Ashlyn Vongsy

Deborah Strehle

English Comp 2

9 February 2020

“What is Love” Essay

In the song “What is Love” by Haddaway and also sung by Jaymes Young, there are a lot

of differences between the two despite it being the same song. The song is written by Haddaway

but Jaymes Young does his own little spin on it. Haddaway’s version of the song is upbeat

whereas Young’s version is slow. One lyric in the song that they both sing is “Baby don’t hurt

me”. Haddaway uses the lyrics to sing with a lot of different girls and warns them not to hurt him

while he tries to figure out the right one for him. In Young’s version of the lyrics, he is singing to

a girl that already hurt him and does not want to be hurt more. The lyrics are the same words but

are said in two different ways. They even have different audiences. Haddaway’s audience is for

upbeat people trying to find what love is and enjoying the seek. On the other hand, Young’s

audience is for sad people who got their hearts broken and is lost about what love is. I can

probably state more differences but even though there are so many differences between the two

videos, they both are questioning what love is, both have the same claim and both use the same

rhetorical appeal, Pathos.

Even though there are a lot of differences between the two videos, the singers are both

questioning what love is. Haddaway is questioning love with a bunch of different women. He

takes his time with each girl to find the right one. He does not know what he is looking for so he

has to experiment with each one. He does not know what love is so Haddaway is trying to find it

in the music video. Young also does not know what love is. He, unfortunately, got his heart
broken by the pretty girl in the music video. She is the main focus in the video. The girl has long,

brown hair and pretty, blue eyes. They show the girl in all kinds of different angles and even

different shades. Young is singing to the girl about his broken heart. He thought he had love

when he was with her. Now, he does not know what love is and does not want to be hurt again.

Secondly, both videos share the same claim even though the music videos have multiple

differences. They both question what love is which leads into the claim. The claim for both

music videos is making the audience think about love. Although the videos show love in

different ways, it makes you think about it. Haddaway makes you think about it with all the

different women. How do you know you found the one? Is she or he right for me? Young also

makes you think the same thing. He uses the girl in the video to make you think. Young thought

the girl was right for him but in reality, she was not for him. It makes you question everything

that you learned about love.

Lastly, Haddaway and Young both use the same rhetorical appeal despite the differences

in the videos. They both thought that pathos would work better than ethos and logos to express

what they want to express. However, they get different emotions out of you. In Haddaway’s

video, you get excited because it is so upbeat. You actually want Haddaway to find the one. They

also use strobe lights and dancing to make you want to dance with him and the girls. In Young’s

version of the song, you get sad. You feel bad for Young because he got his heartbroken but you

know he is going to be okay. The video also gets you mad at the pretty girl because she broke his

heart. You want to help him.

In conclusion, two different music videos with the same song can have the same

questioning, claim and rhetorical appeal. Both of these men have no clue what love is and they

are trying to figure it out. The videos have different ways to find the answer but the question is
the same. The videos also make you think about love despite the differences. They make you

think about the same thing. The last thing they share is the rhetorical appeal. They base their

video off of your emotions so you can relate to the video. Although there are a lot of differences,

it is still the same song.

 Works Cited

Haddaway. “What Is Love.” Youtube, uploaded by CoconutMusicGermany, 18 June 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I. Accessed 9 February 2020.

Young, Jaymes. “What Is Love.” Youtube, uploaded by Sound Of Soul, 12 November 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wsb0gQUt6c. Accessed 9 February 2020.