Bailey Benner 1

Prof. Reynolds

English 1201

20 Febuary 2022

The song Hallelujah was written by Leonard Cohen and released in 1984. The version of

Hallelujah sung by Jeff Buckley was very calm and dark which was very different from the

version sung by Pentatonix. The Pentatonix video was very bright and had a lot more expression.

Jeff's cover of “Hallelujah” was the most popular version of the song. In the song “Hallelujah”

he sings, “It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah” which expresses the main claim in the song.

The song “Hallelujah” covered by Jeff Buckley and Pentatonix shows the theme of the song

which is a story of broken love that is remembered by finding peace through the brokenness, the

videos portray the song in different ways but they both have the same message.

In the cover of “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley the video is shown in black and white

which shows the claim in its own way of showing the broken love in the darkness of the video.

In the video the main character is Jeff. The video is in black and white and is him in a recording

studio. The entire music video is him singing into a microphone and it shows him playing the

guitar. Since the music video is in black and white it makes you think about the broken love the

song is portaying. His music video brings out more of the sad and dark side of the song and you

can tell by the way he is singing the lyrics that the lyrics hurt. There are candles in the beginning

of the video that seem to represent a church or some sort of praying. When they show different

angles of Jeff singing most of his body and face is dark and there is a little light that is on his

face where you can see him singing and the expressions on his face. In the video you can see the

veins on his forehead and the way his facial expressions show the meaning of the lyrics. The

video shows pathos by showing the video in black and white and showing the raw emotion on
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Jeff's face. The audience for this video is for a more religious and mature audeince that have

been through some sort of heartbreak or broken time in their life and it's for either gender.

The cover of “Hallelujah” by Pentatonix is shown on an open plain with the sun shining

in the background which shows the religious part in “Hallelujah”. In the video the main character

is the Pentatonix group. The open plain that the group is filming at expresses the claim of finding

peace through the darkness by being alone and the sun shining in the back. The video was very

instense and showed the passion in the song. While the camera is showing all of the people in the

group they make sure to show how open the area is and you can always see the sky and the sun

glaring in behind them. They are wearing black in the video which shows the saddness in the

lyrics. The video shows pathos by using their voices to make the background music and it makes

it even more intense and powerful. The audience for this video is a religious audience, it's almost

the same as the other video but it doesnt seem as mature and dark as the other one.

The song “Hallelujah” was shown differently but expressed the claim in their own ways

in both of the videos. In the Pentatonix cover they covered “Hallelujah” in acapella rather than

Jeffs verison with him playing the gutair. They both used the background music or noises to help

show the emotion in their voices. They both sang the original version of the song but had

completely different videos to the song. Jeff's version was dark while the Pentatonix version was

bright. Jeffs shows the brokenness in the song while the Pentatonix portray the more religious

side and finding the light at the end of the darkness.

The song “Hallelujah” covered by Jeff Buckley and Pentatonix shows the theme of the

song which is a story of broken love that is remembered by finding peace through the

brokenness, the videos portray the song in different ways but they both have the same message.

In the song “Hallelujah” he sings, “She broke your throne, and she cut your hair”, that expresses
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the broken love he is going through. He went through a dark time and had to find faith and

something to help in getting through it and finally found peace.

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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (Official Video) - Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=y8AWFf7EAc4. Accessed 13 Febuary 2022.

Pentatonix - Hallelujah (Official Video) - Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=LRP8d7hhpoQ. Accessed 13 Febuary 2022.