. The camera continues to zoom until we reach a mid shot.
The artist then reveals himself and we are able to establish it is him. He begins to dance and move to the positive music however makes slightly unusual facial expressions while doing so (this makes the viewer think twice about the upbeat tone of the video and almost makes him seem slightly psychotic). We then see the original man from the beginning in the same chair however his head is covered. This creates a sense of discomfort as it juxtaposes the upbeat and joyful music playing. Donald then pulls out a gun which intensifies this feeling of discomfort for the audience and starts getting us thinking about the true meaning of the video.
A very graphic sight of the man being shot and the very powerful and impactful noise then shifts the theme of the video completely. The audience had only previously seen the man in the chair in a fun and upbeat setting which made us think he was a friendly and innocent man (this makes the shooting more devastating as we have already grown a small connection with him). The beat becomes a lot more dark and daunting reflecting the negative image immediately as the gun shoots. The first lyric are then 'This is America' suggesting that the artist feels a negative way towards the country and thinks it is unsafe. It is a bold statement to start with that definitely tells a lot to the audience about the artist and how he feels.
While the artist still looks jolly and happy what we can see in the depth of field shows otherwise. We see lots of people running with intent of violence. The fact that the artist is so happy and is not reacting to his surroundings makes the scene more uncomfortable to the audience (this is probably what he wanted to achieve). He is also acting as if these things are normal putting forward a strong message to the audience as these actions are not normal and disturbing. We then see teenagers join him (wearing uniform) and start dancing along with him. This again juxtaposes the surroundings and creates a sense of confusion. The teens represent youth and joy which is the opposite of the surrounding and previous themes. We then see a choir and the music becomes more upbeat again which perks up our mood as a viewer. However again this joy is completely shattered and Donald is suddenly thrown a gun and shoots the choir. This hits the audience and again makes us feel uncomfortable and shocked. This is what the artist will have wanted us to feel as the topic should be unconfortable and he wants us to feel the emotion he does.
The music then again shifts back to a daunting beat and the artist again uses the lyrics 'This is America' which builds up more power than the statement did the first time and reminded us of the message that is being put across. Again we see people running and violence in the shot behind him recreating the earlier themes and a sense of chaos. We see the artist and the school children again dancing however this time to the deep music rather than an upbeat tone. While this is going on the surroundings are intense and chaotic juxtaposing what we see. This could suggest that these themes are not only normal now to the artist but he may be suggesting that it has become normal for teenagers as well and violence is overlooked. The artist again pulls his hands out as if going to shoot which startles the audience however there is no gun this time. This creates a sense of relief however all the people around immediately run away and disappear. We hear a scream from a young girl which is again put in to makes us fell uncomfortable (especially as it is someone young and innocent making the noise).
The music stops for a few seconds creating silence. An upbeat folk tone returns and we see the original man that was shot not he chair playing the guitar again (however his head is still covered). We zoom out and see Donald dancing on top of a car until we reach the door and there is a black screen. The music video ends by returning to the scary discomfort. This time we see the artist running away in a dark room (creates a sense of fear). The lyrics say 'just a black man in this world' which is very powerful. We see a close up in darkness of the fear in his eyes as he runs and begin to see others behind him doing the same. This suggests these fears created in the video relate to a large amount of people and a whole community. This powerful ending is very memorable and impactful on the audience which puts across a large takeaway message.
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