Madona - Like a prayer

Narrative

The narrative of the video is a woman who witnesses the murder and rape of another woman.She stands by while a black man who has also witnessed the crime goes to help. When the police arrived the black man is falsely accused for the crime.  The white woman runs off to a church where she seeing a statue of a black man that resembles the one who was falsely accused , she then says a prayer and the saint is seen crying. Then she falls where a woman tells her to do the right thing. Then the statue comes alive kisses her on the forehead and walks out of the church. The woman then cuts her hand with a knife.When the dream has ended she goes to the police and tells the police the black man is innocent. The video ends with the entire cast taking a bow as the curtain close.


Evaluation

There are a number of factors that made this video stand out in its time. One of them is race , Madonna Is shown having a relationship with a black man which at this time would have been courses controversy at this time. The fact that the video suggests that a 'holy figure' was a black person also outraged a lot of people at the time.

There is a lot of sexual content in the video , the show of the woman being raped showing the objectifying of women and violence also  madonna herself dancing quite sexually and showing some skin. The song lyrics can also be iinterpreteda sexual way for example "I'm down on my knees I wanna take you there" this could mean a sexual act or the act of prayer. The burning crosses that are shown suggest the klu klux klan.

All these controversial  things caused a moral panic meaning people spoke more about the video and it became popular. Till now this idea of controversy being a unique selling point is still being adopted the most recent example is Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Balls' were half way through the video she swings from the wrecking ball almost nude.