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Nicole Oliva

Professor Flores

Rhetorical Analysis

04 February 2022

“Rhetorical Analysis of Zombies by The Cranberries and Bad Wolves”

The music video of “Zombie” by The Cranberries was released in the year 1993 and was

a protest song against the IRA’s bombing in England, which caused the death of two children.

With an outstanding 1.1 billion views on YouTube, the song has been and still is a massive hit.

The lead singer of the band, Dolores O’Riordan, plays the main character in the music video. In

the year 2018, O’Riordan was scheduled to record a guest vocal for it on the day she died, so as

an ode to O’Riordan, the cover of “Zombie” was then sung as a tribute for her by Bad Wolves.

Both versions of the song were inspired by the negative aspects going on in society. The cover’s

audience is towards a newer generation reminding them of the incident that took place years ago.

In the video for “Zombies” by The Cranberries, there are children running around,

jumping from one building to another, hiding from the soldiers armed with weapons. This scene

in the beginning influences both the theme and tone of the music video. The lyrics in the first

verse of the song say, “ Another head hangs lowly; Child is slowly taken; And the violence,

caused such silence; Who are we mistaken?” The video and the lyrics describe the main idea of

the entire music video which provokes an emotional response from its viewers. As the music

video continues, O’Riordan is covered in gold paint all over her body and is standing in front of
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a cross. Around her are children wearing wings forming a circle surrounding her and the cross.

This creates another pathos response by showing the children portrayed as angels. In an

interview, O’Riordan said, "It was to make it magnificent in a way, at the cross. It was

metaphoric for all the pain that was being caused, and it was slightly religious as well."

The repetition of the words "with their tanks, and their bombs; and their bombs, and their

guns; In your head, They are crying" creates a tone of urgency and almost pleading to the

listener. I believe she refers to the word “zombie” in a way that tells us the people fighting and

dopping the bomb are acting as if they were mindless zombies that just follow demands and have

no feelings about the deaths they are causing. I believe the appeal of the music video is pathos

and ethos. There are multiple scenes in the video where the children are looking up towards god

or just in hope. These scenes evoke an emotional reaction and the images of the protests, armed

soldiers and crying children speak towards the subject.

The cover “Zombies” by Bad Wolves is a tribute to the lead singer O’ Riordan of The

Cranberries. This music video consists of one main lead singer, a woman covered in golden

paint, and four other members of the band in the background at times. As the music video begins,

the pain in the lead singer’s voice can be heard and seen in the expressions on his face. The lyrics

of this music video are not the same as the original because of the new audience, many years

later. This version changes a few lyrics, mentioning drones instead of bombs, and altering the

line, "It's the same old theme since 1916" to "It's the same old theme in 2018." According to Bad

Wolves lead singer, Tommy Vext, "She was really excited about that because the nations may

have changed but we're still fighting the same battles today." He also said, "Humanity is still

fighting to assert itself despite all the conflicts.".

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The lady covered in gold paint in the Bad Wolves video has a striking resemblance to

O’Riordan in the original video. Only in this video, there is a glass wall between the singer and

the golden woman. It implies that she is still with us even if you cannot touch her, but sense her

presence. It also alludes to the differences between the real world and the heavenly world as the

glass is slowly being covered in paint and the view of the lady is diminishing as if she is leaving

us behind. Towards the end of the video, the glass wall is completely covered in gold paint,

blocking the view to the other side, which gives a sense that she is gone. The lady in this music

video also looks up from time to time, in the same manner as the original video.

The gravity of the war in both the music videos is felt in the lines "...when the violence

caused such silence, who are we mistaken... then you see, it's not me, it's not my family. In your

head they are fighting..." because people have families that are going to war and losing children

because of the situation. The original music video was a personal protest against war and the

cover by Bad Wolves was a tribute and an awakening. The audience that hears the cover now

and those who heard the original in 1993 are reminded of the ones lost over the years due to wars

that have been waged. The appeal used in the cover song is pathos because of the heavy

emotions used in the video. Both the music videos are a storm of emotions. The claim that both

of the music videos make is for world peace and prosperity.

Works Cited

ElevenSevenMusic. “Bad Wolves - Zombie (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Feb.

2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaS93WMRQQ. Date accessed February 4, 2022

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TheCranberriesVEVO. “The Cranberries - Zombie (Official Music Video).” YouTube,

YouTube, 16 June 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts. Date accessed

February 4, 2022

Endnote:

Hi, Nicole! Overall, this looks like a strong draft. Your writing is clear and easy to read, and you

successfully narrowed your focus onto specific details of the two songs rather than just providing

a lot of general summary. Nice work there. That being said, here are some things to keep in mind

as you revise this:

1. I would recommend you incorporate the concepts of ethos and pathos into your paper

more. You briefly mention them in the middle of page 2, but generally speaking, it’s best

to mention one appeal per paragraph, so it’s clear which aspects of your analysis pertain

to which appeal. That being said, some professors don’t require you to directly mention

the appeals and would rather you let it be implied—but if this is the case, it’s better to not

mention them at all, rather than bringing them up briefly as an afterthought.

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2. At least twice throughout the essay, you’ve quoted statements that the artists have made

about their work. Unless you’ve already cleared this with the instructor, I would avoid

doing this. For a rhetorical analysis, you want to focus on providing evidence for your

own interpretations of the song. It doesn’t really matter what the artists intended. Your

interpretations don’t necessarily need to be “right” according to what the artists wanted.

What matters is that you are able to explain why you drew the conclusions that you drew,

using evidence from the text itself (in this case, the two music videos) and without using

outside research.

3. Double check the formatting of your Works Cited page. You’ve got a few things out of

place. This resource might help:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_g

uide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html

That’s all! In addition to this endnote, I’ve also left you a variety of marginal comments pointing

out smaller issues related to word choice, syntax, etc. I hope you find these comments helpful!

Best of luck with revisions,

Emmilea O.