The moment a song is born, the world is different. It’s now a part of our lives. We sing it in the shower. We dance to it at our wedding. We get pumped with it. We break up to it. We memorize it. We try to forget it. We rediscover it. This month, I’m joining Arron Wright’s Twitter music challenge: ##Popiversary2. Because why the hell not. Songs deserve their own anniversaries, too.
Year: 2018
The relationship between images and music has always been a powerful, inescapable part of the music listening experience. Album art. Music videos. Full-length concert documentaries. And now NFT collectibles. In 2018, Childish Gambino produced a music video for “This Is America” that was intricately and artistically tied to the track with perfection. There are few music videos that have left as powerful an impression as this one.
It’s easy to let the music video steal the thunder of this song itself. Which would be a shame. “This is America” blends hip hop with gospel and afrobeat textures, making the musicality completely different than anything else out there. Then there’s the message. Gun violence. Police brutality. Discrimination. Childish Gambino took this raw, honest commentary and the most un-pop-like track all the way to #1 on the charts. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime song.
“Look how I'm geekin' ouT. I'm so fitted. I'm on Gucci. I'm so pretty, yeah, yeah.”