Evan Stallard Stallard 1

English Composition II
Mrs. Carter
23 Oct. 2020

Summary of Two of the Same Songs

A remix of the song “What is Love” by Haddaway is all about bringing back a popular

dance from the 80’s and 90’s called the shuffle dance that was used in the original music video

for the song “What is Love”. The original 1993 version of the song questions what love is and

provides a gloomy, unwelcoming mood for love; the remix is all about being happy and dancing,

which provides a more positive tone for the video.

The original 1993 Haddaway music video for the song tells the story that he does not

know what love is anymore. He feels like he loves someone, and treats them well, but his lover

does not care. He can only see them two being together for life, but at the same time, he does

not think he can be with her anymore since she has hurt him so much. The main characters in

the story are Haddaway and a few other women, whose names are not mentioned. The props

used are the outfits of the women, giving them vampire-ish looks. Also, the setting is in a dark,

church-like building: a place where you could find a vampire. The song claims that he doesn't

know what love is anymore. After treating this person well, she continues to hurt him and he

does not know how much longer he can take it. A piece of evidence that proves this claim is

most of the lyrics are Haddway asking for her to stop hurting him. In addition, he is also harmed

in multiple ways, like being electrocuted and having one of the “vampires” bite into his neck. The

video only uses Pathos, as it talks about love the whole song. This video has more of a gloomy

mood to it. The audience for this video is everybody who understands love. If you understand

love, you can understand the claim that he makes

On the other hand, the story being told in the 2019 video “What is Love (Remix)” isn’t

really about the question of what is love, but more about bringing back a popular 90’s dance,

called the shuffle dance. The entire video is clips of men and women dancing like it’s 90’s. The
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main characters are all of the dancers. There aren’t any props used, but there are a lot of

different settings for the dancers, which are all bright. These settings cause the tone of the song

to be happier. The main claim of the video is to bring back the shuffle dance and to have fun.

The evidence to back this up is the dancers are smiling while they dance, and all doing the

shuffle dance. The video uses Pathos and has a more joyful mood than the original video. The

audience of this video is everybody interested in dancing. The video is focused on bringing back

the shuffle dance, so everybody that is able to dance is encouraged to try it and have fun.

The relationship between these two versions of the song is very vague. The only way

these songs are connected is because of the dance moves used in them. The first video gets its

claim across better because the setting makes more sense with the lyrics. It is easy to

understand why Haddaway chose the setting he did for his song. In comparison, the other video

is not as effective as getting its claim across because the lyrics do not go with the video as well,

but it is easy to understand the point of the video. The two different versions of the song appeal

to similar audiences, but not identical. The original video appeals to people who understand

love; the remix appeals to people who are interested in dancing. People that are interested in

dancing most likely understand love, so it is fair to say the videos have similar audiences. The

artist has only made one version of the song, but others have made remixes of it.

In conclusion, the purposes and claims of each video are different. One is about

bringing back a dance and the other one is about questioning what love is. The scene and props

in the original video help back up the song’s claim which makes it more effective at getting its

point across. Meanwhile, the other video only consists of people dancing, which proves that the

claim is to bring back the shuffle dance, but the claim is not as effective. Next, both videos very

clearly use Pathos because love is an emotion and dancing is emotion-based. They both appeal

to relatively the same audience. Finally, the artist has only made one version of the song, but

other people have made remixes of the song.

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Works Cited

Haddaway. “Haddaway - What Is Love [Official].” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 18 June 2014,

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

KmMusic, director. ​What Is Love (Remix) Shuffle Dance​. ​Youtube​, 3 June 2019,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Gnt0_6xE8&ab_channel=KmMusic.
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Works Cited:

Hannwager, Volker, director. ​Haddaway - "What Is Love"​. ​Youtube ,​ Coconut Records, 3

Jun. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPmBnnon0Ek&ab_channel=KmMusic

Haddaway, director. ​"What Is Love" by Haddaway.​ ​Youtube - "What Is Love",​ Coconut

Records, 14 June 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I.