Textual Analysis Madonna

Courtney Chiappa History of Madonna Madonna is an American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. She was born in Bay city Michigan, from there she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. Her career took a turn, after performing in the music groups breakfast clubs and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983. Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time by the Guinness world records. (1)

Throughout her career, many of her songs have hit number one on the record charts, including “like a virgin", “papa don’t preach", “like a prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", “Hung up", and “4 minutes". Many critics have praised Madonna for her diverse musical productions while at the same time serving as a lightning rod for religious controversy. Madonna makes appearances with every new artist of the century, she's played with artists such as, Justin Timberlake, John Lennon, Nicki Minaj, MIA, Cee lo green , Patrick Leonard, Timbaland, Kanye West , LMFAO and Busta rhymes. Throughout madonnas career she has been featured on the front of 29 magazine covers, she is a role model to society, she has been a active model for magazines since 1983-2011and is still doing magazine covers today. She is portrayed as an icon, as she is at the age of 53 and She is still on top of her game.

History of Vogue.

The song vogue portrays a message of enjoying oneself on the dance floor no matter who one is, and it contains a theme of escapism. Critically, "Vogue" has been met with appreciation ever since its release; reviewers have praised its anthemia nature, calling it a funky and catchy song, and listed it as one of the singer's musical highlights. The music video for "Vogue", showed Madonna paying homage to numerous golden era Hollywood actresses. Shot in Black-and black-and- white, the video takes stylistic inspiration from the 1920s and 30s; in it, Madonna and her dancers can be seen voguing different choreographed scenes. Vogue is a intertextuality song, as it is inspired by vogue magazine, and it is incorporated throughout the song. (3)

History of Like a prayer.

Like a prayer is known as a confessional record. She described the album as a collection of songs "about my mother, my father, and bonds with my family." The album was dedicated to her mother, who died when Madonna was young. The song uses live instrumentation and incorporates elements of dance, funk, gospel , and soul into a more general pop style. Madonna drew from her Catholic upbringing, as seen in the album's title track and lead single "Like a Prayer". The lyrics deals with themes from Madonna's childhood and adolescence, such as the death of her mother in "Promise to Try", the importance of family in "Keep It Together", and her relationship with her father in "Oh Father“. Madonna also preaches female empowerment in "Express Yourself". Upon its release, Like a Prayer was mostly praised by music critics. Rolling Stone hailed it as "as close to art as pop music gets.“(4)

Cirque du Solei is an entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment.” Cirque du Solei was founded in Baie-Saint- Paul in 1984 by two former street performers. Each show is a mixture of circus styles from around the world, with its own central theme and storyline. They draw the audience into the performance through continuous live music, with performers rather than stagehands changing the props. (5)

The Super bowl is the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The super bowl started in 1967 and has been developing ever since. The Super Bowl has often been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. During the super bowl there is a half time show, it is an honor to perform at this Half time show. The Super Bowl halftime show represents a fundamental link to pop culture, which helps broaden the television audience and nationwide interest. Performing at the half time show is good exposure for artists and help them grow as accomplishing individuals. As a whole the super bowl is a worldwide institution. The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some a de facto American national holiday which is called super bowl Sunday. (6)

Media Representations

In 2012 NFL Super bowl, the half time show featured Music Icon Madonna. She performed a variety of songs during her debut at the half time show. This was Madonna’s first time performing at the NFL half time show, She performed; Vogue, Like a prayer and give me all your love Madonna creating a multi media worldwide performance that captured millions of peoples eyes. During her performance she featured Cee lo, MIA, LMFAO and Nicki Minaj,. She uses today's pop icons to perform with her to make the performance reach out to different types of audiences she also wants the audience to know that she is in with the new times and creates her own image by using fresh new artists to show she's alive and with the times. During this performance Madonna also partakes in synergy, the super bowl was away to bring her back and make her shine but she also made it away for other artists to shine to, such as Cee Lo, MIA, LMFAO and Nicki Minaj, while also promoting the super bowl, it was all connected.

During the performance Madonna is represented in different ways, the first half of Madonna’s performance she was portrayed as a sexy figure with a modernized roman catholic edge, a long with Nicki, MIA, LMFAO she uses intertextuality during this, since she was captured as a roman figure and she brought in pop artists. In the second half of her performance, she was elegant, fragile and mature during her performance of like a prayer. she portrayed different characters for each, to fit the different roles at hand, again creating intertexuality. She was represented in these ways, Roman catholic, cheerleader, sophisticated, sober gown, but still revealing a sexy image to reach out to many different audiences by creating these different roles. This method worked exceptionally well and got positive feedback from her performance. It was refreshing to see she wasn’t just target to one audience but many different so it was enjoyable for everyone. The representations Madonna used were accurate as they appealed to a wide range of people, from teens to old folks.

The super bowl performance was a come back for Madonna, being 53, and performing the way she did was spectacular, she was brought back into the spot light after being in hiding. This performance captured a lot of attention, it was exciting and entertaining, it had a twist bringing old music that the older generations knew but using the new multi media technology to spice it up to make it exciting for the younger generations, using new beats, and rhythms. The use of multi media made the audience feel as if they were in there very own music video, it portrayed a bold alive feel and you couldn’t keep your eyes off as you wanted to know what would happen next.

The use of a music icon like Madonna who has been a hit sensation since for decades created great feedback. A world wide performance like this really has broaden her horizons and her image as an artist. It was a way to show the audience that music from the 20th century is still alive and can still be performed, with a new edge.

Media Language and Forms The beginning atmosphere connotes a powerful image, this portrays the idea that the performance is going to be influential, commanding, by the view first capture of it, the Atmosphere of the first view is prevailing.

The use of costumes as one of the key signifiers tells the audience she can be sexy (Vogue, LUV Madonna) at 53 but also classy (like a prayer), she is growing with the times, the beats, the fashion, she Knows how to adapt to the ages.

Her stage presents and facial expressions connote the idea that she is a fierce, sexy, powerful women and she knows how to lure her audience in and make them want to see more and connotes the idea she is adapting to the different roles being played, the audience knows when there is a new role because she portrays a unique facial expression and body language to connote what she is trying to say.

The music connotes a modernized vibe, they contain her original lyrics with a twist of beats to entertain even the youngest audience member. She uses technology as one of the key signifiers, this portrays the idea she is up to date with what appeals to people, she wants the world to see what’s she is trying to portray visually through mass media. Using dancers and Cirque di Solei as a key signifier connotes the idea that she wanted talent to be shown off, and she wanted to “woo” the audience by bring in dance companies, acrobat companies all to help make a better picture for her audience.

The significance of these connotations are that each of her, music pieces, mise-en-scene, technology uses, dancers, facial expression, clothing attire elements portray a special meaning which connects with the over all performance.

The final mise-en-scene is the most powerful of them all, it portrays the final message of “world peace” and leaves the audience wanting more, with a mystical ending.

Throughout the performance Madonna had an exhilarating stage presence, she put 150% into her performance, there was never a dull moment when her presents was let go or see looked tired. All of her facial expressions followed through the roles she was portraying, each role had a different meaning to it and Madonna adapted to it perfectly, her gestures and positions of the body which followed through with her movements were very stylized which brought out her inner personality. Her facial expressions and body language was very modernized and portrayed a lot of feeling. In like a prayer she portrayed a lot of emotion and sensation, while in vogue it was all about being sexy, and dancing around having a great time, getting the audience excited.

The atmosphere of the stadium felt like a music video, the multi media was portrayed a breath taking effect, they transformed something so simple into something so extraordinary. They turned a football stadium to a multi media music video in the matter of minutes. The scene of the half time show was set out like a music video with the change in surroundings (from vogue to like a prayer), the different camera angles, the effects on the floor and stage. It really brought the modern technology to a whole new level, and used intertextuality to provide a great show.

Media Language and

Forms

During the performance of vogue the mise-en-scene provided vogue magazines on the stage, with models on the covers of those magazines coming alive this gives a inter connected relation to the song, and provides a powerful image and use of technology. When Comparing this performance to the music videos of these songs, the narrative then was much more linear in those videos, it didn’t interact so much with technology as she is doing now, which makes it more attracting to the audience and the future audience with the use of advanced technology which lures the audience in.

Each of Madonna’s songs which she performed were enhanced to attract the present audience while keeping the lyrics to attract the past audience while also including high levels of mass media to attract the future audience. The beats in her original songs were sped up and created into a danceable song, this attracted the audience and lured them in to want to dance. The visual aspects of these songs were also changed and modernized, using technology, compared to the music video these songs were enhanced majorly due to the rapid growth of the mass media from the 80’s till now.

The dominant image of iconography in Madonna’s performance was “world peace” which was the major theme/ symbol of the super bowl performance and she let everyone know that by her final mise-en-scene being “world peace. Other iconography consisted of “vogue” across the stage to emphasis her vogue performance as well as “L U V and Y O U” so the audience can visually see her art. With all of these iconography her main, over all message and aim was to promote world peace and coming together, becoming one. She did that by taking her original songs and lyrics then creating it into a story of uniting and creating world peace at the end with the song like a prayer which brought everyone together. She used masses of technology to accomplish this as. The Major theme of world peace is relevant to every day life, what is going on around us, everyone life styles. She took relevant issues and made them come alive

Narrative The narrative was set up as if it was a music video, with the multi media technology, different scenes with the technology. The meaning of her showNarrative was to give the entire audience something they could enjoy, her music with a twist, using the latest music icons, such as Nicki Minaj, MIA, LMFAO and Cee Lo to portray this. The first two songs, were very modernized, modern beats, fast rhythm which made you want to dance, it created a strong relationship with Madonna and the audience because it was so lively, also using the pop icons to make it exciting and drastic. This caught the audiences attention. Then Madonna moved on to creating a sense of emotion for her audience with the song like a prayer. She was portraying the message of world peace, when the choir come together and sung it portrayed an image of everyone coming together and keeping the peace. Her last message across the stage was “world peace” which portrays the idea that she used the music icon’s to show that people can come together and enjoy themselves. The major theme within this narrative is world peace, standing together, having fun, keeping the peace alive but enjoying yourself at the same time.

The audience holds a big role in the performance as a whole, they help create the atmosphere presented. The mystical presence of the Performance has many different roles that need to be played for it to be Created, the lights that the audience hold around the entire stadium create A nighttime with glissoning stars effect it helps portray a mystical Atmosphere. There positioning of the audience played a big role in the narrative, this part of the performance is mystical and dark and the lights all around the stadium helps portray this atmosphere image. The audience surrounds the narrative, they look upon them from many different angles which gives them the feeling of being in a music video with our realizing they are apart of the creation of this atmosphere created.

The roles of features such sound, music, genre and the scenery is a very important element for this performance, each of these elements portray a different role, with out any of those features the performance would not have been the success it was. In every performance the sound and music is one of the most important elements, there role is to bring life to the artist creation, the beats and rhythms are what make those lyrics created come alive. There are different genres to reach out to the different audiences, these different roles portray a role of diversity, so there is a piece for everyone to enjoy within this performance. The role of the scenery is to portray a lively, energetic, connecting atmosphere. Editing was not acquired as this was a live performance, it was all natural and real this created a warm feeling because it was real and not edited to have the atmosphere it had. The only edit was the use of camera angles to show different qualities of the performance rather than seeing it from one angle the entire time.

Madonnas identification is shown through the use of costume, in her first song she is identified as a sexy gladiator and in her second she was portrayed as a sexy cheerleader to represent the role she was playing. Nicki Minaj and MIA also wore this gladiator sexy cheerleader attire to help create the entire atmosphere of these roles. Then in her third song like a prayer she is dressed in all black playing and sophisticated adapting to a new role.

GENRE This performance at the half time show consisted of a Varity of genre’s. the genres used were: Pop/rock, dance pop, house, disco. These genre’s were used throughout the performance. Each of the songs consisted of two of these genre’s.

The major generic conventions within this performance consist of a variety of technical conventions such as camera shots, the performance filmed was shot at many different angles, close ups, long shots, medium shots, extreme close up, these shots were then editing into one performance for the audience who watched it on the television to see, this portrays the idea that they are actually there live. Other major generic conventions portrayed throughout the performance were the symbolic conventions such as clothing and the colors. The colors portrayed consisted of, gold, black and red, these are very powerful, fierce colors this connotes the idea they wanted a bold, vibrant setting and atmosphere for the audience, because this was a very influential performance and these colors portray power, influence, command and control. Each attire was fit for each role portrayed, the gladiator, the cheerleader, the church girl. These attires created symbolism as each of them had an inner meaning. Gladiator was showing authority, power, the ability to be strong and who you are, very stylized. While the cheerleader showed creativity, happiness and for the finally the church girl showed strength and the ability to come together, and create world peace. The final major generic convention was the use of written and audio. The audio was sped up to draw the audience in and make them want to be engaged with the performance, while the written texts, like “world peace” were to provide the audience with a message to take with them, which was to create world peace.

The visual atmosphere contained a lot of intertextuallity, during the first song they showed beats that were created by technology this relates to a DJ or a speaker system. Within the performance they used the idea of cheerleaders dancing, a gospel choir, acrobats and dancers, these are all apart of intertextuallity. The visual elements throughout the performance were all part of intertextuality, they were developed from other performances or technology that has already been used but now adapted by Madonna in her own way, creating it to be her own. Each theme within the performance is also a part of intertextuality. The gladiator theme, the cheerleading, the church girl, everyone coming together and uniting, creating world peace. These themes created were all apart of her story, her performance.

Throughout the performance she uses usual music video conventions, sexy, bold, glamorous, she takes her genre and creates a story with it. The reason why she was so successful was because her genre is one liked by many people, as it has a strong beat that makes you want to dance, and it is a lot of fun to listen to and watch the performer adapt to with stylized movements which associate with the genre.

The audiences expectations were fulfilled as Madonna didn’t just sing to sing, she sung with meaning and value, to create a story while also showing us what our goals and aspirations should be, creating world peace. The text conforms the characteristics of the genre of the performance, the main genre was dance-pop, and the entire performance was alive, energetic, vigorous, everyone was dancing which interlinked with the genre and gave the audience something to relate to because the music was making them want to dance, and they saw dancers. The performance was very playful, just like the songs, they are upbeat and create meaning.

Madonna was the featured star in this performance who is strongly associated with the dance-pop genre she is a music icon and is known for her creativity, boldness, her keeping up with the ages, and for her ability to create her own image, she keeps true to herself, and she values her genre pop. Throughout the performance she used pop which shows us she is strongly associated with this genre and it is apart of her music career. Media Institutions

The primary purpose of this institution was to create a memorable performance for the audience to take with them, it wasn’t to record a song, or music video or movie, it was to provide a unforgettable performance and to create a story for the audience to take with them. Madonna showed them that she didn’t lose her music soul. Madonna was selling her self and showing that she can keep up with the times and perform at the level of the new artists with the stylized moments, costumes. She is her own institution, selling herself.

Madonna creates her own image, therefore her primary purpose and message to the audience was shaped by her, she is in control of how the audience see’s her, she creates her own identity. She wanted to provide a message to the audience of “world peace” and she did, she has influence the audience her own way. She created the message she wanted to be shared and then she shared it to the world which she hopes to shape them, and understand that world peace a huge factor of life, coming together and being one.

Madonna is a public service she provides for everyone and does not have a fake created image, her performances are for the people, and she gives the audience a memorable experience each time she performs. Even though she is on the cover of many magazines, she is not coated with a fake representation of who she is, she creates her own image, therefore she isn’t considered a commercial institution.

Madonna is the driver of her own career, she creates her own image unlike many artists today, she controls her self, she is her own institution and this is what makes her so influential because the audience feels they can have a connection with her because she tries so hard to not be branded at something she is not, so therefore she likes to keep it real and true.

The text has been distributed as if she was filming a music video, she portrays sexy , bold movements, a inconceivable atmosphere that makes the audience feel as if they have entered a music video and are apart of the creation of it which is hard to believe, the use of technology helps portray this music video feeling, with the changing green screen, from magazines to DJ booths and speakers to a peaceful, milky way feeling. The use of costumes change also provides the music video atmosphere as there are many scene changes and costumes changes in these videos and they created that affect well and made a great transition from each song/ theme to the next smooth just like a music video. The dynamics were virtually the same especially for people watching it on TV from the different angles provided.

The correlation between the music and the lyrics are very strong throughout her performance, for vogue, expressing the idea about enjoying yourself on the dance floor, she took that idea, within those lyrics to provide a visual image of what she is saying, this provided the audience with a connection between the lyrics and the visuals. She also portrayed this effect for give me all your love, with the cheerleader movements, and dancing connected with the lyrics, and also the performance of like a prayer with the gospel choir and the sophisticated gown, all portrayed what she was saying within her music. They connect with each other.

Media Values & Ideology

When selecting the content of this performance and using a criteria to portray the right image the producers and Madonna looked at what is going on in the world today, what can everyone connect and relate to? Which is violence, distance between society, disruption and in some cases leads to unhappiness. They took all of these factors and took into account and the different types of audiences which are world wide which they have to reach to, and they made it happen. They created all of this into the theme of “world peace” and reached out of many different types of audiences. Within the criteria they had different types of genres, different rhythms, different paces, different tones, different stylized movements, different emotions, expressions and a different atmosphere for each song, which reached out to world wide to different audiences bringing them all together to the final conclusion of “world peace”

The major values underlying this performance is world peace, coming together, being a part of society, this is portrayed throughout the performance, she also shows people the fun side to her and that its good to have a good time and enjoy what life brings you. Madonna's major value and ideology of the night was world peace she wanted this the message to reach out to the world and make an impact in there lives to keep the peace and come together, she emphasizes that by concluding with the words “world peace” written at the end of her performance, which showed the importance of this to her, that she dedicates this to her performance. Media Audiences Madonna’s Super Bowl performance reached out to a wide rang of audiences because she took her performance and gave a little but of everything for everyone, she brought her lyrics back which attracted the older generation who knew and loved her classics while added a new modernized edge to them so the younger generation could enjoy and be attracted to her music as well, while also keeping it appropriate for the young ones, but mysterious for the working class who are attracted to that.

From the jump she knew there would be a wide range of audience members watching from young ones being 4 years of age to old folks being 70-80. Therefore she had to be creative and explore what everyone related to, and while putting in a little bit of everything so its enjoyable for everyone. She took her original music and music video’s of Vogue and like a prayer and modernized it by using mass media, technology.

The audience gifted Madonna with positive feed back of her performance as she covered a wide range of audiences and portrayed different types of music, different themes, different tempos to explore a wide range of genre’s and audiences. She even added the present music icons like Nicki Minaj, MIA, LMFAO and Cee lo, to adapt to even a wider range of people.

At the beginning o the performance Madonna was all about having fun, enjoying yourself, getting the audience excited and then she was portraying the message of coming together, and creating world peace with her song like a prayer, this message was given off really well to the audience and they were able to relate to her feelings about creating world peace due to the loss of interconnection between societies. At the end she provided her final message “world peace” which really helped portray her message of connecting. As an audience member I thought the performance .was very clear, I saw what she was trying to create through mass media and the use of technology, which created a strong vibe throughout the stadium, because even though the audience may not of realize they were apart of this connection to, with the lights that they were swaying made the stadium feel connected and together which is what Madonna was trying to portray. I think the age of understanding her message is limitless, as old as one can read. Since she adapted to her message so clearly and tackled her goal reaching to everyone, she was able to reach everyone's attention. Madonna tried to get everyone involved within her performance and because she did that, she was able to show everyone her message of world peace because not only did she create it, The audience of this performance reached everyone in that stadium did as well, because they millions and millions of people. The size of created that warm connected atmosphere. this performance was world wide. Bibliography

History of Cirque du soleil (5)

History Of Vogue (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirqu e_du_Soleil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogu e_(Madonna_song) http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/ welcome.aspx http://www.circusnet.info/cirque/so Madonna’s songs (2) leile.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o f_unreleased_Madonna_songs History of Madonna (1)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad onna_(entertainer) History of Like a Prayer (4) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm00 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_ 00187/ a_Prayer

Super Bowl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supe r_Bowl