A Television Production and the Culture: This is America

A Television Production and the Culture
Name
Institutional Affiliation
A Television Production and the Culture
This is America
“This is America” portrays various cultural elements. The composer is bare chest, smoking and, unfortunately, takes the lives of innocent people using a gun (Gambino, 2018). In accordance with Williams’ discussion on the aspects of culture; documentary, ideal, and social elements, Gambino applies all these traits in his video. It is quite unfortunate that such vices are still encouraged in society, especially tying to murders and drug addiction. These actions may end up creating a subculture in the community, primarily by the play’s audience. In the end, other communities may also fall prey to the trickling effects of the subcultures embraced.
Despite the video highlighting ways in which subcultures come into play, it does not augur well with the ideals of many communities. Thus, it is provocative to the society as most elders discourage youths from drug addiction and murder. Besides, religious adherents also feel provoked since they detest murder and life is deemed precious. Therefore, this video dents the nurturing of viable norms in society by encouraging youths to engage in smoking and murder.
Raymond Williams on the Elements of Culture
Williams discusses culture as the conventional way of life for a certain section of individuals. To him, engaging in a culture may include the performance of some art activities for social purposes. Theodor, Guillaume, Roland, Georges, Walter, & Andre (n.d.) highlight the three basic components of culture. They state that culture is ideal, and this involves human perfection to promote its values. Besides, culture is a documentary in nature. In this case, it is composed of intellectual and imaginative works that are all recorded for future purposes. Certainly, this means that any form of art that is not in a documentary stance cannot reflect culture. In the social perspective, culture ensues as a way of life that articulates specific significances not only in learning and art but also in the ordinary behavior of humans. Rodrigo (2016) further supports Williams’ discussion by claiming that the culture revolves around two main areas; it takes place in people’s way of life, and art and learning.
Analysis of Williams’s Perspectives on Culture in relation to the Video of “This is America”
The song in play symbolizes all cultural components. The first element of culture discussed by Williams is the sense of being idealistic, in which culture is solely dependent on one’s possessions for it to have some values. In the video, the artist used his senses to create a mind-blowing artwork to attract the attention of the viewers. More so, in line with the second element of culture (documentation), this video is already formed in a documentary or electronic form, primarily in a compact disc. The main aim for this was to ensure that it has a resounding reach. Gambino ensure that the culture of art is recorded in designated platforms to foster its sustainability. Based on the social view, culture is literally a description of some people's lifestyles. Gambino, in this v...