Analysis of ‘Cherish’ Music Video by Madonna

Analysis of ‘Cherish’ Music Video by Madonna

When we get attracted to a music video, what raffles, us is the artistic skills such as drums,  lyrics, images, and the melody that are conveyed in the video. Analysts of a music video, usually encounter questions about the structure of a music video from the view of sociology and cultural studies. This paper attempts to describe the ways that music and visual codes operate, and how to make them flow in the entire music video. Musical and visual codes work together to show us the artistic skills of the singer and the ideological apparatus. If we narrow down the features of a single video, we can comprehend how much is displayed in just a short period of time of about three minutes. It is by studying the features in the video that we can be able to see how the video represents race, gender, and sexuality through the lyrics and video of a song. In this article, I will examine the aspects of the music video “Cherish” by the famous Madonna, and expound how it is structured in terms of lyrics, music, images, and historical context

 General analysis of ‘Cherish.’

Today, Cherish has more than eleven million views on YouTube; it is one of Madonna’s impeccable collection of her album “Like a player” released in 1989. It was written and produced by Madonna and Leonard Patrick. The black and white video of the song is set at the seashores. It was directed by one of the best directors and photographers by the name Herb Ritts. In the video, Madonna exaggerates the heroic nature and reveals the sense of

openness and weightlessness as she seeks for devotion and loyalty from her lover.

While shooting the video the song, Rittz knew that the sole purpose of the video is to ensure the artist’s sales of her album. He came up with the grand of shooting the video at the beach and incorporating it with a fable sea creature. Besides, he ensured that the video best suits the requirements of the song. He came up with the idea of a classical video with a sense of clarity and balance. Cherish, if observed and analyzed, can be used to solve all the problems faced by many music videos. Unlike other music videos that only emphasize the tension and contrast, Madonna’s clip used only text for showing the nature of correspondence to depict both local musical features and other larger sections that we are going to learn

 Lyrics

The song rotates around themes such as love, devotion, and relationships. From the song, we can deduce that the singer seeks a relationship where there is full devotion to one another. The singer is tired of being heartbroken; she wants more than just romance in relationships “…so tired of broken hearts and losing in the game.” There is the use of repetition in the entire song for emphasis. Maddona used the word ‘cherish’ several times. As mentioned, the lyrics of the music video are directly associated with the theme of love and loyalty in the relationships, in that the two and intertwined; hence, one cannot function without the other. The words “give me joy give me faith.” urges on loyalty. The singer is looking to more than just romance; she wants a relationship built on trust loyalty and care that will give her joy. We all can relate to this situation with ease as we all want commitment from partners to have good relationships.

The first chorus of the song begins with a start forward and practical relation in the video of the song. The music clearly articulates the adornment pulse. The background vocals further emphasize the punctuated style of the singer. She uses short and simple phrases to build up the song. Maddona sings merrily, emphasizing on the faithfulness in relationships; she mentions how she will be dedicated to her love and always be by her side. The musical composition of ‘Cherish’ cleverly uses a drum machine, keyboard, saxophone, and a light _heated dynamic to show the singer’s desires for her lover’s devotion.

Moreover, the song is poetic. Some lines are more significant than others, but overall most lines are short and have a rhythmic flow that mostly ends with syllable “o,” for instance, “…you’re giving it to me boy, keep giving me all your joy.” As we deeply examine the lyrics, Madonna is promising to even ” cherish” her lover for as long as he gives her what she seeks.

The multi_layer chorus is accompanied by its shimmery synthesized tonality the syllable ‘ch’ has a noise similar to foam or rushing water and the reflected light from the ocean. Moreover, the lyrics make us notices that” cherish” is a simple love song where the singer talks about fidelity and her lover, who she will never abandon for as long as he is devoted to her.

The hook line “Cherish”  is highly underscored in the lyrics, and the words in the song are firmly performative and entertaining, thus tempting the viewer to want to hear and see more. Her vocal performance received confirmation from all her fans. Another notable feature is the use of direct word-painting when Madonna mentions a “bell” immediately we see the image of a bell in the music video. The music video used the idea of creating cohesion between the image, lyrics, and drumbeats, to convey her message to her fans.

Music

With her ability to switch vocals to fit any genre and theme, she uses a sensitive and straightforward vocal of pop music to the message to her listeners. The song begins with a fuzzy sound of a techno-pop and a smooth keyboard while Madonna, the singer sings the word ‘cherish’ repeatedly. It is accompanied by drumbeats and a guitar, after which she gets to the bridge of the songs, and the keyboard melody becomes more pronounced, especially when she says, “cupid please, your aim at me.” As the singer moves to the chorus, the drums’ rhythm is changed and accompanied by a bass guitar.

The song emphasizes smooth and elliptical motion using most of the first and second inversion chords. Furthermore, the Images in the song creates sections of visuals that are directly related to the phrases of the lyrics.

Images

The video was shot at the beach of Malibu, California. Madonna plays as she sings while men dressed in a mermen style kept swimming in the sea; this gives the music video a particular ‘feel’ of beauty. Besides, the black and white concept of cinematography was used while shooting the video as it lends a specific timeless quality to the images and conveys emotions such as love and commitment. The harmonic incorporation of drum tracts with the motions maintains the momentum of the song. It draws the viewer through space with constant movement. During the shoot, the lenses of the camera move too much to provide the viewer with a stable position of enjoying the view; for instance, Madonna’s face was zoomed severely to give a bright look at her facial expressions as she sings.

Moreover, we see the gradual establishment of motion at first and then pounce into a state of right proportion.

Historical context

The song is inspired by the work of William Shakespeare’s ” Romeo and Juliet.” Madonna creates a catching song from themes such as love, loyalty, and relationships. As mentioned earlier, she used “mermen” as her co-worker in the video. Historically mermen are believed to be a homo-sexual community. In her song, many believe that Madonna used the song de-dualize the male gender and relegating them as objects of desire. From the video can tell that the Mermen are paying less attention to Madonna’s singing; this can be related to the inversion of the Home’s odyssey episode that describes the various how men ignored the seduction by an enchanting but deadly siren singing to them. Furthermore, Thomas Sebeok argues that the songs are constructed by incorporating previous pop songs Madonna used the title of 1960s songs to create the lyrics of her first verse; for instance, ‘cupid’ (by Sam Cooke) and ‘you are my destiny’ (by Elvin Presley).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is vividly clear that the music video ‘cherish’ it used multiple musical apparatus that enables the singer to pass the message to the listeners. There was a harmonious relationship between the lyrics and the music video.

Work Cited

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