Music Video Analysis

The super iconic video of Madonna singing Vogue shows a black and white continuous sequence of her in different performance settings and expressing the beauty of woman and man. However, her costume of a suit highly empowers the woman almost making her more than just equal to the man but more powerful than the men that she portrays in the video.

The beginning sequence sets the mise-en-scene for the rest of the video with a monochrome vintage feel whilst, bright lighting highlights each of the characters in the video. The track of the men posing for the camera identifies a higher calling for fashion-something stereotypically adored by women. The slow paced edits refer back to Andrew Goodwins theory of presenting a calm relaxed atmosphere in the video through the visual editing however, it could also refer to a sultry madonna trying to seduce the audience with a track up her back as the song kicks in.

The use of the background singers being female show a lesson being taught to the males as they stand posing in different shots whilst Madonna seems to be teaching them the ropes of fashion. One of the backing singers is black whilst the other is white showing a clear aim for the appearance of multi-culture to appeal to a wide audience and to further push forward the idea of a new era of ''anything goes''.

When the mid-shot of Madonna, she appears to be wearing a full tuxedo surrounded by men equally dressed and moving the same way she does. This strips them of the identities of male and female and just makes them one, changing the stereotype completely from one being above the other to them both being equal. Madonna even has the lyrics ''it makes no difference if your black or white, if your a boy or a girl.'' These lyrics are the essence of the video and are continuously visually portrayed throughout the video yet again following through with Andrew Goodwin's theories.

The shots of the men revealing the inside of their jackets and having nothing to show until it tracks to Madonna's iconic cone bra while she 'bumps and grinds' shows her as a powerful female who is aware of the power she holds over man as a woman which, is expressed throughout the whole video with sultry shots of Madonna looking into the camera and singing in seductive costume. The various close ups allow audience to familiarise with Madonna as the lead very quickly. Uniquely this video uses medium shots successfully, possibly as mini-establishing shots.

Marwa