Like A Prayer by Madonna // Music Video Analysis

 

In class we looked at Madonna's video for Like A Prayer. We were asked to consider a set of questions and answer them.

Themes: Religion, anti-religion, passion, justice, equality and love.

Narrative: In the video Madonna is the protagonist and the Saint is the hero. In the video Madonna witnesses a crime where white people attack a women, a black man then goes to help the women and is wrongly accused by the police, he then goes to jail. Madonna then goes to church to ask what she should do and the Saint tells her to help the man in prison. She then goes and tells the police what actually happened and the man gets let out of prison. 

Lyrics: The lyrics "Like A Prayer" reference to the whole music video because it is very religious and based around a church. Another lyric that matches the action is when she says "Feels like Flying" and she is in a CGI cloud in the sky.

Intertextual Link: This video can be references to the KKK and the bible.

Target Audience: The target audience is very wide because older audiences will understand all the symbolism in the video whereas a teen may just watch it to enjoy the song and the video.