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Josie Weitz

Professor Cassel

English 1201

18 March 2019

Feeling Love

The original creator of "Make You Feel My Love" is Bob Dylan and it was written in

1997. Dylan’s voice is iconic, raspy that attempts to follow through with his folk tune. There are

two guitars playing in the background, and it seems as though they are competing. Like most of

his songs, his voice is incomparable to his lyrics. He writes the raw truth of an uneven love

affair, “I know you haven't made your mind up yet...No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do to

make you feel my love”. Listening to a song about a partner doing everything for someone and

not getting the same should be both relatable and sad, but the melody of the song sounds as

though he is joyful about what he’s singing. With the unique voice that he has, listening to a

relatable sad love song that is heard in an upbeat tune gives an offsetting feeling. It’s almost like

the lyrics and his tune weren’t made to be heard with each other. It can make one question, why

is he so happy to be mistreated?

Eleven years later, a newer artist named Adele, decided to make a cover of “Make You

Feel My Love” along with a music video. If one googles the song, Adele’s version always shows

up at the top of the list before Dylan’s because of the high popularity she has received from it.

Adele’s voice is powerful and melancholy and backing up her vocals is a piano being played at a

leisurely pace. Together they create the harmonious of sounds. Her emotion can be read with her

voice alone. A music video isn’t needed to sense the tone, with every note sung there is a sense

of pain.
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Even though a music video isn’t needed to evaluate the mood, it brings the song to life. It

is set in the city at night while Adele is laying sitting up at the side of her bed singing. As the

song proceeds, she walks around her loft with the attention set on the city lit window, creating a

gleam. Her hair is messy, and she wears lounge clothes as if she's been laying in bed for a while.

She keeps checking her phone but there is nothing, not one text notification on her flip phone.

Nearing the end of the music video, she is looking out the window as if she’s stuck in a gaze. As

the camera drifts into the city, you see her going back to bed reaching for her phone on the

nightstand. The overall message of the song is about the unfairness and heartbreak that comes

with falling in love. Although Bob Dylan was the original writer, Adele’s cover of “Make You

Feel My Love” captures more emotion and creates a better connection, one where the audience

can picture and feel what’s happening in the song, rather than Dylan’s confusing tune.

The instruments of choice make a notable difference between the two. Dylan’s creates a

folk tune with an irritating hard to follow along with sound, while Adele’s stays in the

background of the singer's voice. Dylan’s pick of having two different guitars playing different

notes was a unique but failing effort; they clash with one another and cause a distraction. This

makes it hard to fully listen to the entirety of his song, along with his lifeless voice. Adele made

the excellent choice of only having the piano playing softly in the background. This way the

listener knows the main focus is to hear her voice and what she is saying. She wants to be heard.

With Dylan’s, the listener is stuck with a song that is irritating to listen to, Adele uses her voice

and choreographed instrument to make it a desire to follow along.

The genre of music the singers chose also changes the impact of understanding the song.

Bob Dylan’s music is categorized as folk music, while Adele is a soul singer. Folk tune usually

tends to be upbeat with crazy fast instruments. Soul music often creates emphasis on emotion,
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which is why Adele’s version is the better of the two. Although artists can write whatever lyrics

they desire, it is easily understood that Bob Dylan’s tone did not correlate with his sorrowful

message in his lyrics.

Both her music video and sound create a tribute to people who are going through an

unbalanced love affair. Adele’s choice of creating a music video with her cover helps put

emphasis on pathos. The setting first prepares the audience into knowing this isn’t an upbeat

song just by the lighting. It is night, but the only light is coming from the city outside her

window. She is doing everything for her partner without being treated the same way, almost

questioned by her lover, and it is truly getting to her. Viewers can see this because it looks as

though she is singing in a depressed state. She is a mess with undone hair, and a robe as if she

was too upset to prepare for the day. Throughout the entire music video, she holds her phone and

checks it but gets no notifications. Anyone who has experienced this knows the disappointing

and exhausting feeling they get when they reach out to love a certain someone and end up getting

rejected. This representation in the music video creates a connection between the viewers and

Adele, making them feel less alone because the feeling happens ubiquitously .

To some audience members, the music video can be too sappy. An upset woman alone in

her city loft, just waiting and needing that one text back from a careless lover is often a basic

storyline in movies. From a feminist point of view, it’s insulting. It’s as though she could be

unintentionally stating that a woman needs a man in order to feel good about their life. Not all

woman wait around to be respected by their lover, rather they go out and find better for

themselves. Adele’s music video creates an oversold insulting cliche, which can influence them

to stop watching.
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Although Adele’s music video can be interpreted in different ways, the two versions of

the songs are almost incomparable. Adele flawlessly creates the more compelling tune, that after

listening to her version it makes Dylan’s version confusing and impossible to listen to. Dylan

mismatched his lyrics and his tone by creating such heartfelt lyrics while singing it upbeat.

While all the aspects Adele puts in the song, she makes the melancholic lyrics into a compatible

feeling song. Adele apprehended the song lyrics better, thus creating a more well built and

popular song.

Works Cited

Adele. “Make You Feel My Love”. 19. XL Recordings, 2008. Youtube,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0put0_a--Ng> Date Accessed 14 March 2019

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Bob Dylan. “Make You Feel My Love”. Time Out of Mind, Special Rider Music, 1997,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWto-AUM3Q> Date Accessed 14 March 2019