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Kevin Thompson

English Composition 2

Prof. Hunter

23 January 2020

“What is Love” Rhetorical Analysis

“I don't know why you're not fair, I give you my love, but you don't care” is a key line in

the song “What is Love” by Haddaway which represents the characters by Haddaway trying to

figure out if the women love Haddaway during the music video and the woman being flirtatious

with no signs of love. The original music video “What is Love” by Haddaway was produced in

1992 and the cover song “What is Love” by Kiesza was produced in 2014. The original song

“What is Love” by Haddaway and the cover song “What is Love” by Kiesza have very similar

lyrics, but Kiesza has completely changed the audience and purpose by changing the style of the

song to a slow heartbreak song from the upbeat dance song.

The original music video “What is Love” by Haddaway has a very intricate type of music

video. It was staged in a large mansion at night, which made a kind of mysterious and eerie feel

when Haddaway was searching the mansion. He then approaches a room with a collection of

girls in night club outfits that seem to be waiting for him and dancing. He wanders around the

mansion, finding girls around the place and dance with them and he also is trying to figure out

who they are. The cover music video “What is Love” by Kiesza was very simplistic with the

camera starting from Kiesza’s lips and then gradually zoomed out throughout her singing while

she was standing naked with other naked people.

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The cover music video by Kiesza has a completely different audience than Haddaway’s

version. Haddaway’s version of “What is Love” has the characteristic of Haddaway dancing

throughout the video with the different types of girls. His tone of voice has more of a seductive

type trying to figure out if the girls love him. The music video by Kiesza has no type of action

happening within the video other than Kiesza dolefully singing. Haddaway’s version of “What is

Love” portrays the lyrics with more of an upbeat dance song in the 90’s; whereas, the music

video by Kiesza is a more of a slow heartbreak song. Kiesza's song wasn’t to bring the fans from

Haddaway’s version over, it was to show how the same lyrics of the song can be told in a

heartbreak form. The song was told in a heart breaker form by having soft piano music in the

background and just putting Kiesza to sing the song with a very emotional and somber tone of

voice.

The appeals used by both music videos were pathos by trying to convey emotion within

the watcher. In Haddaway’s version of the video, he uses the question “What is Love?” to have

the watchers think to themselves of times that they have been in that situation of loving a person

with so much emotion and they don’t feel the same way. The question then describes he is

confused with his love and he is questioning it. In Kiesza’s version, she uses the imagery of her

naked, standing next to other naked people to symbolize that she is vulnerable around them. The

people standing next to each other also symbolize that everyone is confused about love and they

are also vulnerable to everyone else too with their emotions. The lyrics, “Baby don’t hurt me,

don’t hurt me, no more” also explain that someone has played with her emotions in the past. The

watchers for the Haddaway’s version for young people with energy that are in love, but don’t

know if they love them back. Kiesza’s version is about any type of person that is heartbroken
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about someone they love and are in their feelings. The music videos couldn’t have had ethos or

logos since they had no evidence or logic of why you should trust them.

In conclusion, both Haddaway’s and Kiesza’s version of “What is Love” have very

similar lyrics, but Kiesza has completely changed the audience by changing the style of the song

to a slow heartbreak song from the upbeat dance song. The lyric “I don't know why you're not

fair, I give you my love, but you don't care.” was shown to be used in confusion two different

ways from a small question of love to a pleading way of asking why they broke her heart.
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Works Cited

Kiesza. “Kiesza - What Is Love (Official Video)”. YouTube, 18 Aug. 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-01dsXDqGE.

CoconutMusicGermany. “Haddaway - What Is Love [Official]” YouTube, 18 Jun. 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I.
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