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Collin Brown

Professor Leonard

English 1201.510

20 February 2022

The Never-Ending

The song “Zombie” by the Cranberries and “Zombie” by the Bad Wolves may be very

similar in language and wording used, however, their overall claim and audience are different.

Even though the song is by The Cranberries, the main character and focus of the song and music

video is the lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The claim of the first song is that of protesting

against the IRA and the damage it has done to the people, instead of helping. The second song

does talk about this but the main focus seems to be a tribute to the late Dolores O’Riordan. While

the Bad Wolves cover of "Zombie" is just mainly a tribute to the late songwriter Dolores

O'Riordan, the song still portrays the original message from the Cranberries, just in a more

modern way. This cover uses new words and language to highlight the fact that the problems are

not completely solved even after all these years.

To understand the claims of both songs, most need to understand what the first song is

even talking about in the first place. The reason “Zombie” was originally written was to stand up

against the IRA and specifically the bombings in Warrington, northwest England. While the IRA

was trying to unite Ireland by getting rid of the British forces in Northern Ireland it ended up

killing almost 2,000 people. It became very obvious that this was not uniting Ireland and just

hurting it, so Dolores and the Cranberries wrote “Zombie” in protest. When the Bad Wolves

cover of “Zombie” was written it used very similar language to the original, to show that things

were still not the greatest but the main reason was to have a tribute towards Dolores as she had
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just passed away. This song was regarded by many critics as “ a masterpiece of alternative rock”,

and it reached number 1 on the charts in many countries across the world.

The two music videos are different and similar at the same time. The first music video is

set in broken-down buildings and is filmed in black and white. This gives a somber feeling to the

video and helps in a way explain the problem. However, in a different setting, the lead singer

Dolores is covered completely in all gold paint in front of a cross and surrounded by children.

Another big part of the all-black scenes is the children, as they are running around in this

wasteland of an area and begin to play fight. Showing that these habits and events are bleeding

into the children and negatively affecting them. The music video for the cover by the Bad

Wolves is sort of similar in a way. The one big similarity is that they pay tribute to Dolores by

painting a look-alike of her in all gold and showing her in many parts of the video. The

differences are the setting of this video as the band and singer is all just in a black room when

performing. This gives a serious mood to this video as well but not quite as much since the way

the band is performing seems kind of energetic in a way. While the videos may be different, the

lyrics to both are extremely similar.

Both songs have similar wording to show how the problems still have not s=truly gone

away and as a cover tribute to the original song. The original “Zombie” by The Cranberries is a

protest so the wording is used to fire shots at those they are fighting against but to also bring the

people together. While this song is mainly arguing against the IRA and its violence, it also is a

call towards war in general. Obviously, war is not good but some people seem to forget that fact.

The second video uses almost identical wording to that of the first. Repeating what is the

problem is and trying to reunite the people as well as having a second meaning. That second

meaning is that things have not really been fixed and war is still a major problem.
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The music videos and lyrics in the songs being so similar means that the rhetorical

appeals are the same. Both versions of “Zombie” use pathos to get their claim or point across,

however the way they do this is different in some ways. As stated earlier the first video uses

children in most clips of the video. Children are normally a soft spot for many people and the

Cranberries use this to their advantage by showing the kids in these horrible conditions. As well

as showing them fight each other, representing the nation at its current place in time and also

showing that this will continue to happen to the kids. The second video uses pathos in a

completely different way and their usage of pathos is in a way their entire focus. The Bad

Wolves use pathos when showing the look-alike of Dolores in all gold. This shows that this song

is not just a cover of the original but also a tribute to a great vocalist. Using this only gets the

attention of those who have seen the original so it may not be as relative or effective as the first

video, but it still works.

Overall the two songs and music videos are extremely similar despite their main purpose.

This should be the case as the second song is just a cover, so the original wording should not

change at all or very little. Since the only difference is their general purpose the audiences are

going to change as the audience for the second song are just people who had heard the first song

or were fans of Dolores. The audience for the first people are mainly the people of Ireland or

those affected negatively by the IRA, however, if you see one of the overall messages is that war

is bad then you could say the audience is generally everyone.

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Work Cited

The Cranberries. “Zombie.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

app=desktop&v=6Ejga4kJUts. Accessed 8 Feb. 2022

Bad Wolves. “Zombie.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

app=desktop&v=9XaS93WMRQQ. Accessed 8 Feb. 2022