Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Pavlína Poláčková

"This Is America": Racism and Violence in Modern Music Videos Bachelor's Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.

2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

Author's signature I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his patience, my mother for her un•

dying love and care and my grandparents for their moral support even through their hardest times. Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 5

2 RACISM AND VIOLENCE IN MEDIA 8

2.1 RACISM AND VIOLENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA 8 2.1.1 THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT 9

2.2 RACISM AND VIOLENCE IN MUSIC 11

3 INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO ANALYSIS 13

3.1 PROBLEMS WITH VIDEO ANALYSIS 13 3.2 VIDEO ANALYSIS AND ETHNOGRAPHY 15

3.3 VIDEOHERMENEUTICS 16

4 MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS 18

4.1 CHILDISH GAMBINO - "THIS IS AMERICA" 19 4.2 BEYONCE - "FORMATION" 23 4.3 USHER-"CHAINS" 26 4.4 KENDRICK LAMAR - "ALRIGHT" 30 4.5 FINAL COMPARISON OF THE VIDEOS 34

5 EFFECTS ON THE VIEWER 36

6 CONCLUSION 38

7 WORKS CITED 41

8 SUMMARY 45

9 RESUME 47 1 Introduction

The topic of racism and violence between Caucasians and African-Americans in the United States has been an issue from the times of the first European colonization.

Ever since the colonization and expansion of slavery to the Americas, African-American people have been oppressed, used and humiliated by whites. Despite the contemporary society being increasingly more pro-equality in all senses of the word - from the equality between men and women to racial equality to equality between LGBQ and heterosexual population - there is still noticeable tension between the two races. In the sense of racism and violence towards African Americans, the tension is visible, for example, in the many reports of police brutality, injustice and shootings at African-Americans. As much as the mainstream media and authorities are underreporting these problems, the truth always surfaces. The advantage of contemporary society in comparison to the early 20th century is that media now have much greater reach and information can be spread all over the world in just a couple of seconds. The mass media such as news channels, radio stations are now standing against a more alternative source of information - social media offering a platform to many influencers such as musicians, filmmakers and other public figures who now have the power to reach out to even broader audiences than ever before.

Precisely for this thesis is relevant one of the less obvious yet still somewhat important media of sharing information and ideas in art - art in the form of music and video.

This thesis focuses on racism and violence in African-American communities in the United States through the eyes of African-American artists and their music videos.

Particularly the ways they use in the sense of visual imagery and symbolism to portray these aspects of contemporary society and significant events in the fight of

African-Americans against injustice and stereotypes. To do so, I will analyze several

5 music videos created in the last decade to demonstrate how are the problems with brutality and violence towards African-Americans seen through the eyes of the artists growing up in the world of injustice against their race and how these videos might affect the audience overall. The goal is to show that despite the artistic approach, those videos can be used as a way to forward information about contemporary issues that are continuously failing in being covered by mainstream media and raise awareness of these issues in the general public.

Before analyzing the music videos, I will also briefly look into the history of hip hop and R&B music and political movements such as #BlackLivesMatter. This movement used social media as its platform and helped to shape the current situation of

African-Americans in society by pointing out some of the significant issues that

African-Americans have and still regularly can encounter.

After the formation of the "Black Lives Matter" movement and its growth on social media, many artists joined others in creating music to support the cause of the project by sharing their experience and point of view to support raising the awareness of the discussed subjects. Among those artists one can find, for example, Beyoncé, Jay-Z,

Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Chris Brown and many more. This thesis takes an interest in four music videos of several of those artists incorporating the issue of racial discrimina• tion and violence into their music and music videos. The chosen music videos for this thesis are "This is America" by Childish Gambino, "Formation" by Beyoncé, "Chains" by Usher and "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar. The reason for choosing these particular artists are their different styles of music and backgrounds that can either offer different points of view on the same situation or bring out the unity in the African-American community and their desire to resolve the problem of racial inequality. To provide thorough analysis, I will draw information from publications focusing on an introduction

6 to visual media analysis such as Video Analysis: Methodology and Methods by

Knoblauch, Schnettler, Raab and Soeffner (eds.) or Analysing Musical Multimedia by

Nicholas Cook as well as publications focusing on the effect of media on the viewer such as "Dynamics of Media Hype: Interactivity of the Media and the Public" by Ik Jae Chung.

As mentioned before, racism and unnecessary violence is an ongoing issue and raising awareness towards it is essential for overcoming continuous unfairness and discrimination. Finding ways to seize the attention of a wider audience and highlight current political and social issues in a thought-provoking way is crucial aspect during the process, especially now, when people are exposed to countless stimuli, and it is difficult to indicate the most important ones. Music is one of those ways that is used to effortlessly and virally spread a creative vision of specific situation to a worldwide audience and by that influence people to engage themselves into what is happening in the world and maybe even actively participate in making the world better place.

7 2 Racism and violence in media

Historically, racism and violence have always been an issue which could not be completely ignored by the mass media. However, mass media does not always have enough space to cover all the issues happening in the world regarding this topic, and thus many events would remain unnoticed by the general public. Nevertheless, thanks to the alternative sources of information in the form of social media and more symbolically speaking even song lyrics and music videos many important political and social events have been recognized this way.

2.1 Racism and violence on social media

Social media play a rather important role in contemporary society by creating a space where anyone can freely express their opinion on any topic that comes to mind.

Websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter had become one of the primary sources for sharing. People on these sites can now share important moments from their personal lives or their opinions on various topics not only with their acquaintances and family members but also with anyone in the world who has a working internet connection.

Thanks to the freedom of speech on the internet, social media soon became a means for spreading news and information on events that mass media does not consider necessary to give enough attention. One of these often-overlooked issues is the very violence towards people of color.

One of the most significant push factors to start discussions on the topic of racism and excessive violence towards people of color in contemporary society was the Black

Lives Matter movement. Its significance grew thanks to the power of social media platforms such as previously mentioned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. As a result, the movement had the power to influence a wider audience. Popular social media platforms such as earlier named Twitter, which was at the time on the rise of its relevance, are often

8 used to create "hype" around certain current events. The originality of twitter resided in its use of hashtags to make it easier for its users to see which topics are trending or find topics that they consider interesting and wanted to discuss with others. Accordingly, a rememberable hashtag has the power to engrave a particular topic in the subconsciousness of billions of people. With the help of social media, suddenly, a story ignored by mainstream media news channels can become swiftly noticed. Followed by a storm of ideas and opinions of people on the internet this story is no longer unseen and what is more, it can also shine a light on other events similar in character.

Similarly to that, in her study of the mechanism of media storms, Anne Hardy declares "that a key event triggers an increase in coverage of that event, and similar and thematically related events" (135). Hardy then continues with a suggestion that "a single news outlet can increase its coverage, irrespective of what other media are doing, as it temporarily implies less strict criteria for newsworthiness" (136). This effect was proven not only by the #BlackLivesMatter but also, more recently, by a #metoo which was a movement concerned with women speaking up about their encounter with sexual harassment and rape.

2.1.1 The Black Lives Matter Movement

Black Lives Matter is the name of an activist movement formed in 2013 by three

African-American women Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. The movement was created to inform and act against the constant needless excessive police brutality, often resulting in death, against people of color. On the official website of the project, the movement is described as an „ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an

9 affirmation of Black folks' humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression" (blacklivesmatter.com).

One of the particular cases that gave birth to this new movement was the case of

George Zimmerman v. the State of Florida. In this case, George Zimmerman "was charged by information on April 11, 2012, with second degree murder. The charges arose from an incident on February 26, 2012, in which Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon

Martin. During interviews with police, Zimmerman asserted that he shot Martin in self-defense" (caselaw.findlaw.com). This was, however, only one of many cases of police intervention that resulted in the killing of the suspected but unarmed victim.

Another case that provoked a wave of protests among the activists fighting for the rights of African-Americans was the shooting of Mike Brown. This event took place in

Ferguson, Missouri where a 28-year-old police officer Darren Wilson fatally wounded an 18-year-old African-American man during a police intervention on August 9, 2014.

The way police treated this incident was something that shook up not only the citizens of

Ferguson where the event occurred but also thousands of black people across the United

States. In her book From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, the author

Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor ponders why has this particular case and the measures taken by police became a breaking point for so many people. "Perhaps it was the inhumanity of the police leaving Brown's body to fester in the hot summer sun for four and a half hours after killing him, keeping his parents away at gunpoint and with dogs" and she then continues that "[m]aybe it was the military hardware the police brandished when protest• ers against Brown's death arose... The Ferguson police department declared war on Black residents and anyone who stood in solidarity with them" (153-154).

The strategic move of creating a hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media sites, and Twitter especially, helped virally spread the awareness of this burning topic. It did

10 not take long, and many celebrities started to get involved. The movement made its point and impressed itself onto the minds of people not only in the United States but also around the world. Activists supporting the project accomplished their goal in raising the awareness of the issues happening all over the United States without the vast majority of its citizens even knowing.

2.2 Racism and Violence in Music

Millennial society is often targeted and ridiculed for its sensitivity on the topics of equality of gender, sexuality and color. Therefore, it is no surprise that movements such as above-mentioned Black Lives Matter gained so much popularity in the 2010s.

A large part on this have the famous artists who after the movement's formation started to produce more and more songs containing topics of oppression, African-American history in the United States and the police brutality against African-Americans. Artists have been vocal about their views on politics, environment and current situation for decades and therefore there is no surprise that even artists producing popular music today involve in these social issues as well.

When speaking about modern popular music we often fail to realize that most of the contemporary music genres were created by modification of older music genres such as funk, soul and blues which were created and used by African American artists.

These genres later evolved to hip-hop, rap and R'n'B that became one of the most popular genres nowadays. The topic of racism, violence and life in the conflicted neighborhoods has been common and often the main focus of hip-hop and rap lyrics for decades. It has been something to what younger generations could relate to. "The term hip-hop refers to urban youth culture in America" (3), writes Geneva Smitherman in her article "The Chain Remain the Same' Communicative Practices in the Hip Hop

11 Nation". Hence, the youth is the main target for the artists addressing the political issues.

In the Studs Terkel's interview with James Baldwin, an African-American novelist and activist, that was published in The Conversations with James Baldwin,

Baldwin says: "It is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace" (21). "Disturbing the peace" is exactly what the artists are trying to achieve especially in rap music. Smitherman discusses the meaning of the term "rap" by saying: "By the late 1960s, when the term crossed over into mainstream public language, it had lost its sexual innuendo and came to mean any kind of strong, aggressive, highly fluent, powerful talk" (4). She then describes rap as

"[a] blend of reality and fiction" and "a contemporary response to conditions of joblessness, poverty, and disempowerment" (5). This response to current issues and critique of contemporary society is visible throughout the hip-hop genre and even the video clips chosen for analysis in this thesis. One could say that even nowadays artists aim to "disturb the peace" by creating controversial music and music videos that leave people thinking and eventually fight for a change to create safety as a reality and not only an illusion.

12 3 Introduction to Video Analysis

For this research, it is quite essential to consider and at least briefly touch upon the subject of video data and video analysis. With the invention of video camcorders, scientists in several fields now have yet another instrument for collecting data. Equipped with camcorders, scientists are not only able to record numerous social processes but also to "provide and produce a new kind of data for sociology" (Knoblauch et al. 9). The hopes for the potential of these "microscope[s] of interaction" are rather high and some authors expect the invention of camcorders "to be as profound as was the invention of the tape recorder, which gave rise to new research disciplines such as conversation analysis"

(Knoblauch et al. 9). Shortly after its invention, the video became a medium that is an inseparable part of our everyday lives. The huge variety of ways people use video for example on the internet to share memories, learn new things or to entertain themselves, perfectly demonstrates this statement (Knoblauch et al. 9). Apart from that, videos have the power to be more accurate and detailed than observations produced by a naked human eye. They are even assumed to be more reliable "since they allow data analysis independent of the person who collected the data" (Knoblauch et al. 10). This suggests that they are not exposed to the subjectivity of the observer.

3.1 Problems with video analysis

Video analysis just as any other type of research cannot do without problems.

As mentioned in the chapter "Video-Analysis: Methodological Aspects of Interpretative

Audiovisual Analysis in Social Research" by Knoblauch et al., these problems can be divided into four sections.

The first problem which scientists specializing in the video analysis need to take into account during their research is the complexity. To clarify, each video recording

13 contains way too much data that needs analyzing. In terms of social scientific research, video data are certainly lining up among the most complex data available. This is due to them being "multi-sensual and sequentially ordered, enclosing both diachronic and syn• chronic elements" meaning that they are a combination of several different information that scientists can draw the data from (Knoblauch et al. 14). These are for instance ges• tures, speech, mimics, the environment, symbolism and more.

Furthermore, the scientists also have to work with the activity of recording itself.

Thus, they need to take into account elements such as the angle of the camera, the focus of the recording or even the style of post-recording editing such as cuts, coloring and other during their research. This is concluded by the statement that "video editing gener• ates an extraordinary abundance of data, confronting the researcher with the problems of data management, retrieval and selection" (Knoblauch et al. 14).

Second often underestimated problem that scientists often encounter is technol• ogy. By technology, Knoblauch and his colleagues mean the equipment used for the col• lection of the data. Naturally, the quality of the equipment used influences the quality of the collected data. Therefore, the problem here is often a low-quality material produced by early camcorders or microphones. "Even if technology may not be considered an 'au• tonomous actor'" the employed artefacts exert at least some influence upon the course of action in the research process. Without doubt, the instruments change the way in which we collect, construct, analyze and interpret our data" (qtd. in Knoblauch et al. 15).

The third problem is to specify the relation between the text and the image. In the study conducted by Knoblauch and his colleagues, they claim that "the relation between the spoken and the visual is of general epistemological importance" (16). Without a doubt, some debates are arising in the field of social sciences concerning the subject of visuality and visual culture. "Nowadays, there is a huge amount of criticism at the level

14 of epistemology. Anyone interested in the field will discover flourishing debates on the cultural meaning of video-clips of Madonna's pop songs or the epistemological question as to the hows and whys of the picture's betrayal of the viewer" (Knoblauch et al. 10).

Finally, the last but not least problem that scientists encounter while studying video recordings are legal implications which are concerned with legal elements connected with the activity of recording such as who was permitted to record, where they were permitted to record and who were they recording (Knoblauch et al. 16).

3.2 Video analysis and ethnography

In one of his other articles "Videography: Focused Ethnography and Video

Analysis", Knoblauch debates the importance of ethnography while analyzing videos.

He suggests that "[m]ost studies, in addition to video data, employ ethnographies which may include: participant observation, information from documents, comments from interviews and discussions, together with elicitations using the visual data record." He then proceeds with explaining the importance of ethnography particularly in the studies of technological studies by referring to work of William A. Corsaro "Something Old and

Something New: The Importance of Prior Ethnography in the Collection and Analysis of

Audiovisual Data" from 1981 where Corsaro proposes "that there should be no video recording and analysis without undertaking prior ethnography" which is according to

Knoblauch "a procedure similar to what Albrecht (1985:328f) already called "scouting" referring to the article by Gary L. Albrecht "Videotape Safaris: Entering the Field with a Camera" from 1985 (qtd. Knoblauch 71).

One of the subjects of video analysis is often an observation of the behavior of participants in social situations. Thus, ethnography as a social science focusing on the behavior of individuals in certain situations is something that seems quite essential

15 for this research. Taking into account that "the recording of video data is rarely developed in isolation" the importance of previous knowledge of ethnography becomes evident

(Knoblauch 70).

3.3 Video hermeneutics

Another mention-worthy approach when talking about video analysis that helps to understand the audiovisual data is video hermeneutics. The "fundamental idea of this approach is to consider social data as manifestations of the protagonists' perception and recognition of reality as well as of their self-representation and self-interpretation" apart from that it shows how "facts are fabricated by human beings under certain socio-historical conditions. It also obliges the researcher to take on a self-reflexive stance and take into account his or her subjective presuppositions under which he himself or she herself constitutes the reality he or she is observing." (Raab and Tanzler 85) As the audiovisual media constantly surround us whether it is in television, photography or virtual computer worlds our perception of reality is often overlaid with the medial one.

"We can say that audiovisual data represent a hybrid of discursive and presentative symbolism. In this kind of data simultaneity and succession of symbols are affiliated and constitute a specific mode of signification on three levels" (Raab and Tanzler 86).

Firstly, the actions and items before the camera. These are always complemented by language whether it is music, spoken or written dialogues or sounds. Secondly, there are camera actions, and this means the movement of the camera, zooming in and out, pan shots. Thirdly, editing techniques (Raab and Tanzler 86-87).

Given the above, the invention of video gave rise to different approaches on how to analyze data collected from the recordings. Unlike the previous tape recorders, data collected from the camcorders are more complex and can be analyzed on different levels.

16 While analyzing audiovisual content, it is needed to take into account all the difficulties that we can encounter such as the complexity of data, quality of recordings, the connec• tion between the audio and visual parts and eventually even legal implications. Based on the research we are to conduct we can choose the approach the most relevant to our needs.

For this thesis, in particular, I will focus on the symbolism in the videos. Therefore, I will mainly work with connections between the language and imagery, movement of the cam• eras and the editing.

17 4 Music Video Analysis

A film composer and Hitchcock's collaborator, Bernard Herrmann once explained his view on the connection between music and screen and its effect on the audience as following:

I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the

characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety, or misery. It can

propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into

the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and

the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience,

(qtd. in Cook 66)

Music videos do not come across as the first thing one would think of when dis• cussing the possibilities of spreading awareness towards political topics. However, when done correctly the videos can evoke strong feelings towards expressed topics among the viewers. The connection between music and visuals is often used to intensify the emo• tions and ideas behind the whole. As mainstream news channels often overlook certain issues, art has become one of the ways through which the never-told stories can be heard.

This part of the thesis focuses on an analysis of four music videos by well-known

African-American artists. In all four videos, the artists share their view on the current issue of violence, racism and injustice on the part of American law enforcement and the redundancy of mass media to cover these cases.

18 4.1 Childish Gambino - "This Is America"

Donald Glover is an American actor, television producer, stand-up comedian and a rapper born in California. In the music industry, Glover is better-known under his stage name Childish Gambino. In May 2018 he released the song "This Is America", and a music video for this song. Magazine Rolling Stone marked it as "a united front brought together by the constant threat of racially motivated violence." Without a doubt, the video for the song and even the song itself raised a wave of response among many people. The explicit imagery of violence stirred up a wild discussion right after the video's release.

One of the main themes portrayed in the video is the ownership of guns which is allowed in the United States by the second amendment and seems to be causing much trouble.

The video itself is captivating right from the first look; however, it is more profound than one might have thought.

When it comes to the analysis of work of art whether it is poetry, painting or a music video people often come up with diverse views on how to translate the symbols into their "real" meaning. Just like in the works of writers or painters, we can find sym• bolism and storylines even in the music videos. The problem with understanding symbols is that we often mirror our own believes and experiences into the meaning. Therefore, opinions of non-African-Americans on these music videos can differ from the ones of

African-Americans as the perception of black history by white people is different from the way how black people understand it. Therefore, we need to use the previously men• tioned video hermeneutics and try to understand the videos as the artist's view of society and the world.

The video opens up with the scene of an empty storage room with a man playing the guitar and Childish Gambino in the background who starts to vibe to the rhythm of

19 the considerably happy sounding music. Childish Gambino's moves are becoming more bizarre and almost seem as if they were forced. This could be understood as if we as a society are forced to act happy regardless of what is going on in around us.

This imagery leads to one of the most iconic scenes from the video where the man who was previously playing the guitar is now sitting on a chair with a sack around his head and Gambino quite cold-bloodedly shooting him straight to the head while holding pose mimicking the character of Jimmy Crow1. This scene sparked up debates among the audience as some believe that this was a way to criticize the second amendment that protects the right of people to keep and bear arms. This part of the US law is heavily discussed lately as the number of occurrences where gun violence results in people being fatally wounded is progressively growing. The number of people being against the second amendment is rising, and protesters are trying to repeal this law out of the constitution altogether. Other people believe that this was an attempt to remind the audience of the unfounded shooting and usage of guns. Some, however, see this scene also as a reminder of the murder of Trayvon Martin whose case was also one of the events that inspired the foundation of the Black Lives Matter movement. As a piece of evidence behind this belief one of the commenters on an analysis video published by user The Pop Song Professor2 pointed out that the way Childish Gambino hands the gun over to someone else appearing to be an assistant or a servant and the murdered man being treated inhumanely consider• ing the dirty bag over his head and him being cuffed can indicate the white privilege and supremacy and appeal on the case of Trayvon Martin whose killer was found innocent.

Other viewers, on the other hand, argue that this is an expression of acts of violence

1 A character created by Thomas D. Rice based on stereotype show whites perceived African-Americans and their culture. 2 The Pop Song Professor is the username of a university professor Clifford Stumme on YouTube where he uploads his explanations of song lyrics.

20 among the African-American community itself as the shooter is Childish, who is an

African American.

Moving on in the video, after the opening scene the tone and rhythm of music immediately switch to a darker beat. This creates a huge contrast between the previously playing gospel-like music. To the hip-hop beat, Gambino continues approaching the camera while extreme chaos starts to break out in the background. In around 1 minute and 10 seconds, a group of smiling, dancing young kids wearing school uniforms accompanies Childish Gambino with the chaos still noticeable in the background. This particular way of playing with perspective by putting Childish Gambino and the school kids performing popular dance moves in the foreground while there are burning cars and people chaotically running around in the background suggests that media often pay atten• tion to more positive things and pretend as if the negative aspects of today's world did not exist. Or rather, how African-Americans are still viewed as an entertainment to the white society while their struggle is being left unnoticed. The artist sends out a message about how society is blinded and manipulated by the mainstream media to see only part of what is happening in the world around us.

The video then continues with a cut to a gospel choir and again switches from the trap beat to a rather upbeat melody of the choir singing. Gambino again comes to this scene dancing; however, he immediately becomes bored and shoots down the choir with an automatic rifle. To some, this scene again refers to a real-life event of Charleston

Church shooting where a 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine Af• rican Americans. Nevertheless, to some, this might seem like a bit of a stretch as there were nine people killed in the Charleston church shooting, but there are ten people in the choir portrayed in the video. The chaos in the background following this scene is now even more significant, and there is now a police force involved. With the police cars,

21 people running around with baseball bats and jumping on the cars this can be understood as a very apparent reference to the "uprisings that took place in American cities like Bal• timore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri after police killed black men and some protest• ers set police cars on fire." As was suggested by a user Saturn, The Earthbender on a lyric-annotating platform Genius.com.

The hip-hop music ends with Childish Gambino lighting up a joint and dancing on top of the empty cars. He is accompanied by an African-American singer SZA who according to some people is supposed to, due to her looks, symbolize Liberty. The whole music video ends with terrified Gambino running down a dark corridor followed by a group of people. This imagery could be understood as Childish Gambino trying to desperately escape from reality, a place where people are aware of the chaos and violence, and yet they choose to ignore it.

There is no doubt that Donald Glover's music video and lyrics to "This Is Amer• ica" are filled with symbols ranging from the notion of real-life events over to biblical references of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Nevertheless, the overall meaning stays the same. „This is what it's like, Glover's video seems to say, to be black in Amer• ica—at any given time, vulnerable to joy or to destruction. When his character is not dancing, he is killing," writes Doreen St.Felix in her article "The Carnage and Chaos of

Childish Gambino's 'This Is America'" for the New Yorker magazine.

In his YouTube video '"This Is America' Is Deeper Than You Think | Music Vid• eos Explained", a university professor Clifford Stumme publishing videos on YouTube under username The Pop Song Professor suggests that the video can be understood as

Glover's way to satirize the way people try to separate beauty and the pain within the culture. This is in Stumme's opinion done not only by the imagery of people happily dancing or singing which is in a split of a second replaced by acts of violence but also by

22 the change in the tone of the music itself. As an example of this, he points out the part of the video where a sort of happy-sounding tune is mixed with a rather intense darker trap beat. He points out that the whole video, music and song lyrics contrast the beauty and the pain and African-American culture.

The video clip is filled with symbolism and analogies and the more the viewer watches the video the more symbols connected to the black culture they can find.

However, the message is powerful enough that the main idea is noticeable right from the first look. That being that society picks just certain pieces from the culture while it ignores the more important rest.

4.2 Beyonce - "Formation"

Another public figure who incorporated African-American history into her music is Beyonce. Beyonce Knowles-Carter is known to spread awareness of issues in contem• porary society. For this particular research, I chose the music video to her song "For• mation". This video unlike the one by Childish Gambino is not straightforwardly focusing on the violence as much as it focuses on the ongoing racial issues in the United States. It does, however, similarly to the Gambino's video show bits and pieces of

African-American culture and dances which are nowadays so glorified. Power of this video is stronger due to its strategical release date during the Black History Month. Fur• thermore, the release of this video was followed by Beyonce's performance during the half time show of the 2016 Super Bowl final where she and her dancers recall to the Black

Panther Party3. The performance provoked reactions from the supporters of the right-

3 The Black Panther Parly or also The Black Panther Party of the Self-Defense was a political organiza• tion founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The party was active between the years 1966-1982 and its main purpose was to fight against police brutality by monitoring the behavior of the police officers.

23 wing party who expressed their outrage with the controversial performance accusing Be• yonce of racism and spreading hate against the police.

The video starts with scenes of a flooded neighborhood and Beyonce sitting on a slowly drowning police car. This scene recalls the event of New Orleans flooding as a result of Hurricane Katrina. In the background echoes the question: "What happened in

New Orleans?" Which relates to the criticism of the government for its procedures while dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This event affected approxi• mately 1.7 million people in the state of Louisiana alone. Many people believe that the government failed to support the black part of New Orleans as it should have. As the white neighborhoods like Faubourg Marigny or Garden District were renovated yet the

African-American population of New Orleans were likely to still live in trailers even three years after the disaster (Gafford 386).

Another part of the video that is a reference to a historical event is the formation of the dancers during their routine. The X formation created by the dancers is a reference to Malcolm X, an American Muslim human rights activist.

Together with the lyrics, the video serves as a celebration of African-American beauty. "I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afiros /1 like my negro nose with Jackson

Five nostrils " The looks of African-American women were for a long-time subject of critique by white society. There are, for example, several cases where black students were banned from school based solemnly on their natural hair. All the dancers picture the em• powerment of the natural black beauty and its celebration. It is not only young women who celebrate their beauty but also little girls, one of them being Beyonce's daughter

Blue Ivy who was, despite her very young age, also a target of criticism for her looks.

The criticism of the looks of black women becomes even more absurd once one realizes that it is the predispositions of African-Americans such as full lips, darker skin and curvy

24 bodies that are nowadays seen as an ideal of beauty. Therefore, the frustration that people of color experience based on the fact that certain parts of their looks are being glorified while others are being bashed is understandable. Hand in hand with the taken-over ideals of beauty comes also stealing of the culture such as the dance moves, music, and so on that the mainstream appropriates and adopts as its own.

During the video, we can notice that most of the scenes are filled with shots of black women. This could relate to showing the empowerment of African-American women. Maybe even to the activists such as Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal

Tometi who, as mentioned earlier in this thesis, are the ones behind the Black Lives Mat• ter movement that shook up the view on police brutality especially towards people of color and raised awareness to this issue. Apart from that, considering Beyoncé's view on the topic of gender equality, it can also be seen as a way to empower women and touch upon the said political issue. In her short essay on gender inequality singer labelled gender equality as a myth when she wrote: "[w]e need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn't a reality yet" (Knowles-Carter). Gender inequality is an issue occurring worldwide for decades. With the lyrics in "Formation" saying: "[y]ou just might be a black Bill Gates in the making," Bey oncé suggests that women should not feel afraid and go after and work for their dreams. Despite Bey oncé not considering herself a feminist as she believes that the term can evoke a rather extremist undertone, she continues to support young girls and women in their fight with gender inequality. "We have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible." However, at the same time she suggests that "unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change"

(Knowles-Carter).

25 The final scenes from the video include shot on the sentence "Stop shooting us" written on the wall. This together with a little boy dancing in front of the group of police• men in combat gear is a reference to the shootings on unarmed African-American citi• zens. Viewers of the video created correlations between the young unarmed boy in a hoodie and the shooting of Trayvon Martin where during the trial Zimmerman's defendant claimed that Martin's apparel made him look suspicious.

To summarize, likewise, as the Childish Gambino's video for "This Is America",

Bey once's "Formation" also experiments with the idea of using African-American culture and the way it is abused by mainstream media while still neglecting its origins and the culture behind it. Apart from that, they both work with the issue of violence by using symbolism and references recalling the events such as the shooting of Trayvon

Martin. Nevertheless, Bey once in her "Formation" video focuses on other political issues such as gender inequality and the impossible beauty standards on black women.

4.3 Usher - "Chains"

Another African-American artist participating in the fight against racial injustice is Usher. Despite the artist being known more as an "international sex symbol" than a political activist, Usher Raymond II does have some history with activism and politics.

In 2007 Usher launched a campaign in support of Barack Obama who was at the time running for a post of the presidents of the United States. Later on, in 2008 he supported the Service Nation campaign which focused on expanding the opportunities for Ameri• cans to spend a year in a non-military national service and after finishing the program would reward the volunteers with a monetary education award. Nevertheless, for this the• sis, the most important was his engagement with the organization Sankofa. Sankofa is an organization founded by Harry Belafonte, and its main mission is to "addresses injustice

26 and create[s] change at multiple levels" (sankofa.org). The meaning of Sankofa - a word in Twi language Ghana - can be understood as "You must reach back to reclaim that which is lost in order to move forward." In free interpretation „it expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bring it into the present in order to make positive progress" (sankofa.org). Taking this into consideration organization

Sankofa works with the idea of reigniting the activist tradition. Thus, they are trying to engage artistic and cultural leaders as social rights activists as it was in the 1940s. In

October 2015, Usher partnered up with this organization and together with the founder of the organization, Harry Belafonte, he led the conversation titled "Breaking the Chains of

Social Injustice" at 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. Here they were speaking about popular culture and activism. It was at this panel where he introduced the music video to his song

„Chains" which he recorded with an American rapper Nas and American-German singer

Bibi Bourelly.

The music video for "Chains" differs from the previous ones of Beyoncé and

Childish Gambino in the absence of mass media and culture and rather focuses on the raw emotions that people of color experience every day. The interactive video was posted on a Jay-Z's streaming service TIDAL4. This interactive video begins with the quote

"while racial injustice keeps killing, society keeps looking away." In parallel with the previously mentioned videos, the viewer is again facing the issue of mass media trying to cover the racial issues and ignore the cruel reality. The video then continues with a stream of black and white photos of the faces of the innocent victims of police brutality. The faces together with the names, ages and stories of the killed men, women, boys and girls evoke strong emotion in the viewer. The viewer sees faces of Trayvon Martin, Rekia

Boyd, Ceasar Cruz, Ramarley Graham, Kendrick Johnson, and many more.

4 Tidal is a music streaming website owned by Jay-Z.

27 In the conversation "Breaking the Chains of Social Injustice" Usher explains the idea behind this project as follows:

We launched the Chains campaign with the concept of technology allowing you

to watch the visual and also face the issue. The idea for me was in order to fix it,

you have to face it. The technology provides it as, if you do not look into the eyes

of the victim, the music video doesn't play, the music stops. It's an effort that I

feel is only opening the conversation — a conversation that is much greater than

the lives that have been lost."

By this, he means that the site is using the facial recognition technology bounding the eyes of the viewer to the screen projecting the faces of the victims. Once the technology recognizes viewer is no longer looking, the music stops. With this approach, creators suggest that not looking away from the problem is the first step to making a change.

Later on, a cinematic version of the music video was released for the song. The video preserved its black and white coloring that adds up to the emotionality and even to the possible ongoing fight between the two races and realization that there is no "grey area". The video opens with a shot of US flag and echoing parts of the pledge of alle• giance: "liberty and justice for all." This particular snippet of the allegiance gives a chilling feeling since the video suggests that the reality is far different from this official statement.

In this version of the video, we can see Usher projecting the feeling of fear, inse• curity and hopelessness that black people encounter every day as due to the constant issue of police brutality and therefore the inability to feel safe. The first scenes of the video are showing praying kids, men and women. Through these images, the viewer can relate to the feeling of insecurity and fear for life that black people in certain areas experience in their everyday life. The feeling of living in the dark and never knowing what is going to

28 happen is also highlighted by the fact that the video is shot in the dark with usually only one small source of light which appears to be the flickering lights of the police car. This video features Usher himself running from the police for no other apparent reason than the fear of the authority. The image than switches to Usher walking inside a church which could be another reference to the Charleston church shooting as the lyrics at this very moment read "American school and we in church too (Don't shoot)". Later on, however, it is revealed that this church scene is, in fact, Usher's character's funeral as he realizes that dusty pictures on the coffin are his own.

Following this, there is a flashback to Usher in the back of a police car with his hands covered in blood suggesting that during his run from the police he was wounded.

As he passes by, he sees African-American youth out of the car window standing in the streets holding up signs reading slogans like "just following orders" or "am I next?".

These scenes call for the African-American people and especially the youth to keep fighting for their human rights. This is supported by Nas' lyrics coming out of the lips of a young boy where he is naming some of the most important African-American civil right activists such as W.E. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington and comparing himself to them: "I'm the modern one./Yelling at Senators, Presidents, Congressmen./We got a prob• lem that needs some acknowledgement."

This scene leaves the audience with the feeling that this, in fact, is a problem that lacks the media coverage and should be acknowledged. Therefore, it is crucial for people not to be afraid and raise their voices as government and police will not change them• selves as is expressed in the following lyrics criticizing false statements of politicians in order to appeal to the voters: "They want our votes but refuse the discussion/ On how certain cops they shoot us for nothing ... You act like the change (The land of oppor• tunity)/ Tryna throw me in chains (The land of Unity) "

29 Last but not least imagery worth mentioning are the flashes of chains, handcuffs and guns made out of clay falling to the ground and breaking into pieces. This) symbol• izes the desire to break free from these issues- to "break the chains". To get rid of the unnecessary gun violence, the unfair practices and probably to even break free from the reminiscence of the historical slavery represented by the chains which according to the

Usher's lyrics has never really ended as they are "still in chains". At one point in the video, there is a scene of a white clay statue falling to the ground as well. This could be seen as a reference to the white privilege and hopes for deleting the imaginary border between the two races.

These two videos are probably the most emotional out of all the chosen videos for this thesis. The first video with the idea to work with technologies to make it harder for the viewer to turn their blind eye towards the current issue of police brutality and violence is something unique and makes the viewers stare into the eyes of the victims while they tell their stories. Additionally, the second one sends a powerful message to the African-

American people to fight for their rights and freedom from fear and insecurities they have to face every day. It also sends out the message to the government and criticizes its way of leading the country where they promise freedom and equality to everyone and yet there are still people who are threatened by the authorities rather than protected by them.

4.4 Kendrick Lamar - "Alright"

Last but not least music video worth mentioning is "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar.

Kendrick Lamar is an American rapper and songwriter who started his career as a teen• ager under the stage name K-Dot, and up to this moment he is, by multiple sources, con• sidered the "new king of hip hop". Lamar's writing is often controversial as it concerns topics such as racism, social injustice and empowerment of black people. Although some

30 of his music is heavily influenced by West Coast hip hop and gangsta rap he also incor• porates elements of spoken word, soul and jazz into it. When it comes to political views,

Lamar expressed his opinion on government and politics in an interview in 2012 for Truth

Is Scary where he stated: "I don't vote. I don't do no voting; I will keep it straight up real with you. I don't believe in none of the sh[*]t that's going on in the world." Despite this statement, Lamar was one of the artists that got involved after the formation of the Black

Lives Matter movement and released the album "To Pimp a Butterfly" that contained the song "Alright". Because of the message this song conveys its lyrics were soon shouted on Black Lives Matter events and thus many started to refer to this song as an anthem of the movement.

Unlike the previously mentioned music videos, this one does not straightfor• wardly refer to the actual past events concerning the police brutality issue and instead focuses on the current situation happening in the world. Equally, as the "Chains" video this one is also in black and white with a short storyline-like prologue. The prologue is made up from panoramic shots of Oakland a city in northern California known for a high crime rate and extreme poverty. This part of the music video seems to be solemnly focus• ing on the current situation in the American neighborhoods. This is supported by the di• rector of the video, Colin Tilley, who in his interview for MTV stated that he "wanted to have this m.A.A.d. city5 concept in there first. It shows the state of everything that's going on in the world right now." Tilly then continues talking about how he did not want the video to be just about one specific thing or event but rather about capturing the overall current situation: „It was taken from all the energy. It wasn't one specific thing. It was kind of all the energy that's been going on and I wanted to capture it like that. I didn't

5 "M.A.A.D city" is a name of a song from Kendrick Lamar's 2012 album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City where he sings about his childhood.

31 want to dive into one certain event or make it about one thing. It's about everything that's going on. "

Shots of empty streets are replaced with chaotic pictures of burning cars, children dancing on the hood of a police car, flashing lights, riots and breaking glass. Screams and

Lamar's lyrics accompany these visuals. In one scene audience sees a man being cuffed by a policeman and then being shot along with the lyrics: "But while my loved ones were fighting the continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one. A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination." Some believe that this scene is a reference to the case of Walter Scott, a 55 years-old African-American man who was shot five times in the back by the police officer Michael Slager. This scene together with the lyrics suggests that apart from the constant fear of living in the neighborhoods with raging gang activity he was now facing also the racism from the side of authorities. Similarly, to the Usher's

"Chains" this song as well expresses the continuous tension and fear in the

African-American community due to the absence of law and injustice from the side of

American law enforcement.

In contrast to this, a rather dark prologue of the video, the actual musical part sounds rather uplifting and hopeful with the unbeaten rhythm and constant repetition of the phrase "we gon' be alright." At this part of the video, the viewer sees Lamar with others in a car that is revealed to be carried by four policemen. This particular scene could symbolize the desire to conquer the issue of violence from the side of law enforcement and its vindictive proceedings and victory over them. This attitude then continues throughout the whole video where Kendrick is floating which can be seen as a symbol to his desire to free himself from the current situation full of injustice, fear and hate and to be above it all - be free. This ability to release yourself from the terror around you, be

32 hopeful and inspire people to fight for a better future is also projected with the kids ap• pearing in the video. Director Colin Tilly then in his interview mentions that "[w]hen

Kendrick's floating through the city, that's him being like a superhero to these kids, him being something these kids can aspire towards. ... So, I wanted to get these kids' reactions so we can feel the impact Kendrick's creating on the streets around him." The message about positivity is then spread through the dancers vibing to the upbeat melody. "When you see people dancing, that's an act of celebration. That's expressing yourself in a certain way," states Colin Tilly in the MTV interview.

Comparing this to „This Is America" there are obvious connections between the positive cultural aspects such as dancing representing the beauty of the world and ability to express yourself which is later on put into contrast with certain negativity, in this par• ticular video expressed through the black-and-white coloring. Nevertheless, as mentioned by Tilly, he wanted to make this video positive, he wanted to take "something negative and [put] a positive spin on everything that's going on".

Another positive aspect that this video is showing is the brotherhood and unity in the community as Lamar is surrounded by other people most of the time. The feeling of togetherness and being stronger as a group is something that forwards a hopeful message to the people in the community as no matter what they are never alone and together, they can be stronger and achieve greater things.

One of the last scenes of the video is a police officer shooting Lamar down from a light pole. This particular scene ties the video ending with its beginning where we also encounter the malevolent force of the police and a black man killed. The fact that the person being shot at the end of the video is Kendrick himself who throughout the video acted, in the words of Tilly, as a "superhero" symbolizes that no one is untouchable, and this could happen to anyone at any time. Because death and playing with someone else's

33 life can be a somewhat controversial and emotional subject, Tilly and Lamar decided to create a dream, fantasy world. Thus, there are images of Lamar floating around the city like a superhero. This idea of being in a dream is then also supported by the last scene where Lamar is not shot down with a gun but only with a police officer pointing at him with his fingers in a shape resembling a gun. As mentioned earlier, this final scene is tying the knots with the beginning of the video not only by the shooting of an unarmed man but also by Kendrick repeating the lines from the beginning of the video as he falls to the ground. It is followed by him smiling as a sign of this being just a dream and the hope that everything is going to be all right.

Despite the chilling and negative undertone that this song has in concerns of the topic it covers, on the whole, it spreads a somewhat positive message that all the negative things can be turned into something positive and as long as you have hope there is still a chance for a better tomorrow. Through the lyrics, Lamar reminds his listeners that no matter how hard or hopeless the situation gets friends and family will always be here. The optimism that the past does not need to affect the present and future and that the chaotic streets seen at the beginning of the video do not have to be what the black communities have to look like in the future offers African American people hope. Hope to believe in the change and feeling of unity and togetherness that can help them reach higher in their fight for social justice.

4.5 Final comparison of the videos

While choosing the videos, I focused on the overall message that is the same for all of the five music videos. It is visible that despite each of the artist producing different styles of music the topic of social injustice, racial issues and unnecessary violence towards people of color brings them all together. The influence of the Black Lives Matter

34 movement is visible through the artists' indirect references to the most chilling events that shook up the African-American community in terms of racism and unnecessarily violent interventions of law enforcement. Each of the artists took their own spin on how to present the issue to their audiences and to leave an impact on them. While Childish

Gambino and Beyonce used the idea of mass media covering the truth of what is really happening in the community by focusing rather on the cultural aspects such as music and new "hip" dance moves, Kendrick Lamar and Usher tried to express the issue by storytelling and targeting emotions of the audience through the black-and-white videos.

The sceneries for all the videos share some similarities. Probably only apart from the Beyonce's video, the videos are shot in seemingly rundown buildings, empty streets and parking lots. In Beyonce's video is this exchanged for the flooded New Orleans and colonizers' houses where African-American people used to serve as slaves. Again, apart from Beyonce's video, the others are filled with chaos, burning cars and police sirens representing the current situation in the African-American neighborhoods. It is also noticeable that Beyonce took up a challenge to criticize society not only for overlooking situation of black people in general but also on criticizing society for actuating black women to unachievable ideals of beauty and bashing their natural predispositions.

All of the artists performed an excellent job with these music videos and in addressing the current situation and "disrupting the peace" among the worldwide audiences. The debates that raised after the release of these videos are the discussions and attention the issue of discrimination and racism needs to face. Moreover, they not only started discussions but also inspired people to get involved in the activism and created hope for the citizens living in fear that they are not alone, and people are fighting for their rights.

35 5 Effects on the Viewer

When talking about the interactions between media and public one quickly realizes that "[t]here is not enough media space for all the accidents or social events in our daily lives" (Chung 211). "Many social issues receive no print or online media attention," expresses in his article Ik Jae Chung, he then continues by stating that "some local issues highlighted by newspapers or online media quite often develop into news stories with nationwide interest." (211) This could be seen as a relevant statement to the case of the analyzed videos and the #BlackLivesMatter movement since the cases of the shootings where rather local and without the activity of the black community not only in real life but also on social media the impact of these shootings would not have been as vast as it is now.

Taking this into consideration the question arising is, do the analyzed videos and artists' spreading the message about issues which are often ignored by media and society have any value or result? According to Ien Ang "audiences are seen as producers of meaning, not just consumers of media content" (214) in contrast to previous believes that audience perception of media is rather passive. (Ang 205) This statement is thoroughly supported by the number of different meanings and symbols that were viewers of the above-analyzed videos able to notice. Since most of the artist tried to keep their vision and explanations of the videos to themselves, they enabled the audience to project their visions onto the symbols and meanings of the videos. By this, the "active audience" has a chance to participate in the search for the meaning of the videos and share their opinions with others. This was indeed proved by many viewers expressing their miscellaneous theories for the meanings of the videos all over the internet.

36 However, not all the reactions were focused on the discussion of the symbolism and message of the videos. Some of the artists, in instance, Bey once were subject of blame for commercializing the social issues and using the hype created around them as a way to earn more money and sell more records. Apart from that, some people seen these videos as racist towards white population and extremely hateful towards the police officers.

The platform for the artists and other influencers is now more widespread than ever, and the influence of their message reaches further than before. Quoting the official website of the organization Sankofa collaborating with artists such as Usher, Aloe Blacc,

John Legend, Macklemore and many more: "Artists and performers are in a unique position to shape our society's cultural and moral destiny - to cast light on pressing issues and to use their creative gifts to inspire action. When they use their platform to speak up on matters of political and social urgency, the impact is profound and lasting"

(Sankofa.org). So, it is really up to the artist to be politically active as they are the ones that have the power to inspire.

37 6 Conclusion

As racism and violence continue to be an ongoing issue in the United States, it is essential for people to stand up and fight for their human rights in any way possible. The goal of this thesis was to show one of the ways of spreading information about the current issues, and it also is a way of connecting people and giving them the courage to express their voices. The analyzed method was a music video. Thanks to technological advancements it is now easier than ever to express emotions, art and ideas through different channels. With the invention of video recorders, a completely new challenge raised for the scientists to work with as videos are in the sense of content much more complicated than before-known audio recordings. Video is a combination of audio, image and movement; therefore, it gives much more information to be analyzed unlike for example previously mentioned audio. As far as the video analysis goes many things can be analyzed ranging from the objects in front of the camera, their expressions over to the camera work and how the video is shot over to the final editing of the video such as cuts and coloring.

With social media on the rise, it is now easier than ever to influence and be influenced by others. It is therefore essential for people with a big following on those platforms to work with the power they have and try to actively inform their followers and audiences about issues that are often overlooked by mass media. With social media, it is also much easier to become involved and share your opinions with the world. If it were not for social media, movements such as Black Lives Matter would probably never be as well-known and spoken about as they are now. It was the Black Lives Matter movement that became one of the most relevant activist formations against the race-based violence and police brutality. This movement that was formed based on the tragic events

38 of shooting innocent African American people by white police officers soon became a household name and launched a revolution as many artists actively participated in supporting the movement by creating songs and music videos referring to the issue.

Artists have been actively involved in activism ever since the beginning of the entertainment industry. As they appear in a unique position to influence people and help shape society. For some people, the ideals of the artist can be even more critical and relevant than the ones of politicians and government. Artists are aware of that, and there• fore they often get involved.

In this thesis, I took a more in-depth look at four music videos by famous African

American artists concerned with the issue of malicious law enforcement proceedings and assumptions about black people. The videos analyzed were "This Is America" by Childish

Gambino, "Formation" by Beyonce, "Chains" by Usher and "Alright" by Kendrick

Lamar. Interestingly enough, each of the artists used a slightly different way to express their views on the current situation, and despite the different approaches, there is a number of similarities connecting these music videos. Whether it was black and white video telling a story such as the "Chains" and "Alright" or a video focusing rather on symbolism and African American culture such as "This Is America" and "Formation" the overall message remained the same- to highlight the fear and frustration from the society where justice is absent and important issues often overlooked. These videos in specific ways also criticize the society not only for not paying attention to the important things that are political or environmental issues but focus on a rather shallow mainstream trends such as new dance moves, music or fashion and mass media supporting this by not giving enough coverage to the important problems such as shootings on unarmed men and unfair procedures.

39 The goal of this thesis to prove that the videos can be used as a source of information for spreading awareness of important social issues regarding race inequality was judging from the responses under the official music videos and numerous articles discussing meanings and symbols behind those videos achieved as it is clear that the artists do influence their audience. Thus, the music videos are an appropriate channel to raise the awareness of important political issues that still need resolving. The reach of the artists is now even more significant with platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and

Twitter that make it easier for influencers to make an impact on wider audiences and by this also share the message even to the places where people would never know about the problem. The more people know about the issues, the more people can fight them, and therefore I believe it is crucial for the artists and anyone with a more prominent social platform to actively participate in the creation of a better safer world and music and art is a great way to do so.

40 7 Works Cited

Austin, Curtis J. Up against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the

Black Panther Party. University of Arkansas Press, 2006.

"Bey once - Formation." YouTube, uploaded by Bey once, 9 December 20116,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV bQ.

"Black Lives Matter." Black Lives Matter; blacklivesmatter.com/.

Chung, Ik Jae. "Dynamics of Media Hype: Interactivity of the Media and the Public."

Vasterman. pp 211-227

Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Duckworth, Kendrick. "Alright." To Pimp a Butterfly, Mark Spears, Pharrell Williams,

Kawan KP Prather, Top Dawg Entertainment, 2015. Genius, https://ge-

nius.com/Kendrick-lamar-alright-lyrics

Felix, Doreen St. "The Carnage and Chaos of Childish Gambino's 'This Is

America.'" The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2019,

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-carnage-and-chaos-of-

childish-gambinos-this-is-america.

Gafford, Farrah D. "Rebuilding the Park: The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on a Black

Middle Class Neighborhood." Journal of Black Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, 2010,

pp. 385-404. JSTOR, www.istor.org/stable/25780783.

Gambino, Childish. "Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)." YouTube,

uploaded by Donald Glover, 5 May 2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY.

"George ZIMMERMAN, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Et Al.,

Respondents." Findlaw,

41 caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-district-court-of-appeal/1633824.html.

Goransson, Ludwig, and Childish Gambino. "Childish Gambino - This Is

America." Genius, 6 May 2018,

genius. com/Childi sh-gambino-thi s-i s-america-lyrics?refe-

rent_id= 1449876 l#note-14498761.

Hardy, Anne. "The Mechanisms of Media Storms." Vasterman, pp. 133-148

Harris, Fredrick C, and Robert C. Lieberman, editors. Beyond Discrimination: Racial

Inequality in a Postracist Era. Russell Sage Foundation, 2013.

"Kendrick Lamar Says He Won't Vote & the President Doesn't Have Power

w/TRUTHISSCARY.com." YouTube, uploaded by TruthisScaryTv, 26 August

2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypknuX4DHZc.

Khazei, Alan. Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring out the Best in

America. Public Affairs, 2011.

Knowles, Bey once. "Formation." Lemonade, Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Michael

Len Williams II, Quad Recording Studios, 2016. Genius,

https://genius.com/Beyonce-formation-lyrics

Knowles-Carter, Beyonce. "Gender Equality Is a Myth!" The Shriver Report, 25 August

2014, shriverreport.org/gender-equality-is-a-myth-beyonce/.

Knoblauch, Hubert, et al., editors. Video Analysis: Methodology and Methods:

Qualitative Audiovisual Data Analysis. Peter Lang Pub., 2006.

Knoblauch, Hubert, et al.."Video-Analysis: Methodological Aspects of Interpretative

Audiovisual Analysis in Social Research." Knoblauch, et al., pp. 9-26

Knoblauch, Hubert. "Videography: Focused Ethnography and Video Analysis."

Knoblauch, et al., pp. 70-83

Lamar, Kendrick. "Kendrick Lamar - Alright." YouTube,

42 uploaded by KendrickLamarVEVO, 30 June 2015,

https://www.youtubexom/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY.

Leistyna, Pepi, editor. Cultural Studies: From Theory to Action. Blackwell Pub., 2005.

Leight, Elias. "How Donald Glover Charted His Own Path to Hip-Hop Stardom."

RollingStone, 25 June 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-

news/how-donald-glover-charted-his-own-path-to-hip-hop-stardom-628594/.

Raab, Jurgen and Dirk Tanzler. "Video Hermeneutics," Knoblach et al., pp. 85-97

"Sankofa.org." Sankofa.org, www.sankofa.org/.

Smitherman, Geneva. "The Chain Remain the Same": Communicative Practices in the

Hip Hop Nation." Journal of Black Studies, vol. 28, no. 1, 1997,

pp. 3-25. JSTOR, https://www.istor.org/stable/2784891.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. From #BlachLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

HaymarketBooks, 2016

Tardio, Andres. "Exclusive: We Got All The Answers About Kendrick Lamar's

Alright' Video." MTV News, 1 July 2015,

www.mtv.com/news/2201127/kendrick-lamar-alrightvideo-colin-tilley/.

Terkel, Studs. "An Interview with James Baldwin." Conversations with James Baldwin,

edited by Fred L. Standley and Louis H. Pratt, University Press of Mississippi,

1989.

"This Is America" Is Deeper Than You Think: Music Videos Explained." YouTube,

Published by The Pop Song Professor, 8 May2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KyZdZQg-0.

Usher. "Chains." Chains, Bibi Bourelly, Nasir Jones, RCA, 2015. Genius,

https://genius.com/Usher-chains-lyrics

"Usher - Chains by Film the Future ft. Nas, Bibi Bourelly." YouTube, uploaded by

43 Usher, 2 February 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slNlCEUhA-E.

"Usher." Usher - #Chains #DontLookAway, chains.tidal.com/.

"Usher Raymond IV and Harry Belafonte with Soledad O'Brien: "Breaking the Chains"

of Social Injustice." YouTube, uploaded by 92nd Street Y, 16 November 2015,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erb_x_GDePs.

Vasterman, Peter, editor. From Media Hype to Twitter Storm: News Esxplosions and

Their Impact on Issues, Crises and Public Opinion. Amsterdam University Press,

2018

44 8 Summary

This Bachelor's thesis attempts to refer on whether are real-life events and racial problems reflected in the lyrics and music videos of contemporary African-American hip hop artists and if so, how do artists project them into their art to connect the audience with not only the music and video but also with the unpleasant reality. Eventually, what effect do these videos have on the audience.

The first chapter emphases the role of social media in terms of the fight for human rights and its importance for the foundation of many social movements that are now trying to make a change in the world. The same chapter also talks about racism and violence as expressed in contemporary music.

The following chapter focuses on the theoretical part of video analysis. I discuss some of the problems that scientists specializing in video analysis can often encounter and take into account while conducting their research. Later, I mention the connections between video analysis and ethnography and its importance in technological studies.

The third chapter is focused more on the practical part and work with the four chosen music videos themselves. In this particular chapter, I attempt to analyze some of the symbolisms and meanings behind the scenes of those music videos, and I finish the chapter by contemplating the similarities and differences among these four videos.

The final chapter then discusses the different effects those previously analyzed videos have on the audience whether positive or negative and whether the idea that those videos can serve as means of forwarding information about the current social situation in the United States to a wider audience and by that help with the battle for racial equality can be applied.

Finally, in conclusion, I reflect on whether the thesis was successful in proving that creating music videos concerning with difficult situation in terms of race, violence

45 and inequality can enlarge the audience interested in those topics and eventually join the social movements.

46 9 Resumé

Tato bakalářská práce se zaměřuje na zjištění, zda se v textech a hudebních vi­ deích moderních afro-amerických hudebníků objevují odkazy na skutečné události a po­ kud ano, zda s nimi umělci nakládají, tak, aby navázali spojení mezi obecenstvem a tě­ mito událostmi. Práce zkoumá také dopad těchto videí na diváky a posluchače.

První kapitola se zabývá rolí sociálních médií jakožto místa vzniku několika so­ ciálních hnutí bojujících proti nerovnoprávnosti a rasismu jako je například hnutí Black

Lives Matter. Vzhledem k sociálním platformám jako YouTube, Spotify, iTunes apod. se tato kapitola též zmiňuje o výskytu rasismu a násilí v moderní hudbě šířené skrze tyto platformy.

Druhá kapitola se zaměřuj e především na teoretickou část video analýzy. Zde j sou rozebrány některé z problémů, kterým mohou být vědci, zabývající se právě video analý­ zou, často vystaveni. Dále se tato kapitola zmiňuje o spojitostech mezi video analýzou a etnografií.

Třetí kapitola této bakalářské práce je spíše praktického rázu a zabývá se samot­ nou analýzou čtyř předem zvolených hudebních videoklipů afro-amerických umělců.

V této kapitole se pokouším o rozbor některých symbolů a témat skrytých v daných vi­ deoklipech. Na základě nalezených symbolů pak ve finální části kapitoly tyto videa srov­ návám.

Závěrečná kapitola j e pak zaměřena na reakce, které zmíněná videa vyvolala mezi diváky. Zda byly reakce pozitivní či negativní a jestli se tím pádem dají považovat za prostředky pro šíření osvěty ohledně aktuální situace ve Spojených státech amerických a tím také pomoct při boji za rovnostní práva.

47 Závěr práce shrnuje veškeré poznatky a zhodnocení, zda bylo dosaženo prvotního plánu ukázat, že i hudební videoklipy mohou být použity jako prostředek pro šíření in­ formací a vzbudit tak zájem o aktuální politické situace mezi širším obecenstvem.

48