A New Era of Political Music Videos Is Born
Videos by the likes of Donald Glover and Janelle Monáe have dominated the online conversation — and might not have been made in the MTV era
By Sonia Rao
Donald Glover didn’t hold back when creating the music video for “This Is America,” the most recent single by his rapper alter-ego, Childish Gambino. He didn’t have to.
As its name suggests, the video is emblematic of its time — blatantly political in a way that appeals to social media and its love of dissectable visuals. Consider Glover’s dancing, presumably choreographed to mimic a minstrel character; the murder of choir singers, evoking the Charleston church massacre; and death riding in on a white horse.
“It’s fun to see how people have taken to it, the interpretations,” said Larkin Seiple, the video’s cinematographer.
Political edge isn’t a new addition to the art form by any means, but it’s difficult to imagine the recent deluge of videos exploring racial and sexual identity occurring in the MTV era. Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” kicked off a recent wave with its emotionally hefty exploration of black womanhood, followed by similarly bold videos by Frank Ocean, Janelle Monáe, Glover and others. The phenomenon is, in…
