Analysing Madonna's Music Videos

Madonna - Like a Prayer

Narrative

• First Narrative: Madonna is the main character in this mucis video and it starts with her entering a church and feeling the greater prescence of God. Once Madonna is in the Church, the religious icon as a statue that is assumed to be Jesus comes to life and "blesses her". His prescence affects her. Even though there is an obvious closeness between the "Jesus" statue and Madonna, he only kisses her on the forehead instead of the lips which makes it less intimate between them and more like he is blessing her.

• Second Narrative: Near the middle of the music video, Madonna witnesses an attack on a woman by a mob of men. The mob runs away at the sound of the sirens and  a young black male tries to help the mugged female. He is assumed by the police that he is the criminal and taken away from the police. This shows the stereotype of automatically thinking that the young male is the criminal when he wasn't just because of his race and skin colour. Also, because the Jesus statue in the music video was also of the same skin colour as the "criminal", it illustrates the two extremes as the Jesus statue is at the top of the hierarchy, whereas the "criminal" is at the bottom.

Reception

• It can be said that this music video is very controversial because of having a black Jesus rather than the usually seen white Jesus. This plays with the history between the white and black races as white people are normally seen higher in the hierarchy than black people are.

• Also, Madonna's sexualisation of the Christian religion and it's symbol of the Cross is again very contoversial. Some viewers of this music video felt that Madonna was disrespecting their faith by wearing such revealing clothes where straps were falling and then wearing the cross around her neck where it was nearly falling between her chest.

Lyrical Content

• The main themes of this particular song include Religion, Love, Tranquility and Peacefulness. This is portrayed though the lyrical content, in particular...

"When you call my name

it's like a little prayer.

I'm done on my knees

I wanna take you there."

These lyrics are taken from the main chorus and shows Madonna comparing Love with Religious Experience. Because she was wearing the revealing clothes, people saw this meaning as an insult to the Christian faith as she is insinuating love at an intimacy level rather than a religious level.

Madonna - Vogue

Concept

• The main concept of this video is about glamour for fashion. This is the english translation of the french word "Vogue" which is the title of this song.

• The glamour of the music video was inspired by Horst P. Horst. Horst P. Horst was a famous photographer who photographed many famous icons in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Some of his famous works included "Lily in a Turban", which was also featured in the music video when Madonna looks like she is being pampered with her hair wrapped in a towel.

Performance

• The dancing performance in the music video was very harsh moves. These moves were as if the people are striking many poses.

Lyrical Content

• The main message of this song is that whoever you are, you are naturally beautiful whatever anyone says or thinks. This is shown through the lyrical content, in particular.....

"It makes no difference

if you're black or white

or if you're a boy or girl

...You're a superstar!"

Colour Temperature

• The whole music video was filmed in black and white. This could be because its showing that you don't need all the colour and the fancy effects to make someone's beauty show. Also, filming it in black and white suggests that the video is something classic from the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the Golden Ages of Hollywood, televisions did not have colour but Hollywood was still seen as the most glamorous place to be part of.

Costumes

• Madonna has a lot of costume changes throughout the music video. Some include a lacy revealing top, a fitted man suit, classical evening dress and corsets. All these costumes exagerated Madonna's body and curves and her beauty. Also all the other extras in the music video were well dressed and sophisticated, again to fit the theme of natural beauty.

Props

• The Showbiz feathers that open and close the music video adds to the Hollywood theme of the video because these Showbiz feathers carry connotations of Hollywood Theatre.

• Pieces of artwork is included in a tracking shot at the very beginning of the video. These different pieces of artwork suggests that the viewers of this video are naturally beautiful like the artwork they see in front of them that were made with such care and thought.

• One part of the music video is where a suited male is leaning on a Greek column to "strike a pose" as the lyrics say. This suggests a classical tone to the music video which adds to the glamour of the video.