Applying Goodwin’s to the music video “Like A Prayer”

The music video that I am analysing is “Like a Prayer” (1989) which is a song by Madonna and directed by Mary Lambert. The genre of this song is pop however the characteristics of the video are immensely diverse from other pop videos of that time, with a co mingling of race, sex and religion. Madonna wanted to address racism in her music video and yet have a provocative theme. The music video has a story to it and is narrative based however isn’t as disjunctive as modern music videos today.

The video begins with a long shot of a girl, played by Madonna, running away from a crime scene. We can tell because of the sirens in the background. It then goes on to show a flash back of her witnessing a murder of a young woman. The director used slow motion, close ups and different lighting for us to identify the flash back, and make it more dramatic. The music also changes to the eyrie opening of the song. It then goes back to the close up of her lying down and then hesitantly standing up which is an example of the relationship between lyrics and visuals. She begins to stand as she sings “everyone must stand alone”. There is then a long shot of a church with glowing windows, as the camera gradually zooms in. This links with the music as there is a gospel choir singing in the background which represents religion and shows that the church is a holy and safe place for some people.

We then go back to the flash back to see a close up of a black man being arrested. His facial expression insinuates he is innocent. The fact that she keeps having flash backs, indicates to the audience that she feels guilt, fear or trauma. The following shot is a close up of her entering the previous church to get away from the murders, and again shows the relationship between music and visuals when she opens the door of the church and we hear the lyrics “and it feels like home”. This shows the audience that she feels safe and relieved. It then goes on to show a point of view shot of her walking around the church with intense music in the background creating tension. We also see close up jump shots of the cross and Jesus. The jump shots are a common key feature in music videos.

We then see a close up of a black saint in a cage who looks like the black man from the flash back. This links with the framed man as they are both behind bars and also insinuates the black man is innocent, as he is being compared to a saint. We then see a close up of the saint’s eyes crying which shows the audience that the man was innocent and represents the guilt the woman holds. As the song starts the camera slowly zooms into Madonna as she sings; we see a glow at the top of her head which links with the choirs singing in the back ground and the lyrics when she says “it’s like an angel sighing”. This shot symbolises to the audience that she’s praying to make the right decision, which links the music video with the songs name.

 We see a bird eye view of her lying on a pew where she begins to dream. We can tell she’s gone to sleep when we hear her sing “I close my eyes”, we then see a shot of her falling through clouds which also connect with the lyrics when we hear “oh god I think I’m falling, out of the sky”. Suddenly she is caught by a woman who tosses her back up when she says “heaven help me” this symbolises the woman telling her to do the right thing and throwing her in the right direction. Still dreaming, we return to the close up of the saints feet where she is on he knees kissing them. This links with the lyrics “I’m down on my knees”.

We then see her open the jail and the statue turns into the innocent black man. This makes us come to the conclusion that she’s going to do the right thing and set the innocent man free. The transformed saint whispers to her just as we hear “you whisper softly to me”. He then leaves after she says “it’s like a dream” which indicates to us that she is still dreaming. We then see her cut her hands with a knife but instead of cuts there are two nail holes which symbolises the crucifixion of Christ. I believe this represents the guilt in Catholicism, in that if you do something that feels good you will be punished.

As the chorus of the song starts, she says “let the choir sing” and as she looks over a choir appears which portrays the sense of a dream world. There’s a wide use of jump shots from each person in the choir and a tracking shot of them all. This is demonstrates the performance side of the video. This makes the audience feel like they are actually watching them and creates the feeling of involvement.

The scene shifts back to a flash back of Madonna’s point of view of the incident. We see many close ups of Madonna’s, the victims and one of the murderers face, to enable us to see there facial expressions and so we understand the story. We then see the innocent black man coming to the rescue of the lady and the police arresting him. This links to the genre of racism. The story has now been revealed and the audience now understand what’s happening. I think the director made the music video confusing at first so that the audience would be intrigued to watch more and find out what happens.

The camera then goes on to show many jump shots of Madonna dancing wildly and seductively in front of burning crosses, while singing the song, this creates the notion for looking. Whenever we hear her sing “prayer” she looks up to the sky as if she’s praying which shows the relationship between visuals and images. The music seems to be fearful here because the innocent man has just been convicted. We then go back to the church   with the choir singing around Madonna. This symbolises the feeling when you’ve done the right thing, we can tell because the music instantly becomes upbeat; we see that she knows that nothing's going to happen to her if she does what she believes is right. We jump to a scene where we see Madonna and the innocent man lying together and kissing on the church floor. This links with the genre of sex which is also common in most music videos and voyeurism. We see the statue of the priest go back behind the bars and Madonna wake up. This shows us that she was dreaming and she now knows what to do.

The camera then goes to the jail, where we see her telling the police that the black man is innocent; the police release him and he is freed. We see a close up of Madonna holding the bars of the jail like she did with the statue of the saint and then the camera slowly zooms out as there’s a gradual crescendo.  The video ends with a final shot of the girl dancing in front of the burning crosses, and then everybody involved in the storyline takes a bow, as curtains come down on the set, as if to say we all play a part in this little scenario.

This synopsis shows that there is a huge relationship between the music and the visuals as well as the lyrics and visuals. The video cut to the beat and the video changed pace with the music. For example when it cut from the burning crosses to the church, the music changed dramatically as did the visuals.  I feel the record company are trying to sell this song by using the genres and highlighting the issue of racism, the importance of religion and excitement of sex in the media. This also helps to shape the image of the artist in a positive way. This video although looks the same as Madonna’s other music videos shows her highlighting key issues in society and the importance of religion. This video made her very famous which is what the record company intended to do.

The artist isn’t really sexually on display in this music video apart from in one scene, unlike most music videos although the concept of sex is there, it is not as important as the other issues. The dancing and the costumes display rejoicing and religion. There is little reference to the notion of looking except for when she’s dancing in front of the burning crosses and the camera focusing on her assets, and when she’s lying with the innocent man. This shows voyeuristic treatment of the female body.  Given that, I wouldn’t say that there are very many intertextual references except for the link with the aspects of he stars image. In conclusion I believe this music video applies to Goodwin’s music video analysis as it demonstrates genre characteristics, there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, and music and visuals, the demands of the record label included the need for many close ups of the artist , and there is notion to looking.