Weekly Billboard Theory — This Is America
I started this series because I felt that writers for major publications did a poor job discussing music. Sure, they can dissect the details in lyrics, infer what the music video might represent, and decide how a song fits in our culture but rarely do they speak of the actual music of the song. Countless think pieces have manifested about Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” but I have yet to see one that discusses the actual music of the number one hit. This is where I come into play. I want to admit that I am by no means an ethnomusicologist but the ideas that I’ll be discussing are pretty surface level so hopefully I don’t mess things up too much. Okay, let’s get into it!
Childish Gambino
Key: F Major (kinda)
Tempo: 120 BPM
The first thought that popped into my head when listening to “This Is America” was that it sure sounds a lot like traditional African music, or at least what I understand of traditional African music. Let’s look at that introduction. The song begins with a lot of information. Rhythmic chants in harmony with one another, very light percussion (maybe a shaker?) in a steady beat, and other chants that seem to be a bit more improvised. All of these ideas are characteristic of African music. The repeated “Yeah, yeah” melodic idea is the heart of the introduction. The song isn’t based around a chord progression, instead, a chord progression gets based around this idea. This short musical pattern that repeats over and over is known as an ostinato.
As the introduction progresses, more melodic ideas are added in. In top 40 pop music, we would normally strip the accompaniment back a bit to allow us to really focus on the melody. This is not the case with “This Is America.” Rather, the music builds more with more singing and becomes quite polyphonic. By definition, polyphony is the style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other. THEN ON TOP OF THIS, we hear Young Thug’s ad-libs creating a call and response feel. All of these ideas help make the introduction of “This Is America” sound reminiscent of traditional African music.
I was shocked that I didn’t find any writing about this idea. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, that’s definitely a possibility. I DID notice that several writers incorrectly used the term “afrobeat” to gloss over this entire section. Let’s talk about why this is wrong, okay? Even from the first line of that Wikipedia article, something seems a bit off. “Afrobeat, also known as afrofunk is a music genre which developed in the 1970s when African musicians began combining elements of West African musical styles such as jùjú music and highlife with American funk and jazz influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion.” Okay, so yes all of those focuses that they mention are there but this introduction has nothing to do with funk or jazz. Yes, a guitar enters and arpeggiates some chords but it’s a I-V-vi progression. Hardly funk or jazz. Now, if you scroll down a bit on that Wikipedia page you will notice an entire section with a one letter difference: Afrobeats. Defined as “a collaborative sound that at any point may combine or highlight a number of different black musical art forms across the black diaspora”. This makes a looot more sense. The percussion that enters at 0:24 brings this introduction to the modern music era and could classify this section as afrobeats. “Why are you getting so bent out of shape about a one letter difference, do genres really matter?” They for sure don’t, but I’m here to point out that there’s a lot of detail here that incorrectly passed over by some major publications.
Okay, cool. What does all this mean? Well, I believe that this points to more hidden meanings than previously discovered by other outlets. The first 0:48 of “This Is America” could represent Africa itself while America is embodied when the beat changes and Childish Gambino states “This Is America”. Yeah, I know this might not be particularly deep but it sure makes sense, doesn’t it? 0:48 onward is an obvious departure. I’m a poor boy with cheap headphones so I’m not 100% but it sounds as if the bass drops down to an Eb. For those of you don’t know theory, there are no Ebs to be found in F major. “Oh, so it’s an accidental with a function or something.” Nope, not really. Like I said, I’m not POSITIVE if it’s an Eb but it doesn’t really matter. What IS relevant is that the song sounds unrecognizable to what we previously heard. This big shift could represent how far African-American culture has departed from its origin. By no means am I saying that this is a bad thing or even a good thing. Just a thing. This culture has transformed over the years and “This Is America” is able to demonstrate this shift sonically.
The melodic ideas of the intro come back at 1:36. The lyrics have changed and we have some different content. Again, this is representative of the building nature of traditional African music. However, it’s not long before we are back to the verse beat and we have to deal with the troubles of American culture. At the end of this verse, we go back to that intro idea but something new happens at 2:55. The intensity of the verse’s bass is added to that intro material. This time it is clearly in F major and represents that perhaps the two cultures are more intertwined than we had thought. The remainder of the song is sparse, almost as if we do not know what is to come. And you know what? We actually have no idea what is to come. Hopefully, we can make something better with the world we have than the hardships that have occurred throughout the years. Regardless of your thoughts on the subject matter, it’s clear that “This Is America” might be the most discussed number one single of all time. Pop culture is so dang important because it is able to captivate all of us, not just academic types. I look forward to the next pop song of this cultural magnitude. I’ll stop rambling, thanks for your time! Also, if you made it this far and I got stuff wrong, I apologize. My purpose with these write-ups is to come at these songs from an angle that I feel rarely receives attention.
I’ve been busy in the studio, playing Mario Kart and doing hot yoga so I haven’t really had any opportunities to listen to new music. No recommendations this week! Sorry!
Let’s check out that top ten for next week! Donald is still in first, neat! Drake is in second AND third, way to go Drake! We have to jump down to number eleven until we get something new with “Boo’d Up” by Ella Mai. I’ve never heard of this song or this artist so who knows if it’ll be good. Find out next week! On! Weekly! Billboard! Theory!
