The music video for Madonna's 1989 song "Like a Prayer" was controversial for depicting religious and racial themes at a time when society held negative views on those issues. The video tells the story of Madonna witnessing an attack and seeking guidance in a church. It stirred controversy through its juxtaposition of Madonna's revealing outfit in a church setting and its portrayal of a black Jesus kissing her. More recently, Madonna's 2015 video for "Bitch I'm Madonna" also courted controversy through young girls imitating her and through Madonna's sexualized imagery. Both videos helped promote Madonna's success through generating publicity from their controversial nature.

1. Madonna’s song, ‘Like a prayer’, was released in 1989 when society had certain
negative attitudes towards interracial relationships and were predominantly religious.
The music video is in the form of narrative, where it tells the story of Madonna
witnessing an attack, then going to a church in order to gain guidance.
The video’s success, as well as Madonna’s success as a whole, is down to her putting
out her own ideas which are often controversial as this acts as a talking point, gaining
popularity and publicity, despite it being negative; any publicity, good or bad is still
financial gain.
Especially as the themes within the video, of violence, religion
and race were very opinionated at the time of release.
At the start of the music video, there is external diegetic sound of sirens, indicating themes of rebellion. This would
straight away engage the audience as the theme of criminality tends to intrigue people, highlighting the aspect of danger
she carries.

2. The religious controversy is based on juxtaposition due to Madonna’s outfit being revealing yet she’s in the setting of a
church which is deemed to be disrespectful. Therefore, the juxtaposed ideas of religion and sexual imagery created conflict
between herself and the Catholic church. The mise-en scene of make-up and clothing also play a part in making her
sexualised due to her hair being messy, connoting to themes of promiscuity, and her dress straps falling down off her
shoulders.
This was also controversial as she wears revealing clothing which is unexpected in a religious environment, due to the lack of
respect it connotes. Camera work is used to highlight this and further sexualises her, corresponding to Laura Mulvey’s male
gaze; she is made to appeal to a male audience through shots such as a close up, where her messy bed-like hair and outfit
relates to adult themes. This would cause her male audience to gain voyeurism due to the objectification of the artist based
on appearance.
This is shown well in close up shots of her, where she is made the main focus, relating to Dyer’s
Paradox of the Star theory as she is still being shown as important, meaning her audience would
aspire to be like her. This is because she possesses values which include: sexual appeal and the act of
going against social norms and values. It’s juxtaposed as the church is thought of as pure, as well as
Jesus, so for the characters to have a moment of lust would seem very wrong as it goes against the
common religious views.
The lighting behind her also carries religious connotations of heaven
as it acts as a halo around her head because of the contrast of dark
hair to sunlight. This implies she is like an angel, especially as she
wears the necklace prop, with a cross on it.

3. The editing is cleverly used to highlight the religious symbolisms such as the black Jesus.
This is because the pace of edit is increased so multiple shots are shown of the church
in a short space of time and contrarily, slower pace is used when the black Jesus is
shown, so amplify his importance by him getting more air time, rather than just a
glimpse. This begins at 40 seconds in to the video, as shown below. During these shots,
a lot of black coloured figurines and religious symbolism is used as Madonna wanted to
make a point that racism is wrong and everyone should be equal.
He’s also shown in many low angles, which makes him look
larger and therefore, more prominent and powerful. Following
this, the shot previously of Madonna is opposingly a high angle shot, making the audience look
down on her so that is agrees with the religious teaching: nothing is greater than God, which
connotes superiority. The mise-en scene of lighting was effective in showing the religious
importance, and perhaps Madonna’s views on Catholicism as Jesus was shown in the church with
sunlight falling on him, making him light in comparison to the background which was darker so he
stood out.
There is a clip in the music video where the black Jesus comes
to life and goes to kiss her. This was potentially offensive to
religious believers and stirred some controversy around her
because it would seem that she’s implying Jesus can be swayed
by a woman, going against the image of purity he holds.

4. Taking a look at a more recent video from the star: ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’, it’s visible that she takes
on a different outlook in order to maintain interest and keep up with what’s trending music wise.
In the video, there is a lot more colour, connoting to craziness and fun, unlike in Like a Prayer,
where the colours were dark and warm, due to the narrative also being dark and the religious
aspect. The use of colour immediately attracts the audience as it is noticeable and looks like
there is a lot going on so eyes are constantly taking it all in.
Again, she carries controversy within this music video. This is because at the
beginning there’s a clip of young girls dressing like Madonna and singing along to
the chorus of the song using the titled lyric: ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’. The audience
would be opinionated about this due to the girls being so young, yet dressing
older and having a star attitude when the main connotation around children is
innocence. Therefore, it goes against the norms of children and creates shock for
the audience when the see and hear them using language deemed inappropriate
for their age. The clip relates to Dyer’s Paradox of the Star theory as it shows how
In the mise en scene of clothing, she wears young attire, with a studded jacket and bright
clothes; it makes her appealing to the youth as it connotes to rebellion. It is also sexualising her
due to the short leopard print dress she has on, it corresponds to the Male Gaze theory by
Mulvey as the way she looks, interests men typically.
children look up to her and aspire to be her, despite her being almost 60, so she still appeals to a wide range of ages.
They are wearing crosses as well which could be seen as more of a fashion statement than it carrying any religious
meaning, which may cause offense. They are wearing crosses as well which could be seen as more of a fashion statement
than it carrying any religious meaning, which may cause offense.

5. The music video is Madonna walking through a party,
where a lot of other famous singers are, which would
create a sense of familiarity for those less knowledgeable
about her career. Therefore, it makes her music more
appealing to the audience due to well known pop stars
making an appearance such as Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé.
This is effective as it means the mainstream media of
pop followers will also be interested in Madonna’s music
and vice versa.
Goodwin’s theory also comes into play within this music video as she acts out some of the lyrics in the song: ‘kissing
anybody’ is sung as she walks past a guy and kisses him, amplifying the lyrics of the song. This act shows her to be
reckless and careless, a countertype for a person of her age as they would be thought of as
boring or reserved.
The editing, compared to Like a Prayer, is more advanced, showing a change of technology
as well as style. This is because more editing effects are used such as a reverse, while she `
walks, shown below. Therefore, she’s being more creative in her videos to appeal to the
current market.