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Taylor Rice

Professor Lisa Tyler

English 1201-506

14 February 2021

Your Song

“Your Song” was sung by two different artists with two very different music

videos. This lyric from “Your Song”, “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world” truly

depicts the meaning of this song. “Your Song” is about love. While “Your song” written

and sung by Elton John in 1970 and “Your song” sung by Ewan McGregor in 2001

share the same lyrics and use of appeals, the setting, mood, and intended audience of

the two music videos are what really separates them. While John's version is more

sentimental and shows old romance, McGregor's version is more flashy and bright and

shows new romance.

John's music video shows him walking around in nature. He is wearing a suit and

holding a microphone. The video is in black and white and the song is slow and

romantic. In McGregor's music video, everything is a lot different. The video shows

Mcgregor in a suit singing to a woman in a fancy dress. They are shown in a bright

setting with a view of the beautiful city at night. The video has bright colors and the song

is more upbeat and romantic. Both videos seem to have a similar purpose: to show love
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and romance. John was singing to an unnamed friend or loved one about the love he

has for them and McGregor was singing to confess his true love towards the woman in

the video. These videos also both use the same appeal: pathos. They use pathos by

saying their true feelings and showing how much they love someone. Both videos are

meant to show emotion and genuine feelings towards others. They are trying to attract

their audiences to feel the emotions that they are feeling. They’re using pathos by

putting their emotions out to the world, they’re just doing it in different ways.

There are multiple things that separate these two music videos. One important

difference is the settings behind each video. John's video shows him walking around in

the quietness of nature. This could have been done to show that his relationship and

love with the unnamed person is calm, peaceful, and beautiful. Those words to describe

the relationship also lead to the possibility that he is talking about old romance or

relations. In McGregor’s video, the setting shows a different kind of beauty. The video

has colorful, bright lights and designs and shows a beautiful background of the city. This

can mean that the love the two people share is bright, flashy, and colorful. These words

all describe new romance.

Another important difference between both videos is the mood. John's version of

the song is pictured in black and white. This doesn’t necessarily give off a sad mood,

but a sentimental mood. He created a mood that is like remembering amazing

experiences. The whole song is slow and meaningful which gives off an old, beautiful

mood. McGregor’s version is in bright, saturated colors. These colors show a refreshing,

beautiful mood. He created a mood that shows the feeling of new beginnings in a
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beautiful relationship. His version of the song is sung faster and more upbeat. This

gives off a new love and vibrant mood.

Lastly, the intended audience for both versions of the song vary. John’s video

shows sentiment and the importance of old relationships. The melody is slow and

meaningful. The color of the video supports the melody given that it is black and white.

With the variation of slowness and lack of color in John’s video, it seems that only more

mature and older audiences would enjoy listening and viewing this music video. But in

Mcgregor’s video, the music is more upbeat and quicker with numerous different vibrant

colors. The music video is shown in a musical which generally reaches more younger

audiences. They are shown dancing with an overall happy mood. It is clear that the

audience is pointed more towards younger people.

Overall, these two videos have multiple similarities and differences. Both videos

share purpose, to show love to another. They both use this purpose to control their

viewers emotions and create pathos . John’s setting was serine while McGregor’s was

flashy. The mood that John’s video gave off was romantic in a sentimental way while

McGregor’s video gave off a romantic mood in a happy, vibrant, and new way. And

John’s video was made for older audiences while McGregor’s video was made for

younger audiences. No matter how different, both songs show the essence of love

perfectly.
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Work Cited*

John, Elton. Your Song (1970 Original Video) (HD 720p),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrznwpD-2tk. NVNCBL. 30 March 2016.

Accessed 14 February 2021.

McGregor, Ewan. Your Song with Lyrics from Moulin Rouge,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkxj-FBEH1w. Joseph, Chan. 27 June 2014.

Accessed 14 February 2021.