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Hannah Savard

Mrs. Reynolds

English 1201

27 September 2020

Rhetorical Analysis of “Home” by Michael Bublé

“I wanna come home,” is a verse that Michael Bublé sings in his music video for

“Home,” expressing the need to come home to his significant other because he misses them.

Blake Shelton has covered the song with some of his country music style. Both of the music

videos appeal to the viewer’s emotions through pathos because of the descriptions used to show

the longing for a loved one. "Home" by Michael Bublé, released in 2005, portrays a view from

the traveling musician and the yearning for something normal, such as the loved one he sings

about. On the other hand, Blake Shelton's version of "Home," released in 2008, is more of a

general awareness of being gone from a loved one for a time and longing to see them again while

incorporating a country music twist.

Michael Bublé released the single “Home” in collaboration with Alan Chang and Amy-

Foster Gillies. During an interview with The Boot, Chang states “[w]hen I first heard what

[Bublé] had to say, I felt it might be too much of a complaint, especially since it was about being

stuck in Europe, where he happened to be.” But Chang decided to go ahead and start writing

something that would match that theme. Gillies also thought it sort of sounded like Buble wanted

to bash Europe so she said during her interview that she “really wrote the lyrics about just

difficulties of being away from home.” Both of the songwriters took a different approach than

Bublé, but the song wound up turning out to be a huge hit.

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Michael Bublé’s music video is geared towards a specific target audience. His video is

addressed to anyone who is missing a loved one or a significant other and is not able to see them

due to long distance. In the video, it seems that Michael is missing his significant other due to

him being on the road all the time to play shows. The video opens with Michael in a dressing

room in the back of a theater, writing a letter to a girl that appears in a picture in the mirror. He

walks through the empty theater, and eventually makes it to the bus station, where he sings “I’m

coming back home.” Bublé’s version of this song has a slow, pop/jazz feel to it, which most of

Bublé’s songs usually do. This music video and song appeal to pathos because of the different

visuals. Michael shows quite a bit of emotion when he is singing, and the memories they show of

the girl make the viewer feel empathy towards him for not being able to be with her.

However, in Blake Shelton’s music video, the audience is the same, but with a slight

difference. This music video is geared towards people who are missing a loved one, but it also

seems to be about loved ones that are in the military. The video opens up in a hotel room in

Paris, where Blake sits on a bed and begins to play his guitar. He goes to the airport, and as he is

walking through he sees different couples reuniting with each other, which makes him feel upset.

He sees a man in military uniform seeing his wife and kids, which is meant to intrigue audience

members who may have a loved one in the military. At the end of the video he finally sees her,

and as she rushes into his arms, he sings “I’m coming back home.” Blake Shelton put a country

twist onto this song, which also caught the attention of a country music audience. This music

video also appeals to pathos. By showing Blake’s emotions when he sees all of the different

couples and his reaction when he sees his significant other, the video makes the viewer feel sorry

for him for not being able to see her. The viewers also feel happiness when the man in military

uniform is reunited with his family.

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The lyrics “I wanna come home,” show how Bublé and Shelton are missing their loved

ones. But by the end of the videos, they both sing “I’m coming back home,” which gives the

viewer a feeling of happiness that they were eventually able to go home to see their significant

others. Both music videos have similar audiences, but the different styles target different

audiences through pathos and visual techniques.

Works Cited

Buble, Michael. Home. YouTube, 26 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=lbSOLBMUvIE. Accessed 27 Sept. 2020.

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Hackett, Vernell. “Story Behind the Song: Blake Shelton, 'Home'.” The Boot, TheBoot, 14 Dec.

2016, https://theboot.com/story-behind-the-song-home-michael-buble-and-blake-shelton/.

Accessed 27 Sept. 2020.

Shelton, Blake. Home. YouTube, 26 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=kkoT1nZOexY. Accessed 27 Sept. 2020.