Music Video Analysis - Lady GaGa - 'Judas'

Judas, like most of Lady GaGa songs, is a pop sing with a heavy narrative and meaning out into it. Most pop music has some sort of tempo that encourages the audience to sing and/or dance along, and this one also includes a couple of dance scenes which are also conventional in this genre.

There aren’t loads of obvious illustrations of lyrics in this video, however there are subtle ones.

“I love Judas baby” is portrayed by GaGa by clinging to ‘Judas’ and touching him and clinging to him again when the songs talks about her “clinging to Judas”.

“Judas” has a fast tempo with a strong beat in it. This beat is kept throughout the whole song. The beat is emphasized through the use of dance moves and actions being performed in it as well. There aren’t really any moments when there’s an instrumental solo, but at one point the music stops all together to emphasize an important part in the narrative of the video.
One of the scenes from the musical pause (to the right).

This track is very suited to GaGa, her videos/songs are well known to have a strong meaning behind them and to always have very unique videos. She wanted this video to be as shocking and talked about as her other videos and so uses a controversial theme. Lady GaGa is still shown as being a sexual object throughout this video with the skimpy outfits revealing a lot of skin and her being the only female in a large group of males. Whilst this is objectifying her, being the only female makes her seem more powerful which might appeal towards the female viewers.

These two shots represent her as the tough confident female.













Whilst these two shots represent her being objectified dancing sexily. 

The theme of the song and the video is religious and talking about love. Because of this the video contains a lot of religious connotations.

Judas and his twelve disciples

Crown of Thorns

The Crucifixion

...and many more religious connotations including baptizing, sinning and the singer being stoned to death for adulatory.

Another intertextual reference in this video is Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” which was controversial at the time.

“Judas” is heavily narrative based. It’s story is based off of Jesus and Judas. It’s shot in a chronological order but with a conventional pop video feel with the dance scenes slotted in where appropriate. The story is about the singer being in love with Judas but wanting redemption from Jesus. GaGa wants to show a message through her video that even though one might seek redemption it isn’t always given which is shown through her getting stoned (presumably for adulatory) at the end.