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Milandrey N. Laboy Torres

Prof. Skelly

ENG 1201

21 February 2021

The Same Message Through Time

“Zombie” by The Cranberries is often described as a protest, anti-war song in memory of

two young people killed during a bombing in 1993. The song was released only a year later, in

1994. The song was written by the lead singer of the Cranberries, Dolores O'Riordan. Through

the beautiful scenes, the music video shares a story of war and the pain caused by it. Other

artists, such as Bad Wolves, believed in the same message. Bad Wolves had even planned to

make a cover featuring Dolores O'Riordan set to be released in 2018. However, before being able

to record her part, Dolores sadly passed away. Bad Wolves decided to release their cover of

Zombie in her memory deciding to donate the money they made from it to her children. Both

versions of Zombie are very similar. Zombie originally by The Cranberries, and the cover by

Bad Wolves both present the same claim that when major conflicts happen often many innocent

people get hurt, but they do it in very different ways. The Cranberries use visual scenes while the

cover by Bad Wolves is simple and direct with the audience.

To start, the original version of Zombie by The Cranberries, as mentioned above, is a

protest song; it's an anti-war song written in the memory of two young people killed in the

Warrington 1993 bombings. The music video has two story-related settings and two settings with

The Cranberries. The story has two different points of view. There are the military men with

their guns, and then there are the children in destroyed towns. All scenes in these two settings are
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in black and white. The scenes with the military are mostly them walking in plains, roads, or

already destroyed towns. While the scenes with the children have them doing different things.

There are several scenes of the children jumping from one rooftop to the other, some scenes of

them playing while the other holds a gun, there are scenes of them hiding, some scenes are

showing the children having a conflict with each other, and there was even a scene of children

surrounding this other child on the ground with his eyes closed and face covered in dirt or blood.

All of this while colored scenes that show graffiti about the war fall in between.

Then there is the cover of Zombie by Bad Wolves. As mentioned before, this cover is in

the memory of the Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan who had passed away before being

able to have her vocals on a song with Bad Wolves. The viewer is informed of all of this in the

first few seconds of the music video through white text that appears in front of a black

background. The band performs the song in a black room with white light shining on them from

above. There are some scenes of a woman covered in gold. She appears to be in the same room

as the band but is divided from them by a sheet of transparent material. As the music video goes

on, the woman eventually covers the whole material in gold paint. In one scene, she writes the

date of Dolores O'Riordan's passing before covering it back up with gold. The music video ends

with a quote by Tommy Vext, singer of Bad Wolves, which states that her lyrics shared the same

feeling that they wanted to share and then compliments her.

Both version's main topic is about major political conflicts and the extent of the people

who get hurt because of them. In the original version by The Cranberries, this being expressed by

the visuals. The children that appear are the ones who, because of war, got hurt. This is made

clear because of where they are and their behavior. These children are the ones who are living in

these destroyed towns, they are the ones who hide behind barely standing walls, and they are the
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ones who get killed. In this entire music video, the only ones shown being affected by the

conflict are those children. The rest of the people, excluding the artists, appear to act normal. The

Bad Wolves version does have visuals such as the ones on the original, but it still manages to get

the same point across because of the ending quote. The part of Tommy Vext's quote states "Her

lyrics, confronting the collateral damage of political unrest, capture the same sentiment we

wanted to express a quarter-century later." This quote directly tells the viewer that they share the

same throughs on the topic as the original Zombie. While expressing it in different ways, both

versions share the claim that when major conflicts happen many innocent people end up hurt.

The two versions of Zombie both share a similar appeal when it comes to their audience.

Both employ the use of pathos as their primary way to appeal to the audience. Both songs are for

all ages, but there might be some restrictions to the version by The Cranberries because of the

images of guns and slight violence. The Cranberries version is considered alternative rock, while

the one by Bad wolves is considered hard rock. Meaning they might not attract a similar type of

audience. But the most important thing is life experiences, both versions of Zombie talk about

major political conflict, so the audience should be of those who have also been through this type

of conflict or are expecting one.

The Cranberries and Bad Wolves each are amazing versions of Zombie. They both

present the same claim that when major conflicts happen often many innocent people get hurt,

but they just do it in very different ways. The Cranberries use many visual scenes while the cover

by Bad Wolves while in memory of the singer of The Cranberries is simpler and uses text to be

direct with the listener.

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Works Cited

O’Riordan, Dolores. The Cranberries – Zombie (Official Music Video). YouTube, 16 Jun. 2009,

youtu.be/6Ejga4kJUts Accessed 11 Feb. 2021.

Bad Wolves – Zombie (Official Video). YouTube, 22 Feb. 2018. youtu.be/9XaS93WMRQQ

Accessed 11 Feb. 2021