It would be a crime not to put Childish Gambino’s “This is America” on this site. “This is America” has been undoubtedly one of the most interesting, influential and controversial music videos to come out in recent years. The music video gathered a whopping 85.3 million views within it’s first week, and now currently with 385 MILLION views it sits at the number 1 spot of the YouTube song charts. With a plethora of hidden meanings and symbols, “This is America” is the talk of the town and will continue to be for years to come.
“This is America” was released May 5th, 2018 on YouTube and the music video quickly rose to fame due to it’s unsettling imagery and symbolism. This video definitely carries the element of surprise as Gambino is seen dancing but then out of nowhere draws a gun and shoots the man. This video seems to pull attention to the image and morals of the United States. Some hidden symbolism suggests that we place more value on guns then we do on human life. This is depicted after Gambino shoots the man and places his into a red cloth. The gun then is carefully wrapped and taken away.
Gambino then continues to dance without showing any remorse for what he just did.
The background of the video is also very interesting. As the main cast of the video dances about what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, chaos of all sorts begins to brew behind them. Mobs of people are running, fighting with each other and Police and essentially bringing the place to ground.
This riot continues to grow throughout the video but all the while the main cast continues to dance with smiles on their faces. This could be considered symbolism of how the media distracts us from what is really going on in our country. The video keeps us focused on the dancing rather than the growing riot and everything else happening in the background.
Did you notice the white horse? Again, more symbolism lost in the background. A “Pale Horse” is an apocalyptic symbol of death. In which the director and Gambino are both trying to tell us where exactly where our country is headed. Turmoil is on the horizon but we are still distracted by the moves of the main cast.
The music moves into a milder B section as well as a change in scenery. Still within the broken down and abandoned warehouse, Gambino begins climbing on top of an old American car. The camera zooms out to a plethora of old, abandoned American model vehicles.
This may be symbolism of the progression of the U.S. suggesting that we have not progressed technologically and may also dip into our progression in general. Maybe its suggesting we are still living in our old ways and if we don’t change now, we will heading towards some dark days or should I say darker days.
This video has been a controversial topic among media since its release in May of this year. Still sitting at the number 1 spot for most views on youtube it leaves a lot open to be interpreted and debated. There is probably still hidden symbols laying within the video that maybe we haven’t noticed yet. Either way, this video is eye opening to the way we view media in our day in age and how we perceive the United States.
MUSIC Factory 
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