"Bad Blood" Rhetorical Analysis

Upon first listening to both Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” and Ryan Adams’ cover of the song, I think both have different purposes and audiences. In Taylor Swift’s song, she is clearly describing a relationship that was once a good friendship, but has now been torn apart by something the other party did (“‘Cause, baby, now we got bad blood/ You know it used to be mad love/ So take a look what you’ve done/ Cause, baby, now we’ve got bad blood”). Swift is very strong in her message, like this event has really affected her life, and she’s very mad about it. She uses verbal phrases and sounds like “hey!” and pronounces everything very strongly and distinctly that there appears to be a bit of anger behind the words. Swift’s audience for this song is anyone who speaks English and/or is interested in American popular music.

            While the lyrics in Ryan Adams’ cover of “Bad Blood” are the same as Swift's version, and send the same general message, he delivers the message differently. Adams is a lot calmer in his version of the song, with just a guitar and some drums playing (compared to Swift’s loud, electronic song) and a very soft, serene voice behind the lyrics. Adams is obviously upset about something that occurred, but is more questioning and civil in singing his lyrics. His audience would be anyone who speaks English and/or anyone who is interested in more "indie" style music, or is a Taylor Swift fan and listens to covers of her songs.

          There are several lines in each version of the song that sound different. For example, every time Swift says “Cause, baby, now we’ve got bad blood,” she puts an emphasis on “bad blood,” whereas Adams treats these words the same as any of the other lyrics. This may indicate that Swift is more set on revenge, while Adams is just stating the facts. Additionally, when Swift says “you and I” after discussing their “good times,” she emphasizes the fact that they were once a team. While Adams still sings those lyrics in a similar way to how they sound in Swift’s version of the song, there is not the same stress on the words.

            Overall, the message in both videos is clear. In Swift’s song, someone in her life did some serious damage to their relationship, and she’s not in any mood to try to fix it. In fact, as portrayed in the video, she’s going to gather up her “squad” and get revenge on this person. However, Adams’ version of the song does not evoke this high level of anger. Sure, he seems upset, but he doesn’t seem like he’s going to gather up all his friends and go kill the person who hurt him. The choices made in music and the emphasis of lyrics in both videos effectively portray the message of the song in different but clear ways.

Adams, Ryan. Bad Blood. Ryan Adams. PaxAmericana Recording Company, 2015.

YouTube. Web. 1 Oct. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V-8VP5dnrQ>.

Swift, Taylor. ""Bad Blood" Lyrics." TAYLOR SWIFT LYRICS. AZlyrics.com, n.d. Web.

01 Oct. 2015. <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/badblood.html>.

Taylor Swift - Bad Blood. By Taylor Swift. Perf. Taylor Swift. YouTube. Big Machine

Records, 17 May 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo>.