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Ashley Gilker

Professor Myers

English Composition II

16 February 2020
Zombies

There are many bands that have created covers of another band’s song. These covers

can come in the form of music videos. The Bad wolves is a band that covered the Cranberries

song “Zombie”.The Bad wolves released their video in 2018, which was twenty-five years after

the Cranberries released their video. Even though both videos portrayed war, the Cranberries did

a better job of displaying the meaning. The Cranberries and the Bad Wolves both used colors and

props to demonstrate the meaning of the video.

The Cranberries used gold in their video to show how the world needed love and

compassion. The gold was covering Cupid, which is a well known symbol for love. Along with

the use of gold, there was red. The red was representing hatred. The video had the gold in the

foreground, while the red was in the background. This showed how love should be presented,

even if there is hatred present. The gold also was flowing onto the ground and back towards the

red. This scene shows that love will always be more powerful than hatred.

This video uses pathos because it plays with the audience’s emotions. The Cranberries

show a destroyed town that kids are running around. The audience feels sad for the kids because

their homes have most likely been destroyed as a result of war. In addition to this, the video also

shows the kids up close at the beginning. The audience gets to see first hand how badly these

children have it.

The Bad Wolves video also uses gold throughout it. However, the use of gold does not

have the same intentions as The Cranberries’ video. The way the Bad Wolves portrays the gold
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paint is used to represent the lies that are being told in the media. The lies that the media tells are

empty promises as a way to gain support. In addition to the gold paint, the Bad Wolves have

black walls surrounding them. The black is used to demonstrate the struggles of everyday life.

The gold being this bright new thing that could be great, until somebody looks on the other side.

The other side still has the black walls or struggles surrounding it.

The Bad Wolves also use pathos in their video. The video could make the audience feel

isolated. This can be felt because in the video the one transparent wall is being covered, while all

of the other walls are black. The audience can feel as if they have no connection with the outside

world, which is them being isolated.

The Cranberries used many props to get the story across to the audience. One of the props

that was used was a cross. The cross symbolizes the pain that is being caused by war because of

the pain that Jesus Christ went through when he was crucified on it. In addition to the cross, the

video had bows and arrows. This was to show that love needed to be spread in the time of pain.

The pain being war, which was shown through the use of guns and military.

The Bad wolves used one prop throughout their video. This prop was a transparent wall.

The wall was used to represent the border between real and fake. There is a person who smears

gold paint over the wall, in an effort to cover the struggles behind the screen. At the beginning of

the video, the lead singer touches the wall at the same time a gold person touches the wall. This

shows the audience that real and fake are closer together than they think. However, it is hard to

see the fakeness, because of how blindsiding it is.

The music videos have the same song but portray different messages. The Cranberries

show the audience that violence is not the answer, through the use of the color gold and having

cupid shown. Whereas the Bad Wolves show their audience that things are not as they appear,
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with the use of a transparent wall that is being covered. Both videos show two messages that

were important at the time of the videos’ release. This is why the use of color and props are

important in relaying a message to an audience.

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Works Cited

Bad Wolves. “Zombie”. Youtube, uploaded by Better Noise Music, 22 February 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaS93WMRQQ

The Cranberries. “Zombie”. Youtube, uploaded by TheCranberriesTV, 16 June 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts