Friday, January 17, 2020
Week 2 [Aislinn Bailie]
What I love about Donald Glover is his ability to call out an audience by using his perspective. When he acknowledges the camera, he does not take his eyes off of it and it's as though he is looking at us individuals. I think this is what makes parts of his music videos so immersive. This perspective asks the audience to be self reflective and to consider how you relate to/are affected/are affecting racial injustice and gun control/gun safety, and how media contradicts and distracts from it's consumers supposed support towards those movements.
Also, G.T took Greta Thunberg's speech from the world leaders conference and put their own spin on her words. just wanna leave this here for any comments!
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This is America is an amazing piece of art, so laced with imagery that I feel like I see something new every time I see the video. Also, the G. T version/spin of the Greta Thunberg speech is super interesting, amplifying the feeling in her original speech in a way that feels louder and noisier. These are fantastic examples.
ReplyDeleteThis is America was the first thing that came to mind when I was thinking of what to share, so thank you for including this masterpiece! The sheer amount that's going on is something that draws me in- the constant riots, people on top of cars or falling off balconies- urges me to watch it over and over again and catch everything that's happening before my eyes. The whole style of the video is reminiscent of the media's tendency to hide the reality of the world or perpetuate a trend that's actually rooted in culture. Glover does such a beautiful job at scaring me but not scaring me away, instead drawing me closer. We need more artists like Glover.
ReplyDeleteThe way Greta's anger through her voice is reinforced and so powerful!
Glover's actions in this video serve to paint a vivid caricature of the country about which he sings. He walks around shooting people indiscriminately with a manic expression on his face, and it works well to show how flippant white society is in general with regard to things like racial inequality and violence about the black community.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these. The G.T. version of Thunberg's speech is fascinating. Here's another way artists have historically protested—using the words (and even the literal voice) spoken by others, 'setting' them to music, to amplify, (re)contextualize, or otherwise shed light on them. Using the genre of 'death metal' certainly embodies her anger, but maybe also casts a nihilistic or fatalistic pall on them.
ReplyDeleteThat Greta Thunberg reinterpretation is so good. I talk a lot about how anger is kind of the best emotion to express in music in my opinion, because it is so malleable in terms of how we choose to express it. By adding the death metal, the band reemphasizes her fury and gives her the death metal vibe that she definitely deserves.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a fan of the GT reinterpretation. However, there are some aesthetic issues I take with how it is presented. I think that sampled drums always, always, detract from a metal performance - part of what makes the style so close to my heart is the frenetic, chaotic, sometimes sloppy playing of early adopters. Also, the vocals are a strange amount of spoken - almost like in some Norwegian black metal - but I think the relative low-output of the singers' volume detracts from their ability to express more than one timbre. Perhaps swinging into and out of death growls might make it more dynamic and, uh, brutal. It's a cool idea though! I appreciate that they kept the buzzsaw HM-2 style guitars like in early Entombed/Swedish death records.
ReplyDeleteGlover's message is filled with lots of subtext and easter eggs, but I love his main message about gun violence and how a lot that is started through not granting access to the basic needs of human beings. That always has resonated with me because the current systems in place are meant to disadvantage people down on their luck (or things that they can't control).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think Glover's gaze to the camera is pretty chilling. In music videos and other dance/film collaborations, I'm constantly thinking about how a camera lens can distance people in some situations while also planting viewers directly in the space in others. I think the way he engages with us on and off throughout the video is interesting-- it holds us accountable for the ways we do or don't act.
ReplyDeleteHow could I forget Glover's iconic This is America? When I saw the video for the first time, I remember just being in awe. I think you are exactly right that the eye contact establishes a direct relationship with individual viewers, calling on them to reflect. I could be neat to explore as a class or group the connection between artist and consumer in the context of protest.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you shared This is America because I was thinking of sharing it too for this assignment at first! I also think your analysis was really insightful. To me this piece says a lot about how some of us observe and even claim to be "active" in supporting efforts to end injustice, when at the end of the day our words are only words. We allow ourselves to get distracted, when the only way to really affect change is to act.
ReplyDeleteNot only does this song completely bop but it constantly reinforces a violently powerful image of America. I enjoy how it combines both the pleasant with the jagged and gut wrenching. I was so glad to see Donald Glover use his immense influence to deliver an effective and widespread message about violence.
ReplyDelete