LB: Analysis of a Promo Package

I am looking at how the song '3005' by Childish Gambino creates a meta-narrative for the artist in his latest album 'Because The Internet'.


Childish Gambino -3005








In terms of genre and narrative, the music video is a conceptual and performance based video. An identifiable element of the music video is the fact that the video only features two shots, with the majority of the time the camera being static, apart from the chorus, which it spins in sequence with the Ferris wheel which, the star, Childish Gambino is on. The two shots are not illustrative with the lyrics and music, however, the visual motif of the bear, which features throughout the video does link with the lyrics.

Using Dyer's Theory of how star image is created we see how the artist keeps it reasonably hidden in this music video. He does not construct much of a star persona, as he keeps an emotionless face during the video. However, he does obey to some of the conventions of music stardom in Dyer's Theory. The two most identifiable ones are originality and creativity/talent. This music video is the first kind that I have seen with this form of concept. Therefore, it creates a persona of Gambino being original and creative. Especially as Childish Gambino is also an actor and producer, meaning he would of had an input into the idea for this video of how he wants to represent himself.




Todorov's structural linguist theory on the way the structure of narrative is ordered to reveal meaning can be applied significantly to the music video for '3005'. The state of stable equilibrium is immediately disrupted by the Teddy Bear when it increasingly worsens throughout the video, contributing to the meta-narrative of Childish Gambino. The teddy bear is possibly there to represent time passing as the song chorus lyric is "I'll be right by your side till 3005" because as the video progresses the bear gets in a worse state, and these 4 minutes of the video are possibly meant to represent years passing and that he'll be there with her no matter what the situation. It could also be a link with artist, as at a younger point in his life Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) suffered from depression, and the bear could be a link back to this, showing how he felt torn apart as time went on.

I did some research online to find out if Childish Gambino had explained what the bear represented and found a quote from an interview he had done "It's kind of an existential thing. I'm just really scared of being alone. When I was little, there was a big dog down the street. I was really scared of it. But when I was with my sister, when I knew I had to protect her, I wasn't afraid of the dog as much because somebody was there. I had a purpose...I kind of feel lost. I kind of lost that, I feel."