(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Madonna’s YouTube Account)

We need to wake up!

The Queen of Pop has spoken against gun violence through her song “God Control.” Set in the ’70s, its accompanying music video was over 8 minutes long and is reminiscent of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida that left 49 people dead and 53 others wounded. 

And in God Control, just like that fateful day, one minute people were dancing inside a nightclub happily, the next they were being gunned down and lying dead on the dancefloor. This particular graphic depiction had, naturally, drawn criticism and praise alike. Others described Madonna’s music video and the song’s message as a “powerful statement,” “heartbreaking,” “a masterpiece,” “haunting,” among many others. On the other hand, some netizens called the video “shocking,” “too much,” “rough to look at,” and “disturbing.”  

Patience Carter, one of the survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting, said that the music video “was really hard to watch.” Because, she explained in an interview, “It was grossly accurate to what I witnessed that night.” She added, “I get that she was trying to bring awareness to gun control but I don’t think that was the right way to go about doing it. For someone like me who actually saw these images, lived through these images, to see them again, dramatized for views, I feel it was really insensitive.” 

For her part, Madonna explained that they created the video this way on purpose because, “Seeing the reality, and the brutality of things makes you wake up. This is really happening. This is what it looks like.”

Meanwhile, Perez Hilton said on his website that while Madonna could have made God Control “subtle and metaphorical,” Hilton explained that, “frankly the U.S. has a hard enough time getting the message IRL.” He added, “Some of our lawmakers need to be hit over the head with this message.”

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