'Like a Prayer' Analysis

                                    

I will be analysing the music video 'Like a Prayer' by Madonna, which was released in 1989, and is considered to be one of the most controversial music videos ever created. 

There are many different aspects of this music video which caused disturbance in the ripples of the  music industry. One of the main components is the religious aspect to the music video, as many connotations are used to portray Christianity in an inhumane and disturbing manor. The audience is introduced to burning crucifixes props, and additionally a black character whom is positioned with a cage inside of a church building location. These elements of mine-en-scene help to show christianity to be a sort of evil part of humanity. This was a huge insult to the American society as religion was a huge aspect of everyone's life, which explains why this element alone cause such a stir in controversy. Focusing back on the burning crucifixes specifically, these were used by the racist group known as the Ku Klux Klan, which still existed at the time of the release, but were not as occurring. The burning cross was to symbolise the death, or upcoming death of a black person, as it was seen as a sign of the people do God's work by 'cleaning' society of the black population. This follows onto the racist aspects of the video.

During the time of this videos release, racism was very common and was not illegal or looked down upon in any cases. Throughout the video, an underlying narrative involves Madonna, a black man, and a group of white males. First off, at some points the black man is dressed as Jesus, the symbol and face of christianity. This was UNBELIEVABLY offensive in the eyes of christian followers at the time, as they were racist, and they couldn't have a black man dress up as him. Low angles are also majoritavely used when showing the black man dressed as Jesus, as it represents his power that he has. Madonna is also seen worshipping him, which was offensive as a white person would never bow down to a black man at the time of the release.

This is in tangent too with the group of black people singing as a choir within the church itself. This too was seen to be unacceptable in the eyes of christians as black people were not seen to be religious, or even to be allowed to be inside of a church. The racist aspect continues, as the group of white men conduct a murder on a woman, which the black man later gets arrested for, despite hoping to care for the woman victim. Throughout this murder, the pace of the editing quickens and the number of straight cuts increases, and the use of a handheld camera portrays the danger and speed of this horrific event. Aa the black man is blamed, society became further outraged as it was Madonna's way of stating that not only is society racist, but the actual police force which is meant to 'protect and serve' is also racist, which is highly ironic.









Additionally, sexuality and the role of women in society is also portrayed in a way which was seen as unacceptable at the time of its release. The costume of Madonna is fairly revealing-her cleavage is on show and you can see her bra straps. This works in correlation with the slow-motion shots of her doing erotic hand movements etc. and with the close-up shots of her lips and cleavage too. These show off her sexuality, which is very inappropriate as the majority takes place inside of the church itself. This was seen as bad as churches are the houses of God. This is topped off as, as a result of the character positioning, Madonna ends up sleeping with the black man, on the church floor. This is seen as 2 unforgivable acts, as one side is that they're ruining Gods house with sinful acts, and also as a white woman is sleeping with a black man, which was seen as unacceptable in the time of this videos release.