Analysis Of Childish Gambino's Song 'This Is America'

The song This is America which was created by Donald Glover also known as Childish Gambino tells a symbolic story illustrated in a mind-altering style. The song is heavily stacked with metaphors about race and gun violence in America. According to the article, “An Expert's Take on the Symbolism in Childish Gambino’s Viral ‘This Is America’ Video” written by Mahita Gajanan , it states that his song is, “a counter-narrative and it really leaves you with chills.”. The song clearly tells a story using a variety of characters and organized events. In this paper, we will be examining this powerful song, This is America, brought to life by childish gambino; and using ideological criticism to do so.

The artifact I chose was the song This is America

The message is displayed through many puissant lyrics throughout the song. First and foremost the lyric repeated the most and arguably the most important line in this song as well as the title “This is America” . This line is so simple but so incredibly influential on the listeners throughout this song. The line communicates to the listeners this is what you expect nothing more nothing less this is what America has developed to. Furthermore another salient lyric “This is America…Don't catch you slippin' now…Look at how I'm livin' now, Police be trippin' now” this line in the song implies one wrong move could be your last and you could end up in jail simply because your black because thats how impaired America's justice system is. Another notable lyric in this artifact is “You just a black man in this world, you just a barcode” this line is very significant to this song and the deeper meaning behind the artifact, because it implies to the listener your accomplishments as a black person will never be equivalent to the accomplishments of someone who isn't a black and to America your just a “barcode” alluding to the listeners as a black man in america you will end up in jail at some point. The method I think best illustrated in this song is ideological criticism, ideological criticism is researchers being interested in what the

The song bounces around from themes such as police brutality to gun violence in the song there is seventeen seconds of silence for each victim of the Parkland school shooting that happened prior to this song being released. The first step in this method is to present elements, in this song the song starts off slow and calm with the lyrics “yeah, yeah, yeah…” and you can hear people in the background moving around. This illustrates to the reader the people expressing their concerns and wanting to be approachable and calm about the situation. The beat switches from choral tones to a trap sound, this impacts the listener because it's when the song turns around and foreshadows the singer no longer wants to be quiet he wants to be heard.The first line is “this is america” when the song kicks up a notch and it shows the people expressing their concerns are passionate about the topic, Gambino also released a video to go along with the song and at one point in the video he dances with a group of kids clad in school uniforms, smiling as violence erupts behind them. I think this really is a perfect example of how easily distracted we get from the bigger picture of things even if it's things as little as dancing. Both of these things aid to