Music and sound

Music

The song “This is America” by Childish Gambino has a simple composition that can be divided into an intro, verses, a chorus, and the outro. The most notable aspect of the song is that it alternates between two distinct and different styles of music. 

The video starts with a cheerful African beat and acoustic guitar over which a choir sings. An electronic beat slowly joins this arrangement in the background (00:30), which is made more noticeable by Gambino’s dancing to this beat. 
However, this joyful music suddenly switches to a bass-heavy electronic beat (00:52) over which Gambino starts rapping. This part creates a terrifying and aggressive atmosphere, as the low bass is constant in the background while a ticking sound marks the beat. Later, a constant high-pitched...