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Koby Schmidt

Professor Cristal Echols

English Composition II

February 8, 2022

Demons from two Perspectives

The songs I chose for the rhetorical analysis are the Imagine Dragons Demons

and the cover by Daughtry and Jencarlos of Demons. Daughtry and Jencarlos's cover of

Demons tells a different story compared to the original by The Imagine Dragons. The

songs are very similar in which they are being performed but the message and context

are drastically different in each video. The original is being performed about personal

demons that everyone goes through and the cover is a metaphor or modern

interpretation for the story of Jesus and Judas in the Bible.

The Original song Demons by Imagine Dragons is about personal Demons that

regularly have to deal with on a daily basis. When the music video begins it shows the

band Imagine Dragons performing on a stage. Then around forty-one seconds it cuts to

a fan and goes into her mind and presents a memory of hers. The young woman in the

crowd cuts to her in a dress at a funeral sitting next to a coffin. It looks to be that she is

mourning her parents and the song reminds her of that moment. Then it cuts back to the

band. This is just like my thesis where the original that people have their own demons

they go through. Then at one minute and seventeen seconds, it cuts to another fan in

the crowd he is a tall skinny man looking at himself in his bedroom mirror. He looks

unhappy with his skinny physique and then the video cuts back to the band. At one

minute forty-nine seconds the video cuts to another fan that has a black eye in the
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crowd. It shows a memory of him getting hit by a beer bottle by his father. Finally, the

last example is another man in the crowd and it shows a memory of him at war. He is

carrying a fellow soldier and it looks to be traumatizing for the man. All of the examples

show people going through their own problems.

The cover of Demons by Daughtry and Jencarlos is a much different video than

the original. The music video starts off with Jencarlos who is playing Jesus kneeling

down in between two bridges surrounded by homeless people. The police surround

them and Jencarlos or Jesus tells the people around him to get up. Around twenty-eight

seconds a young man says that the man leading the police is the man who betrayed

him it is Daughtry and he is playing Judas. The two main characters Jesus and Judas

embrace and then Judas starts singing. This song is sung in a duet. They just sing

throughout most of the song until the police take Jesus away at three minutes and thirty-

nine seconds. The whole music video is a metaphor for Jesus's and Judas's story in the

bible. The ending is Jesus sad but accepting his fate being dragged away by police and

Judas finishes the song.

Both emotions or pathos of each song is sadness. Both music videos show

something sad happening and the lyrics really complement that. Both songs' lyrics are

exactly the same but the way they are sung is much different. The original is more of a

pop-rock song and the cover is pop. The original is sung by one lead singer and the

cover is a duet. Both versions are sung by men so they sound familiar. The original

song shows sad things happening to four different people and they are all different. The

cover shows the modern metaphor of Jesus and Judas so it's just one sad moment.
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Both videos use a logos appeal as well in both videos it shows evidence of the

characters crying or being emotional.

Like I wrote in the beginning both versions of the song are very similar and very

different. Daughtry and Jencarlos's cover of Demons tells a different story compared to

the original by The Imagine Dragons. The songs are very similar in which they are being

performed but the message and context are drastically different in each video. The

original is being performed and shows from the perspective of the fans in the crowd that

people go through a lot of hardship. The cover is a metaphor or modern interpretation

for the story of Jesus and Judas in the Bible it takes a story from the bible and makes it

it's own with a modern twist. They both are sad songs they if you have had trouble or

demons in your life that other people are going through it as well.
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Work Cited

Dragons, Imagine. “Imagine Dragons - Demons (Official Video).” YouTube, 7 May

2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWRsgZuwf_8.

Jencarlos, Daughtry. “Daughtry & Jencarlos - Demons .” YouTube, 21 Mar. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1-VYpUY0U0.