Madonna “Like A Prayer” Analysis

The music video begins with Madonna running away from something when she trips and falls, as she does this she lifts her head and an image of a door closing appears, followed by the image of a burning cross. This from the very outset signifies the importance that religion will have throughout the video. The door could perhaps be a church door and the fact that it is closing could represent how she feels she is not welcome anymore within her religion. The burning cross then reinstates this idea as it seems as though she has betrayed her own religion in some way. Flashbacks are shown in between shots of Madonna, displaying a crime she witnessed where a group of white males were attacking a younger woman. It is then shown that a black man was arrested, presumably for that same crime which he had not committed.

Madonna walks into an empty church and ends up falling asleep to dream about a statue of Jesus, however instead of Jesus being white, which he is almost always assumed to be, he is black. This is Madonna’s way of showing she is beyond her time, she is not racist, in fact the complete opposite, she is standing up for her beliefs and the people of the black community. Jesus then begins to cry, which is another symbol suggesting Madonna has done something to betray her religion, and for that Jesus is not happy with her. The statue of Jesus then turns into the black man that was earlier arrested for a crime he did not commit. This symbolises how the man that was arrested reminds her of Jesus perhaps, and she feels as though she is betraying Jesus by not saying that the man who was arrested is innocent.

More connotations of religion are displayed when Madonna holds a knife to her hand and as she takes it away she has holes in both hands, in the same places as where Jesus would have had the nails stuck through his hand. You could argue that this is because Madonna feels as though she needs to sacrifice herself in order to save the man, in the same way Jesus sacrificed himself to save the human race.

A choir then appear, all of whom are black and are singing Madonna’s song. It is at this point we see the whole scene of the crime Madonna witnessed. The black man went to try and help the woman who had just been killed, however then the police emerged and arrested the man for a crime he did not commit. Madonna is going against stereotypes in the sense that it is the stereotype of black people that they are criminals and constantly in trouble with the law, however in Madonna’s video, she is making a point for people to notice that the black man is innocent and it is the white men that are the criminals.

After this quick scene of the black man being arrested, Madonna is seen dancing around burning crosses. This represents Madonna as rebellious and anti-authority, while also displaying the guilt she feels for not standing up for the man she knows is innocent. The burning crosses has connotations of the Ku Klux Klan, so you could argue that Madonna feels as if she is just as bad as the exceedingly racist and discriminatory group, the KKK, for not saving the man from going to prison.

Madonna is dressed in a rather promiscuous way, in a lace red dress, red having connotations of love and sex, and the lace being almost like underwear. She is highly sexualised because she is the star of the music video and is forced to look promiscuous and good-looking. It is evident that Madonna is her record company’s main big star and they are trying to make her appeal to many different audiences.

It is also evident that her own ideologies have been brought into the video, and she was one of the main reasons the video is so anti-racism. She is represented as being ahead of her time and having unique ideologies for the 90s era that she was in. The very end of the video is when Madonna goes to set the man free and the other men who actually committed the crime get arrested and sent to prison. This is Madonna’s way of sending across her overall message and making sure it stays with the audience after they finish watching. The overall message being that we are all equal, regardless of your race, gender or religion.

YOUR MUSIC

Music is an extremely broad term for something which has so many elements to it, referring to the different genres within the music industry such as classical, alternative, rock and roll and many more. I personally enjoy electric dance music and garage music. I feel as though a lot of EDM artists are not particularly well known which I feel is a shame as it means they can go unappreciated, however I also tend to find that music on the charts becomes overplayed and I get bored of it easily, which is why I am inclined to listen to artists that are less well known and move away from the ‘mainstream’ pop music that is extremely popular at the moment.

My Nu Leng are a duo of DJs named Jammo and Tommy  that create music which is incredibly difficult to fit into just one category, however I would describe it as having a very deep base and mixed with a lot of electric echoes. The duo are based in Bristol and aren’t particularly famous, but are still very successful. They draw on many varied influences without sticking to one particular genre. Their sound is heavy and deep but they toy with the pitch in a lot of their songs which I enjoy.

The duo have gone on to release a number of high rolling remixes such as the song “La La La” by Naughty Boy , the summer hit “Right Here” by Rudimental and the song “Mozart’s House” by Black Butter. However I would say in their own music they are most famous for “Set It” and “Masterplan” as well as the song “Soul Shake” who was featuring a DJ named Flava D, she also produces similar music. “Set It” has 312,935 views on YouTube, this is very successful for the duo, however “Masterplan” has 572,238 views, which is incredibly successful for the DJs. Soul Shake is fairly recent of theirs and it has 298,419 views. The duo are rapidly becoming very popular and have many upcoming gigs in famous clubs such as Fabric  and Motion.

I really enjoy listening to My Nu Leng as I feel all their songs have a certain edge to them that other music lacks and I am always able to recognise their tracks due to their unique style. I find their album covers interesting and thought-provoking and I feel as though they really tried to convey a sense of the music within their album covers, and it Is evident that the DJs are not being sold on the way in which they look, but the music itself which they create. I am desperate to see the duo live and feel as though it would just spark my inspiration for many different things, outside of music and perhaps their music will have an impact on the way in which the music video is produced.

A2 MEDIA STUDIES

For A2 media studies I am going to be focusing on music video campaigns and looking at aspects in great detail such as the production of a music video itself, the creation of a digipack and a website for the created artist/band used in the music video. I will also be focusing in on some media theorists and throughout the entire process I will utilise the skills I learned from last year as well as acquiring new ones which I am greatly looking forward to.

From my previous posts, I have learnt to track all of my planning and processes on my blog and use it to my advantage in order to keep track of all my acquired knowledge and when it comes to creating a music video, keeping track of all the aspects that go into the creation of this. I have learnt to criticise my own ideas and work in the sense that I have to be harsh on the effect my ideas or concepts might have on an audience and take all of this into account when exploring my decisions. I feel as though this is most important when it comes to creating a music video as the effect on the audience is essentially the whole point to media products. I feel as though my last posts were not as detailed as I would like them to be and when it comes to the evaluating points, despite a lot of hard work going into each one I still feel I could have executed them better. I also feel as though the way in which my work is represented could have been more aesthetically pleasing and I aim to explore this in my next posts.

I feel as though I used a variation of different techniques in order to get the information across and I liked this range of different elements, however I still feel as though I wish to develop this and display an even wider range. I wish to be creative in the way in which I present my blog, while also ensuring it contains all the relevant information in a well executed way.

Over the course of A2 media studies I wish to develop my creative skills and want all of my coursework to be well executed and to a high standard, which I feel I am capable of. I hope to improve my blog in terms of presentation and language. I am looking forward to being able to expand my ideas and develop concepts in a way which makes them appealing and interesting. I will take into account the advice given to me from those around me and ensure that all my work is completed to the very best of my abilities.