Holloman 1

India Holloman

Prof. Maple

ENGng 101

10/1/18

Music bringing awarenessUsing music to teach

We have two music videos, both covering major social issues in society. Using rhetorical

analysis we are going to identify which video did it bestOne video portrayed their topic issue

better for the audience than the other, but we are going to weed out which one did it best using

rhetorical analysis. The first video by keshaKesha is Praying and the other is Mrs. Potato head by

Melanie Martinez. They both incite powerful emotion, which is a great use of pathos, and present

great artistry. Melanie delivers a message so that everybody can understand the context and

relate the text back to their own experiences with body image issues. While Kesha delivers a

strong message based on her own life, bringing awareness to another huge issue. These

artistThese artists have used their platforms to teach the masses of people to be strong, to keep

fighting, to be yourself, and to love yourself. Now we can dig a little deeper.

Although Kesha’s music video was undoubtedly great, it did not provide a better

understanding of the issue in the video. Without the song the video could have been interpreted

to mean anything, which in some sense may be a good thing as it could be applied to any

situation, but the story behind the video was not clear. While it’s still beautiful it is not a message

for everyone to relate and it is directed towards one specific person. She did an amazing job at

creating emotion and had great use of ethos. You can take her word for emotional distress

because she has gone through an extensive and terrible public ordeal.
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Where Kesha’s video lacked in communication to multitudes of people, Melanie’s

succeeded. Not only do women have issues with self-hate, but men as well. There are men who

undergo plastic surgery of all kinds to “improve” themselves along with women and the message

in this video transcends just the topic of plastic surgery into every aspect self-love/ self-hate even

just pretending to be someone you’re not or dressing for others and not yourself. Although Kesha

is a more reliable source, Melanie provides a better understanding

Melanie Martinez also provides us with a great visual of the pain and sorrow you will

experience after receiving plastic surgery for all the wrong reasons. Although she’s never

changed herself for others she has always been an advocate for self-love and being yourself. This

song sounds very poppy with some light heartedness but when you read deeper into the lyrics

there is a lot of truth and sorrow. This video successfully uses pathos while shedding light on the

dark side of plastic surgery and all the problems it can bring. It deters young beautiful women

from doing something they might regret later. It also goes to say don’t change yourself for the

affections of a man giving example in the video that he would easily leave you after he has

ruined your life to do the same to another unsuspecting woman. When you look at the lyrics she

compares little girls learning how to cut and paste to the jobs of plastic surgeons and she also

notes little girls should love what their mothers gave them. “The lyrics satirize and inform her

audience of what is happening in our society, even if we don’t always notice. With so many

beauty products to hide aging and celebrities getting surgery to fix something no one really cares

about, it is impressing upon the younger generations that there is standard for perfection and that

they must attain some of it if they want to have a significant other or be accepted in general.” In

this quote they sum up why Melanie uses commercials to portray what happens in society and

how girls learn this behavior.

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Moving on to Melanie’s video she opens with herself playing with a doll when a

commercial about keeping your lover’s attention comes on promoting diet pills and these blonde

wigs. The blonde wigs hold significance because they have a black woman modeling them and

even though women are allowed to wear anything they feel comfortable in, the time period of the

video suggest the woman is trying to distract from her being black which is a great use of logos,

because any person who knows the history of black women in white America knows this was a

common thing to hide themselves and be ashamed back then. So, this video already appeals to all

races. This leads Melanie’s character to stuff her bra while crying, wear a blonde wig and scarf

down diet pills while applying lipstick. She represents the youth these ads are affecting. She

heads back to the tv to catch this Music video starting. In the video this beautiful woman is

persuaded by her lover to change herself for him. She does, and the results are terrible not only

does she not feel beautiful anymore, but the man leaves her for another woman only to do the

same thing and the woman is left broken and lonely. This accurately represents logos because

they make the outcome of the video clear. We knew from when the music first started that it

would end badly, because we are taught now to never change ourselves for anyone. Melanie has

witnessed this and removed everything unnatural she has applied. This represents her realization

that you should love yourself and not change yourself for the affections of a man because

ultimately men will always be men and have the option to leave where as you are stuck in your

situation.

Digging deeper into Kesha’s video, it opens with her laying in a casket with colorful

clothes on, with two men with pig heads standing beside her. Having the pig heads may represent

refusing to do what other people want or expect of her which is great connection to her real

situation and her deciding to take back her life. The video then leads into another scene black and
 Holloman 4

white. She’s laying there, and she looks like she’s been through a rough time, almost to the brink

of death. She’s drifting in the ocean stranded and she’s speaking asking God to give her a sign

otherwise she’ll have to give up. Then the music starts playing as it switches scenes to her in

colorful crazy outfit. That represents her career of wearing these eccentric outfits and not really

wanting too. Her whole video reflects her career and the option to fight for her life which she

does in the end as she walks across water. Her walking across water is a great use of ethos and

pathos being that it is directly correlated to Jesus walking across water in the bible. It is ethos

and pathos because she is appealing to the part of her audience that believe in Jesus, so they

would see her actions as truthful representation, but pathos because she is appealing to not just

their belief, but heart and soul.

Knowing Kesha’s backgroundbackground, it gives her video much more context while

her lyrics hold raw emotion. Her painful experience she shared with the world about her sexual

abuse at the hands of a superior made her lyrics all totoo real, it makes tears come to our eyes

and whether you’ve had a similar experience or not you could definitely sympathizesympathize.

“She wrote this song about triumphing through adversity and finding peace in forgiving those

who have hurt you in the past.” This song was her farewell to her painful past and asand, as

portrayed in the video, the Hellostart to her future. This song was also released in the height of

the #metoome too movement and was performed at the 2018 Ggrammys in honor of the

movement. Kesha has been very vocal about her experience these last few yearsyears, so this

song came as a refresher for all the pain you can overcome.

In conclusion, you may feel the other video to better appeal to you and that’s ok because

it’s all about your personal struggles and it’s great if one of these helps you to overcome those

struggles.
 Holloman 5

Melanie Martinez also provides us with a great visual of the pain and sorrow you will

experience after receiving plastic surgery for all the wrong reasons. Although she’s never

changed herself for others she has always been an advocate for self-love and being yourself. This

song sounds very poppy with some light heartedness but when you read deeper into the lyrics

there is a lot of truth and sorrow. This video successfully uses pathos while shedding light on the

dark side of plastic surgery and all the problems it can bring. It deters young beautiful women

from doing something they might regret later. It also goes to say don’t change yourself for the

affections of a man giving example in the video that he would easily leave you after he has

ruined your life to do the same to another unsuspecting woman. When you look at the lyrics she

compares little girls learning how to cut and paste to the jobs of plastic surgeons and she also

notes little girls should love what their mothers gave them. “ The lyrics satirize and inform her

audience of what is happening in our society, even if we don’t always notice. With so many

beauty products to hide aging and celebrities getting surgery to fix something no one really

cares about, it is impressing upon the younger generations that there is standard for perfection

and that they must attain some of it if they want to have a significant other, or be accepted in

general.” In this quote they sum up why melanie uses commercials to portray what happens in

society and how girls learn this behavior.

Digging deeper into Kesha’s video, it opens with her laying in a casket with colorful

clothes on, with two men with pig heads standing beside her. Having the pig heads may represent

refusing to do what other people want or expect of her which is great connection to her real

situation and her deciding to take back her life. The video then leads into another scene black and

white. She’s laying there and she looks like she’s been through a rough time, almost to the brink

of death. She’s drifting in the ocean stranded and she’s speaking asking God to give her a sign
 Holloman 6

otherwise she’ll have to give up. Then the music starts playing as it switches scenes to her in

colorful crazy outfit. That represents her career of wearing these eccentric outfits and not really

wanting too. Her whole video is a reflection of her career and the option to fight for her life

which she does in the end as she walks across water which has direct correlation to the bible

using ethos.

Moving on to Melanie’s video she opens with herself playing with a doll when a

commercial about keeping your lover’s attention comes on promoting diet pills and these blonde

wigs. The blonde wigs hold significance because they have a black woman modeling them and

even though a woman is allowed to wear anything she feels comfortable in the time period of the

video suggest the woman is trying to overshadow her blackness which is a great use of logos. So

this video already appeals to all races. This leads melanie’s character to stuff her bra while

crying, wear a blonde wig and scarf down diet pills while applying lipstick. She represents the

youth these ads are affecting. She heads back to the tv to catch this Music video starting. In the

video this beautiful woman is persuaded by her lover to change herself for him. She does and the

results are terrible not only does she not feel beautiful anymore but the man leaves her for

another woman only to do the same thing and the main is left broken and lonely. Melanie has

witnessed this and removed everything unnatural she has applied. This represents her realization

that you should love yourself and not change yourself for the affections of a man because

ultimately men will always be men and have the option to leave where as you are stuck in your

situation.

Although Kesha’s music video was undoubtedly great, it did not provide a better

understanding of the issue in the video. Without the song the video could have been interpreted

to mean anything, which in some sense may be a good thing as it could be applied to any
 Holloman 7

situation, but the story behind the video was not clear. While it’s still beautiful it is not a message

for everyone to relate and it is directed towards one specific person. She did an amazing job at

creating emotion and you can take her word for emotional distress because she has gone through

an extensive and terrible public ordeal.

Where Kesha’s video lacked in communication to multitudes of people, Melanie’s succeeded. Formatted: Indent: First line: 0"

Not only do women have issues with self hate, but men as well. There are men who undergo

plastic surgery of all kinds to “improve” themselves along with women and the message in this

video transcends just the topic of plastic surgery into every aspect self love/ self hate even just

pretending to be someone you’re not or dressing for others and not yourself. Although kesha is a

more reliable source, melanie provides a better understanding.

Work cited

Martinez, Melanie. “Mrs potato head”. Youtube, 1 Dec. 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkri1NUq9ro

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/truth-melanie-martinez-video-potato-head

Kesha. “Praying”. Youtube, 6 Jul. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Dur3uXXCQ

 Holloman 8

Santiago henning luz, Amanda. Business Insider, 7 Jul. 2017

https://www.businessinsider.com/keshas-praying-has-powerful-meaning-2017-7