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Maya Frank

Professor Cassel

English 1201

13 February 2022

Sweet Dreams

“Sweet dreams are made of this.” In the song “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics, Annie

Lennox, and Dave Stewart this quote is about a person’s motivation to get what they want. This

quote doesn’t have the same effect in “Sweet Dreams’ by Marylin Manson. In his version of

sweet dreams, the song’s lyrics don’t have much meaning, their only purpose is to give you a

more eccentric feeling. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" by Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, and

Dave Stewart, is a song with a message behind it, while the "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”

by Marylin Manson is the song with a darker twist without a message, with more of a goal to get

attention. They both have different appeals, which will attract different audiences. Both of the

songs appeal to emotions using pathos, but they appeal to different emotions.

The version of “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics has a message behind it. Unlike

“Sweet Dreams” from Marylin Manson, the original version has a backstory to its creation. After

Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox had a huge fight, Annie created the song with the meaning that

life is how it is and everyone is searching to make sense of our existences to survive. “Sweet

dreams” is about people’s motivations, and “I’ve traveled the world and the seven seas” is about

how everyone on earth is looking for fulfillment and how some will go to extremes to get what
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they want, which is why she creates the lyric “Some of them want to use you.” The video adds to

the message created by the lyrics. In the video, Annie starts in a record label office, where she

sings, while David, who is on the computer, plays images that relate to the lyrics. For example,

when she says “I’ve traveled the world and the seven seas” a picture of the world shows up. She

also has cows throughout the video to symbolize that humans are just here just how cows are. It

makes people seem insignificant because she is saying we are not better and we are just existing

like them. The message behind the song attracts an audience of any age because everyone

experiences what they want for fulfillment in their lives, like money and love.

On the other hand, “Sweet Dreams” by Marylin Manson doesn’t have a message behind

it, but instead it creates a song with a darker feeling to attract popularity. Marylin Manson has

almost all of the same lyrics except he adds the lyrics “I want to use you and abuse you” and “I

want to know what’s inside you” which adds to the darker and scary vibes that his music video

gives off. The beat on the original song is much faster and more upbeat, while this version is

much slower and the words are more drawn out for the eerie effect. Marylin even adds a parallel

to the videos. In the original, the camera zooms in and Annie had a red dot on her forehead, in

this version, it zooms into Marylin’s head and he also had a dot. Marilyn’s edgier twist to the

song may attract people who find enjoyment in things that are scary and creepy. For example,

tons of people love watching scary movies.

Both versions of “Sweet Dreams” appeal to different emotions using pathos. The original

version of the song can give you a few different emotions, it's just how you interpret the meaning

of the song. For example, since the song is about finding your purpose or fulfillment in life and

how people will do anything to get it, it can make you feel sad for mankind or maybe even lost.

Meanwhile, Marilyn’s version of the song can make you feel scared or maybe thrilled, the video
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shows a lot of disturbing costumes and creepy angles, along with the slowed-down version of the

song, along with the two extra lyrics saying how he wants to abuse you adds to the overall effect

of being scary.

“Sweet Dreams” by both artists appeals to your emotions in different ways. The original

appeals to your emotions because of the message and the alt. version by Marilyn Manson appeals

to your emotions by changing the feel of the song and video to a creepy one. I personally like the

original one better because it’s more upbeat. I dislike how Marilyn added the lyric “I want to

abuse you” because it goes against the message of the original song, where it was addressing the

problem of people using others to get what they want. Both songs are almost opposites.

Lennox, Annie and Stewart, Dave. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).” YouTube, uploaded by

Eurythmics, 25 October 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

Manson, Marilyn. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (Alt. Version).” YouTube, uploaded by

Marilyn Manson, 8 October 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUvVdTlA23w