After watching both versions of Bad Blood I truly understood the significance of the speaker's tone. In both songs, they are singing about a relationship that they just got out of. This was just by the looking at the lyrics however. The odd thing was that they came off as completely different songs for me, which was due to the tone, which is the author’s attitude towards the subject. Even though the words are the same, the singers attitudes were much different causing me to perceive their message differently. Furthermore, the artists use their music videos to reinforce their lyrics and help people understand what they are trying to portray. This is the whole point of songs, as they are just words in harmony.
In the cover song by Taylor Swift, she comes off aggressive and forward, which was due to her anger with Katy Perry. This caused her song to come off as more resentful, which changed my perspective as a member of the audience. On the other hand, in the cover song by Ryan Adams, he comes off as much more humble and reserved. Due to his calm tone, it seems that he is not angry at anyone, just informative and honest. This is odd however as they are both singing the exact same lyrics. On paper, these two songs are the same but in the end, lyrics don’t make up the entire song. Once again, emphasizing the point of tone.
This leads me into my next point. What is the point of the cover song? Cover songs give people a new perspective. The whole purpose of putting others people's work amongst your own is not to imitate it but to utilize it, which can be done by creating a new environment. This reminds me of chapter 3 “The Art of Quoting” from They Say, I Say, when Graff talked about the importance of putting new quotes into paragraphs. “In a way, quotations are orphans:words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings” (Graff, 43). This connects to Bad Blood as Taylor Swift and Ryan Adams created a new “textual surrounding” for the lyrics which made their songs unique and inventive.
In the end, Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift portrayed their songs in entirely new ways. Through the use of textual surroundings and tone they portrayed entirely new works of art, even though the lyrics are practically identical. This shows the significance of tone, as I wouldn’t even put them in the same category.
Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/ I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.
Martin, Max. “Bad Blood.” Lyrics. 1989. Big Machine, 2014.
Adams, Ryan. “Bad Blood.” Lyrics. Ryan Adams. PAX AM, 2014.
I believe that adding the reference to They Say, I Say strengthened your analysis of the purpose of cover songs. It is true that cover songs are about incorporating ideas from an existing piece to create one's own unique work. I also agree that the "new textual surrounding" completely changes the meaning of the song.
ReplyDeleteI like that you not only explained what the two artists did differently, but how the audience reacts to both situations due to their different tones and attitudes.
ReplyDeleteI like how you emphasized the importance of tone in the two songs and how you incorporated our discussions from class. I completely agree with your analysis as to how Taylor Swift came off as temperamental while Ryan Adam was more neutral. Overall,this strengthened your post and got your points across effectively.
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