nm bbl
So, I’m following this thread with great interest, because this video really hit me hard. But I’m not contributing, because most of my relevant knowledge consists of Troy and Abed in the Morning, and that ain’t relevant.
But here? Maybe I can answer: plenty of country singers deal with real-world issues. The one that comes to mind first is admittedly a couple decades old, but that’s probably because I’m an old fogey who rarely listens to new music. The example is Willie Nelson’s “Heartland”, with lyrics like:
Maybe someone else can address what’s going on in country music from this millennium; but a lot of the country I’ve listened to is in Nelson’s vein, not exactly subtle.
Edit Here’s a link with some more socially-conscious country songs, including of course another Willie Nelson number :).
For what it’s worth, the video has plenty of Abed.
I don’t know how you can seriously say this.
(At any rate, I asked about popular music. Metal hasn’t been popular for quite awhile now.)
I am talking about the Gambino video. I’m just looking at it from a broader perspective than perhaps you care to look at it.
Ah, I see.
Good luck with that attitude.
This is also my impression of the song & video. It’s an indictment on America, and especially the blind eye America has on racism.
I’m just sitting here talking about a song. I don’t know how much good luck I need to do that. But I’ll pretend you’re not being a dick and thank you anyway.
Thanks for the recs. I’ll check them out.
Every genre has its fantasy ideal that gets glorified via the art form.
I’m enjoying this discussion.
A bit late to the buzz…I’ve watched and listened a few times now.
The video production/directing is superb, hard to take your eyes away. Much is in credit to Glover’s great performance and charisma.
The song doesn’t grab me. It seems way short on communicating angst for the credit it’s getting. For comparison, it’s not on the same level as Ohio, Highway 61, or Killing in the Name Of for making me want to push a flaming dumpster down a hill into a police barricade. Not that I do that, but one can dream 
That’s not unique to black people. Write a protest song about Vietnam and you’re Bruce Springsteen. Actually protest against Vietnam and get shot by the national guard.
I definitely think the video and music explores some of the troubling interfaces between black society, popular music and dance, and the exploitation of black people. I mean, you literally have a Jim Crow caricature shoot a hooded, bound, black guitar player in the back of the head. There’s gotta be something being said about popular media here! Similarly, the execution of the church choir is clearly a reference to Charleston, but it’s also significant that A) it’s Glover himself who kills them, and B) when he kills them, they’re singing, “Get your money!” in a gospel style.
That said, I don’t think it’s an indictment of hip-hop or the larger black community, but rather, the way capitalist media engines consume and recycle black art at the expense of the communities creating it. The message I took from Glover dancing while the world burns behind him isn’t, “What’s wrong with this guy for dancing when everything’s so bad around him?” The message I got was, “What’s wrong with you for focusing on the dancing guy, and not all the bad things behind him?”
I think there’s also some significance to the progression of references, from minstrelry to gospel to hip hop, although as I’m not a musical history guy, I’m on much shakier ground here - but the video did make me think about how black expressions of resistance can get co-opted into tools of oppression, the way black spirituals developed to cope with the horrors of slavery got repurposed for minstrel shows post-war. Or the way the financial success of black performers is often used as justification for ignoring messages about the problems facing black communities, like how the NFL protesters are often dismissed as “spoiled millionaires.” And how, in a capitalist society, that sort of financial success is fundamentally inseparable from having a large enough platform to be heard, inherently sabotaging any anti-capitalist or pro-poverty-class message a performer tries to promote. And, ultimately - and probably further afield than Glover intended, but it’s still where he led me - to how the myth of “oppression leads to great art,” is both kinda bullshit (lots of unoppressed people make great art) and a sort of self-serving justification by white elites for historical injustice. “Sure, slavery was a great moral wrong and all… but how about that John Coltrane, huh? Kind makes up for it, doesn’t it?”
And tying it all back to, “Holy shit, how fucking brilliant is Donald Glover?” is his use of his own body to inhabit that message. He’s the guy shucking and jiving while he executes a helpless man. He’s the one gunning down the church choir. He’s the guy who has staged the whole video to say, “Look at me, not the shit show behind me! Pay attention to the dancing clown!” He’s aware that there’s an unsolvable ethical contradiction between releasing a message of, “Stop letting the media distract you from serious issues with trivialities,” in the context of promoting his appearance as Lando Calrissian in the new Disney Star Wars movie. But he’s also aware of the practicalities that, by being in the a triviality like the new Star Wars movie, he gives himself a bigger platform for raising consciousness about the serious issues that he wants people to pay attention to.
Well, Bo did specify “guns-bitches-money” as being unique to hip-hop. What you’ve got there is more “guns-vikings-race war.”
I’m with you on all of this.
But I’m OK with the obsessives getting caught up in this piece of art. That’s part of the fun of pop culture. This thing could take on a life of its own - similar to how fans of “Blade Runner” or “The Shining” pore over every frame of those films searching for meaning decades later.
Did y’all catch this yet? I’m sure it’ll be as well-received here as it is anywhere.
The video is embedded in the article; unfortunately you can’t see it without giving it “views”.
[Moderating]
monstro, you know better than this. “I’ll pretend you’re not being a dick” is a pretty clear personal insult. This is a formal Warning for that.
That said, Snowboarder Bo, “good luck with that” was more dismissive than it really needed to be. Try to dial it back, will you?
Sure.
I will do my best to restrain myself, Chronos.
My opinion about that white woman’s rendition of “This is America”:
AW HELL NAW, Karen! Keep your bland ass potato salad to yourself!
Because Donald Glover’s long term babymomma is Not Black.
See here: Celebrities, Music, News, Entertainment, TV Shows & Videos | BET
Hilarious. Clearly there is enough Silly to go around.
Donald Glover doesn’t want to explain the video
Pretty good answer too.
It has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 32nd song to do so.
Sounds impressive. But check the (old) list. Why did hardly anyone do this prior to 2000? No Beatles, no Elvis.
And with Drake doing this twice in a row this year, this makes the third straight song to debut at #1.
What is going on here? I guess it’s all about streaming/online now. Everything is instant.