music video analysis- 'THIS IS AMERICA' Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino is the stage name for Donald Glover; an American rapper, comedian, writer and producer. He has been featured in numerous mainstream Hollywood credits including 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' where he played Lando Calrissian. He also voiced Simba in 'The Lion King' remake. He has a double Emmy and double Golden Globe award for 'Atlanta', a show he created and also starred in. 

Dyer and his star theory-

• He's created a different character- 'Childish Gambino 
• He has been in a number of different media- film, tv, music and comedy which has helped him to construct an image for himself. 

These ideas are not new, it is interesting to see how he some similarities between artists who, on the surface, have very little in common- for example 'Elvis Presley'. Both benefited from wide exposure including tv appearances, acting roles and music videos. 'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis (1957) is a well known music video: 

'This is America' was released in the US on the the 5th of May, in 2018 to coincide with Donald Glover hosting 'Saturday Night Live', one of America's well known tv shows. 

The song's genre is hip-hop with deliberate elements of Afro beats. 

The song release was not previously advertised or announced but did appear online whilst he was on SNL doing comedy. 

'This is America' music video- 

'This is America' by Childish Gambino has constant references to American controversial subject matters about ethnic minorities and playing with stereotypes and the mistreatment and injustice of black people in America. It also focuses on matters like gun crime and police in the US. 

The opening of the music video portrays a black man sitting on a chair playing his guitar alone. In the background of the shot, Gambino can be seen hiding behind a pillar, maybe suggesting that black minorities are always being watched by an upper status. Gambino then approaches the man and shoots him in the back of the head, the guitar strummer now also has a head cloth, covering his face when being shot. Gambino then hands the gun to a man who wraps in in red cloth, this just represents how how guns are treated with more priority and importance than actual black lives, the red cloth could also symbolize how America is predominantly a republican state who adopts old, conservative values. The now dead man is dragged along the floor, again by school children, out of the frame. This is done in one slow, continues shot which helps the audience to really focus on what's being illustrated on screen, the contrast between the happy few seconds at the start of the video with the man playing the guitar to the sudden shooting is very shocking. The pose Gambino does when shooting the man resembles Jim Crow, a fictional racist character which illustrated black African-Americans as inhumane, lazy and stupid. His facial expressions throughout also resonate with those of Jim Crow's.  

Throughout the music video, school children play a role in evoking meaning throughout. From the start of the video, it is a school kid who takes the gun off of childish gambino after shooting the guitarist. This shows how present children are today in harsh events due to exposure through social media. It also implies how the weight of those mistakes of the older generation are being put on those of a younger generation to carry. During the video, the kids are present whilst all these issues are playing out about gun violence, racism and the police. At one point in the video, a school girl cycles through a riot evoking the idea of how kids are having to grow up in the middle of chaos and destruction within a country. The kids wear school uniform to amplify their youth and innocence in contrast to the violence happening elsewhere in the video. At one point in the video, there is a moving shot where you catch an image of school children filming the riots illustrating how our new generation lives online. 

The lyrics 'This is America, don't catch you slippin' now' is Gambino's way of symbolizing the silencing of black people in America and how they have to be careful as prejudice is always by their sides due to the colour of their skin. In the video, when Gambino says these lyrics, he often contrasts them with weird, smiling facial expression which continues to amplify the harsh realities of America and how black people cannot do anything about it. Riots also play out throughout a portion of the music video whilst Gambino sings which highlights the protests for better respect for those minorities as well as emphasizing the significance of gun crime and policing in the US. Gambino says the lyrics 'guns in the area, I got the strap' which demonstrates the level of gun crime throughout America, it is available to anyone in the public which only exaggerates the violence in the US with armed forces weaponry available. Gambino fights back on stereotypes in his lyrics when saying 'Look at how I'm living now, Police be trippin' now'. By saying this, his defies the stereotype of black people being less successful and popular as Ronald Grover is now wealthy and known globally. However, he also highlights the realities of black lives in the US in the lyric 'Grandma told me get your money, black man (get your money)' saying that early on, they'd have to go and earn money as they haven't come from wealthy families. Gambino also expresses his opinions on our self obsessed generation, the lyrics 'I'm on Gucci, I'm so pretty' imply how our generation is obsessed with materialistic items and people wanting to be seen as something their not. 

In the gospel section of the song, the video references the Charleston church shooting in 2015 carried out by Dylann Roof who committed this act due to white supremacy. In this part of the video, there is a shot of a gospel choir singing enthusiastically outside a building; soon after this, Gambino violently shoots them all without hesitation making it an extremely violent scene. The graphic shot of this only helps for audiences to realize that these issues about black lives are real. 

The video is predominantly based in a warehouse which seems too represent an old factory, at some point the location was a place for business and had jobs for masses. However, it is now empty and filled with riots, the deserted industrial unit suggests the loss of jobs within American societies as so many things are no exported around the world, Americans don't have as much opportunity. Towards the end of the video, Gambino dances on an old car surrounded by several other old, average American cars in the warehouse. This illustrates what the warehouse used to be for- but now no one has use for these old vehicles. Whilst on the car, Gambino references James Brown's 'get down' as he ducks. 

Throughout the video, dancing is used to contrast the violence and rioting in the background of the music video. Gambino dances with the school children as they reference the South African 'gwara gwara' dance as well as the social media viral 'shoot' dance. The contrast the the happy dancing, I would argue, only amplifies the violence as the juxtaposition is so huge. Nowadays, violence is so common that it is hard to find meaning and emotion towards it but the dancing in this music video helps the audience to realize and face the true issues at hand. The children dancing also implies their innocence towards the situations at hands and can somewhat distract us from the dark realities going on in the background. 

The end of the video shows Gambino sprinting away from something with huge fear during the lyrics 'You just a black man in this world, You just a barcode' displaying how black people are not seen as having individual identities in America. The running implies the ever ongoing idea that black people having to run for their lives which dates back to black slavery. The ending also references the horror film 'Get Out' which explores the discrimination of black people in America.

Gambino uses juxtaposition throughout his video which is what makes it so effective, discussing real issues through filming is captivating for an audience and also informative. Gambino raises issues about the criticization of black lives in America referencing real events which only makes the video more incredible and eye-opening for an audience. 

looking at logos and creating logos

 Logos are vital in producing a band's image; they help to make them recognisable and more popular. 

Here is a few example of well known band logos- 

There are different types of logos you can create- 

• abstract mark
• mascot logo 
  
• combination mark
• emblem logo 
• letter mark 
• word mark 
• pictorial mark

We were given the task to create a band logo, I choice to play around with a logo from my research on 'band camp' where I created a band called 'unfiltered'. They are a lowkey, indie band who consist of three members. 

I tried out different types of logos to see what fitted best. I started by creating word marks which I think are effective but then started to develop them into abstract marks like triangles and lines which helps to convey that there are three in the band. I think that the more simplistic logos I designed were the most effective as they seem more clean, the band is also lowkey so having a simple logo correlates to this. 

An interview with a music manager

Emma is a music manager primarily, but as the industry is changing her job has evolved to multiple different roles- for example, she also writes and works in publishing. Nowadays, the industry is changing so much to the way in which music is putting out and with that, her job also evolves. She has written for Craig David, Little mix as well as German and Asian groups.  

She was a singer herself from a young age at the start of her career, she then started to work as people such as 'blue', Craig David and Gary Barlow. She worked in the development and scouting team (as well as a vocal coach) in America's Got Talent and X factor through Simon Cowl, as she worked with him at his record label 'Syco records'. After the artists came off the show she also helped them develop their careers at Syco. She words with a wide scope of artists from the social media influencing world to old artists and newly emerging artists. 

Things have changed from artists bringing ideas to a record label. About five years ago however, it became harder in that they have to show a full finished song to the record label. Even recently, it is much more important that the artist already has a following which makes it harder for some artists to break through as less marketing is needed. Streaming figures and having a platform is much more important, being discovered by playing in a bar for example, is much more rare. 

The music industry is constantly changing as new trends rise, making it hard to determine what music will be popular. A lot of artists go down the featured root by collaborating with a well known artist in order to gain popularity. 

In terms of image, Emma may have to work with people who have less social presence to help their star image develop organically. Sometimes with artists, they also rebrand them to match the more current trends in order to gain more streaming figures. 

Recently, a someone created a cover of 'Put Your Records On' by Corrine Bailey Ray, a song which Emma helped to put out in her management company, blew up on a social media platform in just a few days from a popular influencer to roughly 100 million streams (£500,000 pounds worth) which proves how social media has now got a huge influence on the music industry. This also makes people rediscover the original song and therefore brings in profit for the management company. Ritt Monmey had to ask for permission in order to record the track as they own the rights to the song. 

Original Corrine Bailey Ray track 'Put Your Records On'- (current streaming figures on Spotify are 347,603,248 million streams, the song was released 2006)

New cover by Ritt Monmey- (current streaming figures on Spotify are 274,194,738 million streams, the song was released in 2020)

The management company helps to create release strategies to help make songs gain more popularity. However, nowadays, songs can grow a lot more organically due to people being able to release their songs on social media platforms like TikTok. 

A lot of record labels only use specific types of artist (like pop artists) whereas Emma's company has developed to the point where she has employed a range of artists. Throughout the pandemic, is has been harder for people to get scouted and release their music due to not being able to go to the studio which has resulted in zoom writing sessions. Festivals were also cancelled in 2019 meaning that a lot of new artists couldn't get out in the open. 

In terms of albums and physical copies of music, they are becoming less and less popular as streaming is becoming more popular- people in the UK rarely buy them unless they are going to see someone live and taking home a souvenir. Vinyl's are starting to become more popular however, due to its authenticity. Albums are still very popular in Japan and Korea so album popularity depends on the markets around the globes. 

Is the music video still relevant? 

Music videos are still seen as important to labels as audiences and fans like to see the song be performed. Although, people are still not as excited as before for videos- but for artists, it is part of the experience to create a music video and is engaging for the artist. 

Andrew Goodwin- conventions of music videos theory

 Andrew Goodwin theories that music videos have all the following features (common conventions)- 

• links between the lyrics and visuals 

This is where the visuals of the music video reflect and represent the lyrics either metaphorically, symbolically or literally. 

Example- Glad You Came by The Wanted

Lyrics that have links with the visuals:

• links between the music and the visuals 

This is where the songs vibe and energy correlates to what's happening in the music video in terms of editing etc. 

Example- Bonkers by Dizzie Rascal 

The visuals of a music video can reflect the pace, rhythm and atmosphere of the music. An example of this is 'Bonkers' by Dizzee Rascal where the fast paced editing reflects the chaos of the music. 

Lots of different lighting and people partying also reflects the mood of the music:

• the videos reflects the common conventions of the genre of music 

This is when the music video consists of many typical features of the songs genre. For this example, I chose a pop video. 

Example: Last Friday Night by Katy Perry

This video is youthful and playful as the actors in the video are students at highschool at a party. This demonstrates the pop genre as teens are largely the target audience. The theme and colours throughout the video are also bright and colourful making it create a happy, pop atmosphere. 

• use of intertextual references (referencing one text within another)

This is when music videos will reference real world issues or other films or music videos within their videos for added effects; it helps to draw in audience, particularly referencing things that suit the target audience of the artist is useful. 

Example- This is America by Childish Gambino

'This is America' by Childish Gambino has constant references to American controversial subject matters about ethnic minorities and playing with stereotypes and the mistreatment and injustice of black people in America. The video also explores the gun crime in America as well as the police and references black history (like dances) throughout. 

• notions of looking and voyeurism (enjoying watching people)

This is when videos will focus on body language, dancing and sexualized images for entertainment purposes. This is common for women to do in music videos in terms of the 'male gaze'. It is common in pop and hip-hop and is predominantly female based although there are videos with a subversion of male gaze (looking at a male sexually).

Example- 7 Rings by Ariana Grande

In this music video, there are lots of close up shots with women dancing with revealing clothing on, as well as lots of close up on Ariana Grande (the artist) implying sexual body language.  

• Reflective of the record label 

This is when the video could reflect issues like the record labels financial status, power and connections. 

Example- Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

This video clearly is with a well known, high budget record label as multiple, big sets are used. Lots of actors are also in the video as well as multiple costumes.

• Star image is a key focus 

This is when the video contains lots of close up images of the artist. 

Example- Countdown by Beyonce

This video shows close ups of Beyonce throughout, this is because she is well known and people are attracted to her and her music. 

• Performance/Narrative/Concept based 

Performance based - showing the band or artists actually singing and performing. 

Example- 'American Idiot' By Green Day 

In this video, the band perform as a group and play their instruments as if doing a performance.

Narrative based- when the music video shows a story or narrative throughout the music video.

 

Example- Love Yourself by Justin Bieber

This video follows a narrative of a couple at home struggling with their relationship. 

 

Concept based- this is when the focus of the music video isn't necessarily on performance or narrative, more an idea or something abstract to make it unusual or shocking. 

Example- Thunderclouds by LSD

Music videos and YouTube

For music videos... 

1.  You need a good song

2.  What makes the artist stand out?

Looking at artists first music videos: 

'Motivation'- Normani’s first music video 

Normani was initially in the band ‘Fifth Harmony’ so this high energy music video she came out with is her first solo debut. 

What is the record label saying about the artist?

• That she can dance and perform.
• Intertextual references to Beyoncé's, JLo's and Britney Spear's early music videos throughout  explains how she is going for that kind of performance and fame as well as showing off her icons to the audience. 
• Lots of shots using ‘male gaze’ to make her seem desirable. 
• Use of pink/purple and revealing clothes shows that she’s feminine.
• References to sport throughout is putting her out as a multitalented artist. 
• Colour scheme and movement as well as the song illustrates that she’s a pop artist. 
• The visuals match the genre of music (pop).
• Clothing and set references to 2000s music. 

key conventions of a Digi-pack (album cover):

• track list
• title of album 
• artist band name
• studio/label responsible
• legal information 
• Warning (if applicable)

Normani's First album cover- 

• what works?

Record label using her attractiveness and sexuality to sell her to an audience- she stares as the camera and is posed. 

The album artwork matches to atmosphere and colour scheme of the music video as well as the genre (pop). 

Her clothing also matches the atmosphere of the music video as well as the font being used on the front cover. 

Her face is used on the front which is important for recognition as it is her first single. 

• what conventions have been used to convey her as a pop artist? 

Her clothing is quite basic and not unusual, she creates an early 2000s aura with her short crop top and low waisted jeans. 

The cover is bright and pink clearly showing the pop genre. 

Her sexuality and attractiveness displayed in both the album cover and the music video represent a typical female pop artist. 

The font is girly and glittery again illustrating her as a feminine pop artist. 

Social media- a marketing strategy

People follow people, they are engaged with someone who is a 'real person'. Three factors that make an audience engaged:

Engagement- Fun things that make the audience engage with your feed e.g. memes, cool pictures etc. (50% of feed so that the audience is regular on your social media.)

Story Telling- Letting the audience in on information about your music e.g. pictures of a recording studio or behind the scene footage. Showing the artists journey. (30% so that the audience feel they are a part of the artist's life and so they can see a story unravelling)

Promotion- Selling products like merchandise/tickets/single to increase profits. (20% of feed)

Captions are important for creating context for your audience, which allows you to see more about the artist/bands personal life. Using questions in your captions can help to further engage audiences. 

Creating my own social media for the previous band I created 'unfiltered' using these strategies to make three instagram posts- 

Engagement post-

 

Storytelling post-

Promotion post- 

Star theory: Richard Dyer

The biggest stars in the music industry all tend to have things in common, even if their music differs...

• youthfulness
• rebellion
• sexual magnetism 
• an anti-authoritarian attitude 
• originality 
• creativity and talent 
• aggression/anger
• disregard for social values (relating to drugs, sex and manners)
• conspicuous consumption (of sex, drugs and material goods)
• success against the odds

Obviously, these don't apply to every single artist but is a broad picture. All of these factors can be seen as overly exaggerated traits of the artists targeted audiences. 

"the term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meaning constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience" 

So ultimately, 'stars' are no different to anybody else with the same talent, 'stars' don't even have to be extremely talented, they are just marketed, sold and created as a star and sold to audiences as something special- 'a star'. 

Richard Dyer- the 'star' theory 

• a star is an image, not a real person, they are constructed out of a range of materials (eg videos, photos, performances etc.)
• Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. 
• Stars depend on a range of media, they can't just rely on their music, they have to be on radio, tv, the internet in order to do everything they can to be sold to their targeted audiences.
• the 'star image' is made up of a range of meaning which are attractive to the target audiences. 

Iconic imagery- sometimes unique selling points are used to continue to sell the star image. This is when the creation of iconic imagery can be easily associated with a star so that it can help to further sell their star image. For example, Michael Jackson's white glove- 

Unique selling points- A music star VS a film star 

music stars tend to have an advantage over film stars in that their 'star image' is much more consistent as it is not relied on the creative input of others (screenwriters, directors etc.). Actors play characters and therefore creating an image can be harder as audiences watch them as characters not real people.

The 'star image' changes over time, musicians can change their appearances as they age over time and as their audiences grow older and their style/music changes. For example, Miley Cyrus- 

Richard Dyer's theory as three main ideas/features that make a star:

1. The star is a construction- the image of the artists have been created by their management. 
2. The star as a commodity- the star has been constructed to appeal to their target audiences. 
3. The star as an ideology- the image of the artist and what they represent/believe in. 

Richard Dyer says the star image in incoherent (incomplete and open), Dyer believes that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes. 

Paradox 1: "The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer" -someone to look up to but also someone to relate to. 

Paradox 2: "The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer"- having the audience know them enough, but not enough to get sick of them. 

The star image is designed by the label through all media products- they are selling the brand, not the album; the better the image, the easier to sell. 

New changes and opportunities:

Social media- new media which has a big impact on star image. It is used cleverly by record labels as the record labels can use the artists to talk directly to their audiences. 

An example of star theory- Beyonce 

Beyonce was originally in the band 'Destiny's child' which is what brought her fame, it was a successful R&B group in the late 90s/early 2000s. 

Her star image is presented a powerful, 'real' woman, she has the stage name 'Sasha Fierce'. Her music has an overall R&B tone but she has created ballards and more pop type songs as well, showing off her diversity within the music industry, this is exciting for her fans as she has been in the music business for a long time. 

She has taken part in numerous interviews, tours and performances which all correlate to her 'star image'. 

Beyonce represents power and is extremely influential on teen girls and women, she has incredible performances but also speaks out as an activist making her liked by more audiences, she is portrayed as down to earth and authentic yet a 'power house'. She has created iconic music videos which has made her known by audiences globally. As Beyonce has matured over time, her music has become more political as well (her Lemonade album). 

Beyonce's youthful career, early on. Portrayed as a good looking, feminine popstar.

Beyonce become more mature, introduces 'Sasha Fierce' as a stage (alter ego) name.

As she gets older, we see her maturity shine through even on her album covers, but fans still love her music and performances.

Keeping up her image throughout different platforms-

Instagram/social media: 

Music videos: 

Through these images, you can see how Beyonce's persona stays the same throughout all media platforms, helping to make her star image consistent and effective.