The purpose of a music video is to make the song memorable as it will give more memorable visuals for the lyrics, this means it will stay in peoples heads longer. Music videos also help the consumer understand the narrative of the song as well as they will be able to see what is happening. Music videos were made as early as the 60s with the first official music video being made by ‘Queen for their song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which was made as a visual aid for the listening experience, however, before this, bands such as ‘The Beatles’ did make videos to accompany their music, however, they weren’t used to aid the story of the song, therefore weren’t properly classed as music videos. The music video for the song ‘Like A Prayer’ doesn’t really aid the love story behind the lyrics, however, it does present the ideologies of the artist with the anti-racist views which were used to combat the racism presented by religious extremist views of groups such as the KKK.
The 'Like A Prayer' music video was so controversial as it stated that God and Jesus were both black, the music video also showed her as Jesus with the nails through her hands of her being on the cross, she also had Madonna having sex with Jesus in a church, she was also dancing in front of burning crosses which is the symbol of the KKK to show that their hatred of black people through religion is unjust as Jesus was black. Another thing that made the video controversial was a part in it where Madonna witnesses a black man getting arrested for a crime that he didn't commit.
The artist is trying creating an image that shows her being a figure of unity such as Jesus was a symbol for, which is why the shot of her hands that have been penetrated by nails to be attached to the cross was there, it is relating her to being Jesus, which was a problem in 1980s when people were very religious and saw it as disrespectful to the religion which didn’t aid the image that Madonna was trying to create, in fact, it subverted from it. The image Madonna was also trying to create was that she was anti-racist which did come across in the music video, but not in a good way. The video accused the police of racism towards black people by showing them arresting a black man for a crime that he didn't commit and also filmed in a church full of black choir singers and a black Jesus, and at the time when this video came out, sparked a lot of controversy. The ideology that is being presented by the music video is that people should be kind to one another without bound no matter what race they are, therefore presenting the main black character as a victim and then having another as God, shows two opposite ends of the spectrum.
Technical conventions used in the videos are slow cuts to create a more intimate relationship with the artist, this is as the longer time you spend on one shot will draw emphasis to what is happening in the shot, it is also more intimate so you feel closer to the artist. There is very little sound in the video which isn’t the song, however, at the beginning there is slight diegetic sound of sirens and a door slamming, the sirens connote that there is danger present and the door slamming is most likely connoting towards the oppression that black people faced in the 1980s due to unfair treatment by the law. the shots also mainly show slight low angles on Madonna and the people in the church which shows empowerment and slight high angle shots on the criminals that committed the crime that the black man gets accused, this shows them as the villains, they are also white which subverts from the stereotype of white people being the ‘hero of the norm’. The links between racism and the music video are made apparent from the police arresting a black man for a crime he didn’t commit is made apparent, this adheres to the stereotype of the black character being the victim in media texts, however, this doesn’t support the image that Madonna is trying to present with an anti-racist stance as black people in the music video should subvert from their stereotypes.
Madonna singing in-front of the burning crosses showed the audience that she didn’t agree with movements such as the KKK as it was cut together with clips of her with black people in church, this showed that she respects the religion, however also believes in unity. The cross that Madonna wears also states her religion as Christian along with the other Christian religious imagery.
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