LYRIC ANALYSIS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE + PITCH IDEA BASED ON LYRICS

"Like A Prayer"

Life is a mystery,
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home

[Chorus:]
When you call my name it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there

I hear your voice, it's like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes, Oh God I think I'm falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes
Heaven help me

[Chorus x2]

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like...

[Chorus x2 (with Choir)]
(Just like a prayer, I'll take you there
It's like a dream to me)

This hit Madonna song has very deep lyrics which can be interpreted in different ways. However, the repetitive use of the word 'mystery' creates an image of a mystical element to the song, perhaps supernatural. Imagining a video based on these lyrics I would assume there would be a lot of blue colours, almost cosmic to connote a sense of spirituality. The supernatural element is highlighted by the lyrics 'In the midnight hour I can feel your power'.

A lot of emotion is envisioned from the lyrics such as 'I hear your voice, feels like flying' which develops a sense of romanticism within the lyrics. Use of the word flying also creates another ideology of supernatural powers or perhaps hyperbolic language to convey a metaphor. 

There is also a religious aspect to the Madonna lyrics with the repetition of the word 'Heaven'. As well as this other words like 'God' and 'Prayer' build a semantic field of Christianity portraying a certain ideology to the audience. 

These lyrics are important because without a music video to accompany them they have to build their own narrative clearly. As well as a narrative, a portrayal of a deeper message has to be conveyed to the audience. Doing this task has helped me to understand the importance of lyrics and how difficult they can be to decipher. Due to this, the song we choose to create a video for will have to have lyrics that can be understood by a wide range of audiences who will be targeted by our music video. 

For the previous Madonna lyrics, if I was to pitch a music video idea I would use a dark coloured room, perhaps green-screened to create an open and vast effect. With blueish hues and mystical iconography like stars I would create a space-like set which would deliver a supernaturally enforced location. In accordance to the use of religious terminology in the lyrics, I would avoid the popular cultural trends of nudity and sexuality explicit themes of today's Pop music videos, thus making a clean music video which can deliver a moving performance. Performance shots are important in such an emotional song and I envision close ups of the lead actress lip syncing some of the verse lyrics while the chorus would predominantly be accompanied by an emotional slow dance or narrative shots of the female singing, facing upwards.

 

Much like Belinda Carlisle's video for 'Heaven Is A Place On Earth', which delivers a similar message, I would want something similar with Madonna lip syncing the song. This gives my pitch idea some intertextual references already and a good basis of structural ideas. 

Doing this task has helped me realise that music videos are difficult to create because the reception of audience is vital and music videos can easily go wrong. Also, dependent on the lyrics it is questionable whether there should be a link between lyrics and video. If a song lyric is metaphorical it would be more successful for the actors to either just lip sync or act a scenario of what the metaphors deeper meaning is. For example in the Like A Prayer lyric 'feels like i'm flying' it would be better to either show Madonna lip syncing or emotionally pushing her arms in the air than to harness her up and try to create a scene of her actually flying. My idea pitch has shown me that it is important to be creative and artistic yet practical, a good thing to keep in mind for when I shoot my own music video.