Donald Glover: The Prolific Singer, DJ, & Actor - Essay Sample

The musical artist chosen for this paper is an American singer Donald Glover who performs music under the stage name Childish Gambino. Apart from singing, Donald Glover is also famously known to be the most prolific creator of TV content such as TV comedy Atlanta and even an award-winning actor. His journey as a performing American rapper began in 2011 when he signed with Glassnote Records after several independently released albums and mixtapes as a DJ with the name mcDJ ("Donald Glover," 2020). His first studio album was released on 15th November 2011 known as Camp and then the second studio album known as Because the Internet followed to be released on 2nd December 2013. His third studio album known as "Awaken, My Love!" was released on 10th December 2016 ("Donald Glover," 2020). However, in May 2018, Gambino released a song and music video "This is America" which became a hit song and won him four Grammy Awards in 2019 ("Donald Glover," 2020). The song "This is America" by Childish Gambino is one is spectacular musical records and would be the point of evaluation in this paper.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The main message of the song revolves around the violence in America and how the people living in American society live with the violence. The community consumes violence as an aspect of entertainment on the one hand and as a part of national conservation on the contrary ("Real Meaning Behind Childish Gambino's "This Is America"," 2018). The music video portrays a sequence of actions which depict a play of how Americans perceive their guns and also the various forms of injustices especially among the people of colour which have been normalized ("Real Meaning Behind Childish Gambino's "This Is America"," 2018). The scene of the members of the church choir shot while in the church is a depiction of the terrific massacre of 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Generally, the song depicts the nature of American society, which is contaminated with issues of gun violence and racial injustices.

The lyrics of the song bring about a distinctive form of fascination which results from the ambiguity of the meaning addressed explicitly in the music. However, the song appears to be most likely effective in the jolting change from the verses and chorus. One of the redundant phrases in the song is "yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go, away" and it creates a mesmerizing suggestion ("'This is America:' a quick analysis," n.d.). The lyrics of the song are a central component in the expression of the specific message of the song as they are expressed with focus by the narrator, who is Childish Gambino. The lyrics of the song convey the weight of the news by embodying the feelings of the artist in the expression of the status of African Americans in the contemporary American society ("'This is America:' a quick analysis," n.d.). Also, most of the aspect of the lyrics of the song portrays how society tends to blatantly ignore social issues and carry on with their daily lives.

The musical piece by Donald Glover "This is America" has significantly contributed to the development of rap music by serving the truthful purpose of music as a vessel to reflect on the challenges experienced within the society. The music video of the song dares the audience to decide what to make of it my implying that brutal violence, as well as general turmoil, are aspects of the daily life in the American society in which guns, engrained racism together with police brutality against African- Americans are the significant aspects of the news headlines. Therefore, the song is an essential aspect of the development of music because it is an explicit critique of how violence is embraced by a culture so common of mass shootings and killing of unarmed African American men. Therefore, the song is an accurate depiction of what role music plays in expressing the issues of injustice and inequality in society.

References

Donald Glover. (2020, March 23). Biography. https://www.biography.com/actor/donald-gloverThe Real Meaning Behind Childish Gambino’s “This is America”. (2018, May 7). Complex. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/05/the-real-meaning-behind-childish-gambino-this-is-america-video/

'This is America:' a quick analysis. (n.d.). Beat. https://vocal.media/beat/this-is-america-a-quick-analysis