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Abigail Boyer

Mrs. Morean

English 1201

September 26, 2021

Put Your Records On

The song “Put Your Records on” was originally written by Corinne Bailey Rae in 2006. It

was later adapted by artist Ritt Momney in 2020 and even though he uses all of Corinne

Bailey Rae’s original lyrics, the song could not be more different than the original. That being

said, even though both artist’s versions of “Put Your Records on” tell completely different

stories, they have the same overall claim. That claim is to let loose and enjoy life while you

still can and both songs use the rhetorical method of pathos to get their message across.

Let’s start off with the original song by Corinne Bailey Rae, who is actually the main

character in her own music video. It starts with her singing and riding bikes with a group of

other girls who are presumably her friends. By the chorus, we are cutting between shots of

her riding bikes with her friends and her walking alone in a field. The whole time she seems

happy with a smile on her face. When she is walking in the field, we can see her holding a red

ribbon. At the climax of this music video, she lets go of the ribbon into the air. It is then when

she starts to run in the field to see the piece of red ribbon expand in the air. All of the ribbons

get caught in a tree and are dangling from the branches almost like decorations you would see

on a Christmas tree. The video ends with our main character admiring the tree and the smile

slowly escapes her face before she walks away slowly.

Ritt Momney took a more artistic approach with his music video. It starts with a little

boy and, like in the lyrics, three little birds at his window. The boy shows little emotion on

his face but we can assume he is a little sad or worried about something since the shots have a

lot of grey tones in them. The little boy is now outside and when he bends down to pick a
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flower, he comes back up as a grown man who is now in this field full of flowers. The grown

man is visibly happier than the little boy and the picture is more colorful than before. The

man, who is Ritt Momney, then throws the flower that he originally picked up and walks a

few feet before pulling out an umbrella while it begins to rain red and pink rose petals from

the sky. He admires this beautiful field with a grin on his face and he looks at his reflection in

a puddle during the line “You’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow”. He now has

blue eyes and butterfly wings on his face and, again as the lyrics say, is sipping tea on a

fence. He smacks the puddle that he is looking in and the colors in the picture change to a

more pink tone. He is now in a suit and a band is with him in this field and they sing.

Towards the climax of the song, all of their faces start dripping. They are all tumbling and the

field itself starts to fade in and out. The video ends with us cutting back to the little boy

picking up the rose to smell it.

Both versions of the song had very different approaches to the same message. The

overall claim in this song is that people should step back and let their hair down and worry

less. Now, when they say “let your hair down” they do not mean it literally. What they really

mean by that phrase is that people need to let loose. Although both songs use the rhetorical

approach of pathos, or emotions, to get their point across they use it in entirely different

ways. Both versions of the song are trying to make us feel something when we listen to it. In

Connie Bailey Rae’s version, she is trying to get us to feel happy and nostalgic when we are

watching her music video. This is why we see her walking in a field in the summertime and

riding bikes with her friends. Her song, as well as the music video, was meant to be fun,

upbeat, and positive.

When we look at Ritt Momneys’s version, on the other hand, we can see that he took

a more artistic approach to get his claim across. The whole point of this music video is to

make us feel a little sad so we can greater appreciate the joys of life. This is why the little boy
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is sad and all of his shots are grey but when he does a small, simple action like smelling a

flower he becomes this happy man in a colorful field of flowers. It is much deeper than the

original music video. once you understand it, you appreciate it a lot more. You feel sad for

this little boy at first but once you see what he becomes later, you feel a little better for him

and then have a greater understanding of the meaning of the song. In my opinion, this artist

had greater use of pathos in his video.

The lyrics in both versions were the same, however, their overall singing styles were

much different. They both fit well with the time periods that their versions came out. The

original 2004 version was an upbeat, pop song that fits well with the early 2000’s pop era. It

was made for an audience of adolescence or young adults. The remix version, on the other

hand, is more alternative. It is heavily auto-tuned and has a lot of beats and sounds in the

music which is in a lot of modern music these days. Its primary audience would be young

adolescence and specifically alternative teenagers.

Both versions of “Put Your Records on” had the same overall claim which was to let

loose and learn to enjoy every moment of life. Both versions of this song were very popular

during their time because both artists knew how to appeal to the modern audience. While

both versions were unique in their own ways, they were both good and had an amazing

meaning behind their lyrics.

Sources:

Bailey Rae, Corinne. “Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On.” Youtube, uploaded by

Corinne Baily Rae, November 24, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjOhZZyn30k

Momney, Ritt. “Ritt Momney - Put Your Records On (Official).” Youtube, Uploaded by Ritt

Momney ,November 19, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyVfkr6nsrk

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