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Grace Martin

Professor Freeland

ENG 1201

19 February 2022

It’s A Mad World After All

Sometimes, two different artists can perform the same exact song, but make it different in

their own ways. There is a song called “Mad World” that was originally written by Roland

Orzabal of the band Tears for Fears. Years later, a man named Gary Jules covered the original

song. Even though both versions of “Mad World” have the same audience, the version by Tears

provides perspective on life from an individual’s viewpoint, while the version by Gary Jules

provides perspective on life from everyone’s viewpoint.

The first version of this song by Tears for Fears was released in 1983 on their first album,

“The Hurting”. This music video was the first one that the band created. The main character in

the video is Curt Smith, one of the members of Tears For Fears. Smith is stuck inside a house

surrounded by a forest and a pond. In this forest and around the pond are some strange people.

There is a group of people sitting and staring at Smith from the forest and a man dancing on the

dock of the pond. Smith knows that these people are weird out of place. Smith sings, “All around

me are familiar faces. Worn out places, worn out faces. Bright and early for their daily races.

Going nowhere, going nowhere,” (Tears for Fears). Smith has his hands on the window a lot, like

he wants to get out into the world, but he can’t. This symbolizes the claim that Tears for Fears’s
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version of this song is more about an individual’s standpoint in the world. Smith is locked away

from the crazy world around him, but he longs to get out.

The second version of this song is by Gary Jules. This version of the song was released in

2001 for the movie Donnie Darko. The main character of this video is Gary Jules, the singer of

the song. The music video of this version takes place in a city. Jules is standing on top of a

building looking down on the city below him. In this video, the focus is more on the people

below Jules than on himself. Whenever Jules is on camera, he isn’t really in focus. It’s mostly

the city people who are in focus. You can see in the video that there are people walking along the

sidewalk. They seem hunched over and sad. Then the camera moves over to a basketball court,

and the people on the court also seem gloomy. The lyrics of the song also add to the gloomy

nature of these people. Jules sings, “And their tears are filling up their glasses. No expression, no

expression,” (Jules). This quote from the song shows that people in the video are all gloomy,

with no expressions on their faces. They’re lifeless and stuck doing the same things repeatedly.

The quote and images from the music video all support the claim that this version of “Mad

World” is talking about everyone’s viewpoint on life since it clearly shows that everyone’s life is

an endless cycle of doing the same things over and over.

Both videos have the same audience, which is people who are looking for perspective on

life, even though they have different claims. The reason they both have the same audience is

because both videos use the same rhetorical strategy to convey their messages. Pathos is a

rhetorical strategy that uses emotional connections to speak to the audience. Both videos have a

lot of emotional connections. In the Tears For Fears video, there is a scene involving a child’s

birthday party and the lyrics “Children waiting for the day they feel good. Happy birthday, happy

birthday. Made to feel the way that every child should. Sit and listen, sit and listen,” (Tears for
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Fears). These two things from the video help to make an emotional connection with the

audience. In the Gary Jules video, the thing that makes the emotional connection is the music

more than the things happening in the video. The music is gloomier, using only a piano. The

music in the video helps to create an emotional connection because people are more affected by

something that sounds sad. Both videos have the same audience because they focus on

perspectives of life, even though they both have different ways of showing and explaining the

perspectives.

“Mad World” by Tears for Fears and Gary Jules are both songs that deal with

perspectives on life, but both have different ways of showing that perspective through music

videos. The Tears for Fears version uses the singer Curt Smith’s viewpoint, which is being stuck

inside a house while strange things happen outside to show perspective on life, while the Gary

Jules version uses people in a city living a gloomy life to show everyone’s perspective on life.

Even though these two videos have different ways of showing their purpose, they both please the

same audience, which is something a lot of the same songs by different artists cannot do.
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Works Cited

“Gary Jules – Mad World.” Youtube, uploaded by orijimi, uploaded 9 Jan. 2006 Mad World -
Gary Jules - YouTube

“Tears for Fears – Mad World (Official Music Video).” Youtube, uploaded by Tears for Fears,
uploaded 9 Aug. 2013 Tears For Fears - Mad World (Official Music Video) - YouTube