9th July 2012 - Madonna "Like A Prayer" music video analysis

HYPODERMIC MODEL
The music video contains a wide variety of religious content, like going into a church and having a Jesus statue/someone who represents Jesus, so by this, Madonna could be possibly trying to promote Christianity/religion.

A black person gets wrongly accused of committing a rape/murder, so by doing this, this may come off as black people being criminals. The police instantly assumed that the black person committed the crime, even though it was actually a white person who did it.

USES & GRATIFICATION
This song could be used as personal relationships; the lyrics in the song are "When you call my name, It's like a little prayer", which shows that it's like they're praying to stay together.

ENCODING/DECODING
The director of this video could have made you to feel sorry for the black person, as he is completely innocent, yet he is being treated like he is a convict when he is only a witness.

SOCIAL CONTEXT
There is a burning cross featured in the video, which may be deemed blasphemous by religious people, mainly Christians.

A lot of people who are religious may be offended by the fact that the Jesus in this music video was portrayed as black. Most Christians see Jesus as being white, and at the time this video was released people did not accept black people.

Madonna ends up dancing a field of crosses, which may be deemed offensive as it is like she is celebrating the crosses on fire.

 

Likes & Dislikes
What I liked about Like A Prayer was the way Madonna used the social context to her advantage. Even though the everything related to the social context was represented in a negative light, this drew media attention and this got people to watch Madonna's music video.
What I didn't like was the field of burning crosses scene. I didn't understand what relevance the location or burning crosses had (apart from be deemed offensive) to the music video.

I've learnt fron analysing this music video about how to grab attention. I won't go to this extremity to get people to watch my music video, however I will try and plan out some ideas on how to get my audience's attention.