Suleymanova 1

Samira Suleymanova

Professor Jamey Dunham

English.1201

13 February, 2022

This is America

“This is America,” these are the first words you will hear when you click on the two

versions of these songs and it goes into explaining the meaning or the background of it. The

original of this song was first produced on May 6, 2018 by Childish Gambino. It became really

popular in a small amount of time. Two months later a remix or second version of this song was

released by Nicole Arbour. The two versions of the song "This is America" are similar because

both are about prejudice and an unfair reality. The difference is that the original is from a black

American's point of view on America and the second version is a women's point of view on

America.

The first version of “This is America” had a significant social influence. It displays a

strong perspective of America and treatment it obtains. This song reflects how the present

situations affect our daily lives. You can obtain a good understanding of this song by listening to

it from beginning to end, verse by verse and lyric by lyric. The music video itself is touching

because it shows a lot of background information. It discusses how black Amrircans are treated

and features horses in the background, which are symbols of past eras. The song “This is

America '' begins with a black man sitting and minding his own business while playing a guitar,

then showing the same men wearing a bag over their head and Ganbino coming in and shooting

the back of the mens head. This demonstrates how often individuals are shot for no reason. In

this video, there is a lot of gun violence, and it shows how Gambino tries to hide the firearms
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afterward. This demonstrates how gun regulation is not being handled in a responsible and safe

manner. These acts of gun violence are reflective of recent mass shootings. It shows how

America values guns over people's existence. Throughout the video, you will notice people

recording what is happening in the background, demonstrating how today’s society is more

concerned with documenting and presenting things on social media than with assisting someone

who is in need. The initial version of this song illustrates a variety of situations that are similar to

life right now. Demonstrating how black people are treated unfairly and how this is not widely

publicized. This music video provides excellent explanations throughout and ensures that the

audience comprends everything.

The second version of “This is America '' has a good impact as well, but this time it

focuses on women’s perspective on how they are being treated in America. This visual of the

video is about female empowerment. The opening of this remix is similar to the original music

video, where they had someone sitting down. However, in the second version, a black woman

appears and sits while breastfeeding her baby. Arbour then comes from the back and takes

pictures for the media. This version’s lyric “got rape in my area” depict a woman drinking and a

man apporaching from behind and taking her, and it’s a great explain of how women can be take

for granted when they’re drunk out without any body by their side. There are still a lot of things

going on in the background in this version that grabs the audience’s attention. It is showing a

variety of ladies getting ready, and how they do many things to make sure they are displaying a

good version of them to the public. It goes on with men approaching from behind and filming the

dancers. One thing I noticed in this video that I thought was a good representation of today’s

society was a female who was smiling on camera, but as soon as the camera was taken away
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from her, she was doing drugs. This version does a good job as well as the original in having

many background events happening and a storyline taking place.

These two songs are in the same musical style which is trap music and hip-hop/rap. They

have the same beat throughout the song but the original is more upbeat compared to the second

version which shows a more slow upbeat. But you can see more emotions and expressions in the

first version then the second because Gambino uses more of his facial expressions. These two

versions may be similar to each other, yet they have different perspectives and actions. They do

have a similar meaning to one another. They are both demonstrating the various events that are

taking place in America and how they are not as much represented to others.

The original and remix have different audiences but they share the same rhetorical

appeals. The original is more towards blacks in all different age groups all around the world,

while the remixed audience is all women in America. They both are showing pathos throughout

these videos. This is because it shows emotions and how they can get the audience's attention a

lot more when they use these emotional moments in the videos. Both have a good description on

how different events have affected them and society.

Therefore, we have talked about the original music video of “This is America” and the

various events that have taken place throughout for the audience to get the message across from

it. Later stated how the second version had a different point of view and how there were some

similar events that had happened but shown in a woman's perspective. Going back to the

similarities and differences that were shared between these two videos and the audience of these

two. These two music videos did have a great impact on society in two different views on how

America is treating these two groups in a prejudiced way.

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Work Cited

Arbour, Nicole. “This is America.Womens Edits.” YouTube, uploaded by Emily music, 1 Jun

2018, https://youtu.be/xFFbhogXoTY

Gambino, Childish. “This is America.” YouTube, uploaded by Donald Glover, 6 May

2018, https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY