Sure, any grad student will tell you that close reading is fun, regardless of the actual work being addressed. It’s why Pac-Man is a nihilistic meditation on the ultimate emptiness of consumerism, for example.
However, regardless of the specifics of individual allusions (which I agree is generally overblown for anything that ends up getting twitter-mob analyzed), I don’t think there’s any reasonable doubt about the overall intent of the message being communicated. Hopefully people are talking about the overall intent in addition to over-analyzing minutiae.
Oh hell yes, I am completely on board with this. The guitar player’s return seals it for me. Well done.
I would add that Gambino is shot specifically because he wants to light a cigarette and his lighter is treated as a weapon. I was wondering why he wasn’t holding his hands quite like you would if you held a pistol. He’s holding the lighter.
This fills the flight of the dancing school kids with even more pathos. Thank you, @ImaTarget.
That just shows that whoever is making and sharing and liking this has not understood a single thing that Gambino was trying to convey. I find this utterly disgusting. And it looks like Nerdist got the backlash as well.
And thanks all! I can’t take all the credit though, someone else pointed me in the direction of red=death and how weird it is that the guitar player is back. From there it suddenly seemed pretty obvious.
This made me snicker at least. I am sure there will be a reddit war, and it seems like the pro-Trump group will be bigger and have more time on their hands, but we’ll see.
“I feel extremely humbled to be recognised and labelled as one of, or the original inspiration, for one of the most important pieces of music and visual art of our time,” he posted on Instagram.
“I appreciate all the love and support! But please don’t let this controversy dilute the message me and Childish Gambino are trying to convey.”
Yeah the other artist is being very polite and doesn’t seem prone to try and sue over similarities. I would have quote more but it seems bad form not to give BBC their clicks or whatever if someone wants to read more. I honestly don’t know what the etiquette is.
Well it’s on his instagram, that doesn’t “belong” to the BBC. Here’s the full quote from his instagram:
I feel extremely humbled to be recognized and labeled as one of the original inspirations for one of the most important pieces of music and visual art of our time.
I appreciate all the love and support! But PLEASE DON’T let this controversy dilute the message me and @childishgambino are trying to convey. We are speaking about injustices we’ve encountered and he’s helped to provide a platform for all our voices to be heard. Let’s not discredit him for that! The focus should be on affecting change in our communities and building equality. This is bigger than me and him and bigger than music. Let’s not lose focus 🙏🏾
