An Analysis of the Video Like a Prayer” by Madonna.
Madonna first arrived in national popular culture in 1984 with her song “Borderline.” She quickly made several records, many of which have gone multi-platinum, and took several world tours with sold-out concerts. She has caused quite a bit of controversy in the public eye, including posing nude for Penthouse magazine (and announcing afterwards that she was not ashamed for doing it), marrying (and subsequently divorcing) actor and media-avoider Sean Penn, creating a fashion trend primarily popular with teenage girls, and making truly atrocious movies which the critics hated and the people refused to see (the only two exceptions are Dick Tracy and Truth or Dare, her controversial yet fascinating self-documentary about her tour of the same name). Madonna seems to enjoy attention, good or bad, and it seems like she feeds on her own controversy. Her songs and the music videos that accompany them are no exception to this. However, the things she does and the images she projects request contemporary society to reflect on itself and possibly recreate itself in innovative and inventive styles.
Perhaps she always breaks with convention because she sees things in a different light than the rest of society. This essay shall focus on the video which accompanies the title track from her 1989 album, “Like A Prayer,” which certainly had its share of controversy. Probably the most startling image in the music video was that of several burning crosses in the background while Madonna was facing the camera and singing. When I saw the music video for the first time, this particular section of the video made me sit up and intently watch my television screen. The first thing I thought was, “She’s a very outspoken woman for doing this! Boy, she’s got a lot of nerve! I believe she was raised Catholic, and she’s making a mockery of the Catholic Church by doing so! The Pope would be offended, to say the least!” The radical approach to dispose of any religion is at least shocking.
The cross is the symbol of Christianity and all it stands for. Seeing the cross engulfed in fire, which symbolizes a destructive force, would be very disturbing for anyone to see, whether Christian or not. I sat up and took notice, even though I am not Christian but Jewish. Furthermore, the fact that Madonna is singing in front of the crosses and not doing anything to stop them from burning implies that she condones cross-burning.
This thought asks three questions: Does she condone the Ku Klux Klan, which also burns crosses? Does she like the idea of religion and/or atheism in any way? Does Madonna believe in God? These are deep and probing questions that can only be answered truthfully by Madonna herself. Another small piece of the music video showed Madonna kissing a black man. While I personally feel that love is blind and has no boundaries, a vast majority of America was surprised by this scene. In recent years, a television situation comedy and a major motion picture have both focused on interracial relationships as the core of the storyline. True Colors” on the Fox Network was built around a black man married to a white woman.
Spike Lee’s movie Jungle Fever” also featured a black man and a white woman. Lee’s reason for telling the story of a black man and a white woman, instead of a white man and a black woman, was that the white woman has been stereotyped as the epitome of beauty, while the black man has been stereotyped as a stud. It is true that films and television shows have focused on relationships between white men and black women, such as the film “Soul Man.” Does Madonna have any feelings for men?
