Study of music video
Alejandro Music video study
Lady Gaga’s Alejandra has loads of religious connotations in it. Reasons behind this Lady Gaga herself, has not explained so it is up for interpretation as to what this video means although shes explained its about the gay community which strongly comes through in the video. This is my interpretation of what the video shows. The video begins with the climax of the story. It is therefore a circular narrative. Its plot is of Gaga’s characters mourning over the end of a relationship, her love of the gay community and her sexuality all of which are battling with her religious beliefs. The subplot is of a young man struggling with his homosexuality. At the beginning of the video the only man to be awake is the character who is struggling with his homosexuality. The fact that the rest of the soldiers are asleep could symbolise his struggle to fit in or his secrecy of his sexuality. In the USA army there was a policy called Don’t Ask Don’t Tell which restricted soldiers who where gay from telling/being allowed to be open about there sexuality in the army. Lady Gaga was a public figure who helped repeal this, but it was not repealed when this video came out. This has significance when looking at this video. The mise en scene is very militant and dark which again reinforces my previous point. Uniforms are worn which are comparable to Nazi dress sense of strong dark uniforms. In my opinion Gaga tried to show the absurdity of this law by comparing the restriction to Nazism.
The clip after shows men marching forward which symbolises the strength and power of the gay community marching forward for equality. The bright light in the background and the fact there walking from a higher ground into darkness could be symbolic of the religious rejection of the gay community in accordance to the bible.
The fact that that light fades out onto lady gagas face portrays her as an almost God like figure. The goggle she is wearing could symbolise religion can cloud people’s views on things, in relation to this video its symbolic of the religious views on the gay community and how that can cloud its followers views. The goggles glass themselves are like stain glass windows which is again evidence of the religious connotation.
The fading to the images of the funeral suggests it is a past memory. And the fact Gagas is wearing black connotates her mourning someone, and the heart with the A made of nails and thorns suggests its the character alejandro she is mourning. The heart’s nails and thorns, in my opinion could connotate two things. The nails and thorns in terms of religious terminology can be connected to Jesus’ crucifixion in which he’s nailed to the cross and has a crown of thorns around his head.
Gaga is looking down on the men whose choreography is very rough and rigid, showing their battle with their homosexuality. It also symbolises Lady Gaga as a Gay icon, which she is fast becoming, as they are physically looking up to her almost in a worshipping sense.
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