Game changer? 100m views and people debating the narrative.  Genius.

???

I can’t stop watching it!

Me too shermer.

I have no idae whats going on but its awesome theatre, dancing, choreography, emotion and everything else I cant do.

I think that’s the point stoner.  People are being blindsided by the awesome theatre  but all the shit happening  in the background is being overlooked,  Things like the way guns are cosseted yet the victims are dragged away.. Powerful stuff

Interesting and powerful really, a lot of tension and anger brewing around the world at the moment, it does feel like a generational shift is going to happen again.

The genius part for me is that Childish (Donald Glover) has used imagery/symbolism that’s sparked a challenge to the mainstream without actually calling out the mainstream, therefore the mainstream are then openly debating the shortcomings of the mainstream. Genius.

Incredibly talented chap that Glover, his current series Atlantic (co written/directed by him) is excellent.. Sky Atlantic…

@bikebouy it’s really good isn’t it?

I think BBC are picking up S1 and S2 comes to Sky soon.

That vids really very good, and he’s definitely captured a lot of what the mood there is .. quite graphically..

Very Talented.

Shamelessly stolen fron a friend’s Facebook –

Video killed the radio star, can’t really avoid the Childish Gambino video hype, yep….great video, great man getting shot in the head video, because there really isn’t enough of that on TV or devices nowadays – Genius…. but stop calling the song genius, it isn’t, It is far from f***ing genius, it’s a longhaul flight from Genius International Airport, it’s not a different variety of genius, it’s not the same species of genius. If you want me to sit through every line of the song, well it ain’t gonna happen. Last verse of White Lines, there, Melle Mel – Genius. That’s the f***ing bench mark, Nas – genius, Rakim – Genius, now stop with the whack hyped up “video” shite.

Sort of where I’m at.

Sort of where I’m at.

and if you take a look at some of the deconstructed vids around working through some of the ideas and symbolism that you might not fully get?

 great man getting shot in the head video, because there really isn’t enough of that on TV or devices nowadays – Genius

The point has been missed so much, by so far it’s almost as if the took a longhaul flight from the point…

I think it is fantastic.

This version also exhibits a bit of “genius”

https://youtu.be/YUWq_aBiE_s

Well, the thought occurs that, if I have to watch a video to tell me what the first video meant to tell me, maybe we’re a little hasty applying the ‘genius’ tag to that first video. But yours is an opinion I respect, Mike – I’ll give it another go.

That Bassline tho…

can’t really avoid the Childish Gambino video hype

I seem to have managed it.

Thanks for posting – saw the vid promoted by Youtube and on principle never watch videos promoted to my account!

Bloody brilliant that. Wow

there were a few cultural references that I wasn’t aware of which the video explained, the rest is really social commentary which is making people ask questions.

Shamelessly stolen fron a friend’s Facebook –

I would have left it where it was..

He’s written a lot about it, but he’s completely missed the point of the whole thing. 🤔

I would have left it where it was..

Too right.

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Shamelessly stolen fron a friend’s Facebook –

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You have friends ?

I would have left it where it was..

Indeed.

He’s a pretty magnetic character. Hard not to like him in interviews. Much more so than some of the other star actor/producer/musicians around.

Can’t say the video does much for me, because like 90% of the population, I’m already aware of this stuff.
But maybe there are some of the 10% that this can communicate with. Maybe – or maybe they’ll just click on the next hyped music video and forget about it.

“Pondo wrote,

Well, the thought occurs that, if I have to watch a video to tell me what the first video meant to tell me, maybe we’re a little hasty applying the ‘genius’ tag to that first video.”

So your definition of genius is only using concepts and references that everyone gets? That’s not genius, that’s someone posting a meme on their facebook.

Can’t say the video does much for me, because like 90% of the population, I’m already aware of this stuff.

Perhaps 90% of the people you know.

Meh, nothing special

Donald McKinley Glover Jr. is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, singer, songwriter, rapper, and DJ.

He keeps himself busy anyway! Not into music really but thought I recognised him. He does stand up and was in the TV series Community.

But maybe there are some of the 10% that this can communicate with. Maybe – or maybe they’ll just click on the next hyped music video and forget about it.

Yah yah, good point. That’s probably why nobody has watched it and there’s no discussion about it taking place. Hm.

He’s written a lot about it, but he’s completely missed the point of the whole thing.

Knowing him as I do, I would say that you’re talking about different points. He hasn’t missed the point you’re discussing, he’s making a different point. Which I appreciate is not obvious if you don’t know him.

So your definition of genius is only using concepts and references that everyone gets? That’s not genius, that’s someone posting a meme on their facebook.

No. not as a definition of genius in general – in reference to a pop song/video (and maybe it’s just me) but if it’s not reasonably obvious, then the point gets mixed, where’s the genius in a song you have to have explained to you? I mean – pop music, that’s short for popular, right? Did anyone else get the reference to the red cloths that Alpin’s video explains? Or why the old American cars are there (and aren’t some of those Japanese?)? I want music to grab hold of my ears and not let go, make me want to listen to it over and over – this song ain’t that for me. If it is for you, that’s fine, and enjoy. Me, I don’t get the genius of his Confederate trousers, and apologies if that makes me stupid.

Yah yah, good point. That’s probably why nobody has watched it and there’s no discussion about it taking place. Hm.

I watched it cause Facebook (and for a second time because of this place, damn you all! 🙂 ). Hoping that good things come of it, not holding my breath, not expecting vast swathes of NRA card-carrying Trump-voters to change their votes, maybe I’m wrong, hope I am.

Did anyone else get the reference to the red cloths that Alpin’s video explains?

Enough for me to want to know what it was about, it was very deliberate especially the second time

 Or why the old American cars are there

Trump is trying desperately to hang onto dead and failing industries, the steel tariffs at the expense of new jobs are an example of that. Promising the rust belt something from the past won’t fix things

 not expecting vast swathes of NRA card-carrying Trump-voters to change their votes, maybe I’m wrong, hope I am.

You will never change the extremes, what you aim for is the ones in the middle who are either apathetic or not overly to one side.

See also this one

“Like.”

The problem with interpretation is it means different things to different people – so, the cars either reference Trump’s commitment to failing industries, as above. Or it could be (Google tells me) Philando Castile and other police homicides, or that (unlike most rap videos) most Americans don’t drive new cars – I dunno, is that what genius is? Maybe it is – he’s popped in there, clearly for a reason, but no-one can be sure what it means. Maybe I’m missing the point but I’m listening to the music going “that’s alright – no better than that.”

Maybe I’m missing the point but I’m listening to the music going “that’s alright – no better than that.”

Second time around I wan’t really listening to the music, it’s hopefully starting conversations in the US in the wake of the school shootings

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/14/us/national-school-walkout-gun-violence-protests/index.html

and the #MeToo movement a lot more questions are being asked and what people accept as normal is being questioned.

“Like”, again – maybe it IS just me! 🙂

No. not as a definition of genius in general – in reference to a pop song/video (and maybe it’s just me) but if it’s not reasonably obvious, then the point gets mixed, where’s the genius in a song you have to have explained to you? I mean – pop music, that’s short for popular, right? Did anyone else get the reference to the red cloths that Alpin’s video explains? Or why the old American cars are there (and aren’t some of those Japanese?)? I want music to grab hold of my ears and not let go, make me want to listen to it over and over – this song ain’t that for me. If it is for you, that’s fine, and enjoy. Me, I don’t get the genius of his Confederate trousers, and apologies if that makes me stupid.

I would say the very definition of artistic genius is the fact that it bears watching/reading/looking at multiple times and you gain more from the repetition. If something is so facile that you are able to ascertain all it has to say in a single visit it is hardly genius. I think it a great shame that you feel that pop should mean simple. This is plainly popular – 120 million views means it is certainly not niche. But popular (pop) has not always meant lowest common denominator. Shakespeare was the epitome of popular culture at the time of writing and on the surface was an author of simple cheeky superficial plays – the genius is in the hidden complexity. This is similar in that respect. This is not a pop song, but if viewed through a simplistic lens could be mistaken for one.

This is not a documentary; it is not a medium intended to present new facts and educate in that sense. It is an art form intended to provoke emotion around the issues it concerns. It might not have done that in you, but it has done it for a lot of other people. For me it is refreshing that a piece of performance art has been so embraced by so many.

It’s no I pet goat II .

But popular (pop) has not always meant lowest common denominator.

There were those who considered Mozart to be lowest common denominator…

I get that it needn’t be immediately obvious, and I’m sorry if you think I feel pop should be simple. But I repeat, where’s the genius in a song you have to have explained to you? Shakespeare’s a great analogy, his plays work on many levels so were accessible and meaningful to pretty much everyone. The song itself ain’t all that (totally appreciate that’s a very personal observation), and the video has loads of symbology that’s either a bit obscure (Confederate trousers, red cloths, old cars) or bluntly obvious (shootings, juxtaposition of school kids and violence, a black person running away from a white mob).

Shakespeare’s a great analogy, his plays work on many levels so were accessible and meaningful to pretty much everyone

He is, at the time he was churning out entertainment for the masses, a few hundred years of study and we have analysed every word and inference in the texts, yet people will still debate it.

Pondo wrote,

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No. not as a definition of genius in general – in reference to a pop song/video (and maybe it’s just me) but if it’s not reasonably obvious, then the point gets mixed, where’s the genius in a song you have to have explained to you?

The key word there is “you”. Different people will “get” different things. Like, I didn’t get the Jim Crow visual at all, but that doesn’t mean the next person didn’t. Some people’ll hardly get anything, some people will find their own meanings, some 1 in a million might pick up every reference and nuance…

I can’t see the hare in Rain, Steam and Speed- I’ve been shown where it is, I’d still have taken it for just a wee blob. And that’s OK too.

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Absolutely. Do you think people will still be debating the meaning of…

“Look how I’m geekin’ out

I’m so fitted

I’m on Gucci

I’m so pretty

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>I’m gon’ get it </span>

Watch me move”

… Four hundred years from now?I dunno, maybe they will – but for me, genius it ain’t.