Goodwin's Conventions - Madonna

PART ELEVEN

GOODWIN'S CONVENTIONS: MADONNA - Like a Prayer 

Example of illustration in Like A Prayer:

This music video is polysemic and open to many interpretations.

Themes:

• Religion, rebellion, Love, sex, passion, racism, equality, justice. 

Narrative:

• Madonna goes to the church to pray and falls in love with a black Jesus, which is controversial. 
• The Afro American Jesus is then arrested because the white police think he has committed street crime, which is a common stereotype of Black people.
•  Madonna suggests this isn't true and goes to the church to pray for him and to confess that it was the white man who committed the crime. 
• We see her creating an alliance through music with all the Black gospel singers from the church and eventually, the police become aware that the white man was the one who committed the crime and he gets arrested.

Consider the characters in the narrative..who is the protagonist/hero/victim/villains etc:

• Madonna: Protagonist (sort of hero)
• Police: Antagonist behaviour (But only at the beginning)
• White man: Antagonist/Villain
• Black Jesus: Hero/Victim

Consider how the lyrics match the action:

• Now I’m falling: Cut away to Madonna in the clouds.
• I’m down on my knees; She is dancing on the church floor.

Consider intertextuality: 

• As the song progresses and builds up, the editing pace quickens, mirroring it. 
• Burning cross symbolises the KKK.

Consider connotation and denotation: 

• I can denote that Madonna is running across a field in fright, connoting her heroine characterisation.
• I can denote a black man in the church, blessing madonna, connoting him as the black Jesus, showing us that we shouldn’t stereotype.
• I can denote that there is a burning cross, connoting the influence of the KKK in that time, they burned crucifixes as a message to demonstrate the white superiority.
• I can denote she is wearing a red dress, connoting her dangerous and seductive behaviour.

Consider who you think the target audience is:

• The target audience is probably an older person because it's quite an intelligent video including many biblical and religious references. 
• The controversy it would have caused would only be understood by adults as it is too historically advanced for people of a young age. 
• The sexual behaviour and strong, dark themes of crime and sex also suggests an older target audience. 
• I would suspect that Madonna was aiming and directing this music video at men and women in their late twenties to early forties due to the strong themes and controversial and historically advanced topics.

Consider how the video addresses relevant themes of the time. What do you think they may have been? 

• Themes such as racism are shown through having a black Jesus and portraying the white people as the baddies. This is controversial and juxtaposes the common belief and portray of white and black people at that time. 
• By promoting this idea that black people are good, she is enticing her fans to keep an open mind and not follow the crowd with their general ideas.