Week 6_2/17/16_Bad Blood

For my rhetorical analysis, I looked at Taylor Swift’s song “Bad Blood”, and the cover done by Ryan Adams. For starters, the rendition done by Taylor Swift is much more powerful in the sense that it is faster paced, louder, and almost harsher sounding. In contrast, the cover done by Ryan Adams is much more laid back and softer. The overall meaning of the song is that their heart was broken, and that there is no hope for the relationship. However, there are distinctions in meaning, where Taylor Swift’s version sounds more vengeful, but Ryan Adams version sounds more heart broken and upset.

            I think that the messages of both of the songs are conveyed effectively based on the overall tone and attitude of the artist, as well as the musical element which adds suspense, drama, and shows the progression of emotion with volume and pitch. One of the lines in the song is “baby, have to ruin what was shiny? Now its all rusted.” In Swift’s song this line sounds that she is rather annoyed or irritated by someone, and does not want to think about what they did. In Adams’s version, this line sounds much sadder as if he is disappointed in what the other person did. Another line is “its so sad to think about the good times, you and I…” Here, Taylor Swift sounds extremely angry as the pitch gets higher and there is a crescendo as it leads into the chorus to express her deep emotions. When Ryan Adams sings this line, he simply sounds hurt and depressed, because he does not want to think about the good times because that will only make it worse. A final line that sounds very different in both of the songs is “baby now we got problems, and I don’t think we can solve them.” This is a crucial line in the song because it is repeated throughout the chorus and shows that there really is no hope in the relationship. Taylor sings this line once again with anger and haste in her voice as the tempo picks up with a hostile tone, but Ryan sings it more softly, almost to himself saying that he feels hopeless about the relationship and that there is no going back.

            I think that the audience of Taylor Swift’s song is more of a younger crowd who has had some bad breakups or can at least relate to the emotion that she is feeling and going through. Based on the fact that her song is used to stir emotion in her audience, it is more likely that she is speaking to a crowd that is going to be aligned with her feelings and attitudes. The audience of Ryan Adams’s rendition is more for the broken hearted crowd who feels lonely and sad about their loss of love, as opposed to vengeful and angry. They interact with their audiences by appealing to ethos, logos, and pathos throughout the song. They both appeal to logos by the words, for instance that too much has happened to be able to mend the relationship. They appeal to ethos differently though. Swift fuels anger in her audience while Adams finds sympathy in his. Appeals to ethos are much subtler as they both align with the values of their audience, that it is wrong to be hurt in their associations, and that one should not stay in a cruel relationship.

            I think that they are both rather persuasive in their songs, however, I do have to say that Taylor Swift is more engaging with her audience than Ryan Adams, but one can really see that both are truthful in their emotions. I do not think that either of them are really trying to pose as an authority in this case, but I do think that the audience looks up to them because they truly believe in what they are saying about their relationships. Overall, even though both songs took a different viewpoint on the subject, both artists did a very good job at getting their points across and making the audience believe them.