INTRODUCTION
This essay is based on a semiotics analysis on an American artist Childish Gambino’s music video titled THIS IS AMERICA. With the Aid of the semiotics signs through out the music video, the aim of this essay is to clearly inform what exactly transpires during the music video. Screen-grabs will aid in giving reference to actual meaning of the scenes and what they intel.
This essay will provide insight on how America as a country is run, the hardships of an African American male as well as the brutality of law-enforcement against them in the USA. I will furthermore give a brief history of the American artist Childish Gambino and what his insight on the music video is as well as a clearer picture of what he was trying to interpret when writing the song through out to the creation of the nuanced yet vivid music video on America with subliminal messages.
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This essay serves to briefly inform on the events that have occurred and motivated the artist. I will provide information on how the song gave an impact on America and its listeners as well as the world outside of the USA, key elements that make the song particularly great and popular will be informed.
Denotation and connotation together with the study of myths will be explained in this essay. A better understanding of the signified and the signifier with examples.
Semiotics
Semiotics is an analysis on how meaning is created and how important it is communicated. Its roots lie in the academic research of how signs and images (visual and etymological) make meaning. It is a method for seeing the world, and of seeing how the scene and culture we are in, the way we live massively affects the way we look or think about things. Our activities and thoughts – what we do unconsciously – are more often represented by a set of cultural norms and pacts and based on upon our capacity to translate them intuitively and immediately (Sign Salad).
For example, when we see the different colours of a traffic light, we naturally realize how to respond to them. We know this without thinking a lot about it. In any case, this is a sign which has been built up by culture well over an extensive stretch of time and which we learn as youngsters and requires an arrangement of oblivious social information to comprehend its importance. Viewing and translating (or decoding) this sign allows us to explore the scene of our community and society. Everybody is a semiotician, since everybody is always unconsciously depicting the significance of signs around them – from traffic lights to colours on flags, the shapes of cars today, the engineering of structures, and the designs of food packaging (Sign Salad).
In context, we must comprehend the setting in which a sign is shown in order to comprehend what the meaning is, and afterwards act suitably. What is happening around the sign is as a rule as significant for us to know as the sign itself so as to translate its importance (Sign Salad).
Donald Glover
Donal Glover aka Childish Gambino is an Atlanta born multi-talented writer, actor comedian, director, producer and mostly known as a musician. Childish Gambino created a hit single ‘This Is America’ in 2018 and became the first artist to win Record of the Year and Song of the Year for a hip-hop song at the 2019 Grammy Awards (Watercutter, 2019)
This is America
“I just wanted to make, you know, a good song. Something people could play on Fourth of July”(Sharf, 2018) in an interview asked about his intentions with the song at the met Gala in 2018 Childish Gambino answered with very few words and refused to add any further comments. Glover's music video tells a past filled with dark abuse in America (from Jim Crow to police Brutality) and portrays America's bogus guarantee of opportunity or freedom (Sharf, 2018)
The songs visual begins with this striking juxtaposition. Over South African-sung songs, a black man in a seat is playing a guitar in a vacant distribution centre while shirtless Glover sings with his back to the camera. Childish Gambino switches back and forth between tribal dance moves and viral dances while blazing an overstated minstrel-like grin. The primary stun in the video one of many comes when Glover takes a gun and shoots the man playing guitar in the back of the head (Evstatieva, 2018).
In the opening scene Donald Glover Has his back against a man playing a guitar who looks like Travon martins Father, Travon Martin a 17-year-old boy whom was shot in racial controversy by George Zimmerman. The man playing the guitar is then Shot in the head. This is a representation of old school music being dead (McKinney 2018). Rwandan Sherrie Silver created a dance move grouping what was not just integral to the video for This is America, however to a debate on the job of popular culture in a world buried in political and social contentions (Chutel, 2018).
These are not dances with deep meanings to them, yet rather they're the most productive types of imaginative articulation for youthful Africans at the present time with the most prolific forms of creative expressions (Chutel, 2018).
Chaos. Domestic Terrorism. Hate Crimes. Shucking and Jiving. Distractions. Gun violence are all key aspects in the music video. Representative of the fantasies that pass on with blameless casualties of weapon violence, Could the shooter (Gambino) be seeing his unfortunate casualty as nothing, henceforth the secured face? Truly. The individuals who take lives don't respect or regard human life and such accompanies it. They take vistims at their unfortunate casualties as nobodies, only vessels for their own regard. What's more, the way that the body was so immediately taken from the scene indicates how quick we overlook such injury in our reality (Rao, 2018).
The scene shifts into what resembles a more carefree visual of Gambino hitting the dance floor with students. The youngsters look cheerful and peppy, rapidly changing gears from injury to fun. Out of sight there's unadulterated mayhem going on however none of the kids appear to see… they simply hit the dance floor with enormous grins on their faces. They don't appear to have an idea to what's happening around them, all they appear to think about is showing the most recent moves.
There's a vehicle ablaze, the police and civilians are going near, a man committed suicide by jumping to his foreseen death and there’s a man wearing all dark cloths riding a white horse, yet the children pay it no attention. Is this emblematic of ALL OF US (not simply kids) simply needing to have a ton of fun and be engaged or is this a situation where a lot of good can be harming? we can perceive how this could be suggestive of us getting to be desensitized and not caring the slightest bit about what's happening around us (Rao, 2018).
In another scene Childish Gambino shoots an entire choir resembling the mass shooting of the first Major Post-Parkland Charleston Shooting. This is certainly an image of the hate people in this nation convey in their souls towards non-white individuals.
In the Video most of the events that happen in the background we miss because of the dancing in the foreground. America is almost overshadowed by the entertainment going around that they don’t see what happens in the day to day life. The world at large is also blocked from seeing what is happening to African Americans in America against police brutality and general hate for people with colour. We tend to only see the good the things that make us believe America is great but in actual fact the scenes behind all that greatness is where the wicked lay (Creative Soul Writing).
Signs and Symbols
- Signifier: The representation pf the physical existence of an object. In relation to Childish Gambino’s music video an example of the signifier would be an image of a Gun.
- Signified: The mental concept of the object, in context to the music video this would be a weapon.
- Sign: The object or the thing, In relation to the music video the sign would be the actual physical gun.
Symbolic: signs where the connection among signifier and signified is simply culturally specific. In This Is America music video the chorus of the song repeats ‘This is America, don’t let it catch you slipping off, meaning the culture of America is as it is and don’t dose off because the repercussion is deadly.
Iconic Signs: signs where the signifier looks like the signified. In the video the iconic sign is when Childish Gambino used his hand as a gun to signify the use of weaponry
Indexical Signs: Signifier has a direct correlation in space and time with the signified
Denotation: The basic meaning of a sign. In Childish Gambino’s music video, we learn denotation on a basic element of a gun being a sign of violence.
Connotation: a thought or feeling which a word produces for an individual notwithstanding its exacting or essential significance. This is America video shows kids dancing and having fun this is connotation to exactly what America means today, in the background shows violence but in the foreground, people seem happy and having fun.
Metonymy: a sort of meaning where the part implies the entire, e.g., 'White House' implies the Presidential organization. In context to Childish Gambino’s Video the title of the song signifies the whole of America and what transpires in the country.
Paradigmatic relations: A paradigmatic connection is a connection that holds between components of a similar classification. Childish Gambino showed this in the video by how we overlook death is the same way white supremacy overlooks the brutality of blacks in America by white people
Syntagmatic relations: where signs get importance from their successive request, e.g., sentence structure or the succession of occasions that make up a story. In the music video we see this through out as it is a series of events that made the story of This Is America.
Myths: a mix of ideal models and syntagma that make up an often-told story with expanded social affiliations, e.g., the cowboy myth, the romantic legend. In context the myth of black African Americans is that they are good for nothing and should remain underprivileged.
Codes: a combination of semiotic systems, a supersystem, that function as general maps of meaning, belief systems about oneself and others, which imply views and attitudes about how the world is and/or ought to be. Codes are where semiotics and social structure and values connect. The title of Childish Gambino’s song depicts the view of America on the rest of the world.
Ideologies: codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of 'common sense,' of the taken-for-granted in everyday life. Childish Gambino’s translation of This is America is for people to change their ideologies on what is happening in the world, not to only look at the good but the bad outweighs the good.
Fedinand De Saussures theory of Semiotics
Ferdinand de Saussure is widely regarded as the father of Morden linguistics. He argues that language is an instrument of communication using signs in culture to communicate meaning. (Saussure 1985;28). He believes that anything and everything that has the potential to communicate meaning through its language may be studied as linguistic signs. He has beliefs that things that are of traditional nature are taken to be non-linguistic when in actual fact they are in communication and the signs mean something.
Conclusion
The study of signs and symbols in todays world is very important. De Saussere’s theories have made us today look at a lot of things differently. The way in which we communicate today has become vast. Subliminal messages have because an ongoing thing through Iconic symbols Myths and ideologies. Semiotics have become our point of communication were as to voicing out something has the same weight as symbolizing something. One may say ‘fine’ and one may simply put a thumbs up, this may not necessarily have the same meaning but in context the sign will agree or in favour of the spoken word.
Childish Gambino’s video of this is America portrays a series of symbols and signs that if you are unaware of the background decoding the message will be hard to translate. Childish Gambino wrote the song with a 4th of July anthem in mind. To show the world what is happening in America, the racism, police brutality, mass shooting and wrongly conviction of African Americans day by day. People are more often focusing on the entertainment that they are blinded by social media news networks of the chaos in the streets of America.
Donald Glover’s song has 539,592,645 million views as of today which shows the outreach it has had on the world. The world today is more aware of the events in America and are now placing a close eye to the USA, thanks to Glover.
The music video is both very controversial and educative, Glover did a fantastic job at how he portrayed every element in the video. I believe in what Glover stands for in this video and we as people should learn to not only look at the good but also the bad, that way we have a broader way of thinking and as far as developing goes we will have a better idea of what needs to be changed or improved .
References
- Glover, D. (2018). Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Music Video). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY [Accessed May. 2019].
- Semiotic Terminology. [online] Uvm.edu. Available at: http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Courses/Soc43/pages/semiotic_terminology.html [Accessed May. 2019].
- https://medium.com/@Creativesoulw [Accessed May. 2019].
- By Sonia RaoMay 9, 2018 https://medium.com/@Creativesoulw/the-message-behind-childish-gambinos-this-is-america-52c28fe8dd78 [Accessed May. 2019].
- by W. T. Lhamon Jr. Figure 1.2 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jump-jim-crow-w-t-lhamon-jr/1112021550 [Accessed May. 2019].
- https://qz.com/africa/1280777/childish-gambinos-african-pop-dance-moves-were-created-by-this-rwandan-choreographer/ [Accessed May. 2019].
- Monica Evstatieva, 2018 Donald Glover's 'This Is America' Holds Ugly Truths To Be Self-Evidenthttps://www.npr.org/2018/05/07/609150167/donald-glovers-this-is-america-holds-ugly-truths-to-be-self-evident [Accessed May. 2019
- Angela Watercutter 2019 CHILDISH GAMBINO MADE HISTORY AT THE GRAMMYS https://www.wired.com/story/childish-gambino-grammys/ [Accessed May. 2019]
- [ https://signsalad.com/our-thoughts/what-is-semiotics/]
- Zack Sharf 2018 https://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/donald-glover-this-is-america-meaning-interview-1201962197/ INDIE WIRE [Accessed May. 2019]
- By Lynsey Chutel 2018 THIS IS AFRICA The choreographer who brought Africa to Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ had a clear message [Accessed May. 2019]
- Jessica McKinney May 7, 2018 https://www.vibe.com/2018/05/childish-gambino-this-is-america-video-no-tracy-martin-calvin-the-second [Accessed May. 2019]
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