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Politics and Music: Class Meetings
Professor Courtney Brown
Spring 2001
Meeting #20: Nonmovement Social and Political
Protest Music, Part III
SELECTIONS played in class:
Video Selections:
Madonna: Like A Prayer
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
QUESTIONS and DISCUSSION: Today we discussed the meanings of two songs, one by Madonna and another by Queen. Can you analyze "Like A Prayer" such that its internal composition sensibly portrays a coherent social commentary? This is a very complex video and song, and the video and song cannot be analyzed separately. To get you started, look for parallels between various scenes, such as the rape scene involving three white males, and the earlier and later scenes involving the church. What does the rape scene mean in relation to the church scene? Where is the parallel or analogous violence relating to the church? Violence to what? Is this song about mental or physical violence, control, and even domination. Why is this song named "Like A Prayer?" What does the black Jesus represent? Is this a racial comment, or is there something bigger going on? This song is "deep," so consider it carefully. Can you see why it triggered so many reactions when it first came out? Do you think those who reacted to the song understood on a conscious level what the song was truly about, or was their reaction a subconscious drive to avoid facing something deeply ingrained in society, and themselves? Can you see any deep connection between the spiritual meaning of Bob Marley's song, Could You Be Loved, and Madonna's message in Like A Prayer?
With regard to Bohemian Rhapsody, written by Freddy Mercury, we have to extrapolate from the performer's life since he was very secretive about his HIV infection, but can you see how this song can be seen as one of the first social commentaries (told from a personal perspective) of the AIDS disaster? Note that the song was written in 1975. Re-examination of blood samples from that time has demonstrated that AIDS existed then, but it was not discovered and widely publicized yet. It is possible that Freddy Mercury caught AIDS much later. If he was not infected by HIV when he wrote the song, what do the lyrics mean? Was he infected with another disease, or perhaps was the song precognitive? When Freddy Mercury was asked what the song meant, he said he did not know. What do you think?