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Alyssa Smith

Composition II 1201

Dr. Cassel

November 6, 2019

What Is Love?

The song “What Is Love” was produced originally by the artist Haddaway in 1993 and

was covered by Jaymes Young in 2013. Both versions of the song use the same lyrics but are

about different ideas of expressing the emotion of love towards someone. In the original version

of the song, a guy is trying to love a woman who doesn’t love him back and wants him in a

different type of way; in the covered version it is about loving someone for their personality

despite their looks. Even though both versions use the same lyrics, the covered version has a very

different tone emotionally, the tone and musicality of the music is different, and the way the

music videos are approached and are filmed are different.

The story being told in the original video is about loving someone who doesn’t have the

same feeling back. The video has several clips of different things happening. For example,

Haddaway would be showed turning around a corner or dancing, a clip would be taken of him

walking down a hallway, and of the women dancing. The video is very flashy and flips from one

clip to the next fairly fast, with flashes between each scene a lot of the time. The lyrics, “I give

you my love, but you don’t care” (Haddaway), suggest that he is just trying to love this woman,

but she doesn’t want his love. He then proceeds to ask the question, “What is love?” This

suggests that he doesn’t know what to think anymore since he was giving out what he thought

was love to this woman, but then they just ignore him. The clothing that the women are wearing
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and some of the dance moves that they are doing suggests that they just want him in a sexual

way. All these examples show that the claim or the story being told by this song and music video

is about trying to love someone who doesn’t love you back, and the examples are all different in

the covered version.

In the covered version, the main claim of the storyline is about loving someone for who

they are as a person and not for their looks. The beginning of the video starts off with different

clips that slowly fade into this woman’s face. The lyrics, “give me a sign, what is love” (Young,

Jaymes), were sung in a smooth voice as the woman shed a tear while she was lying down. The

scenes change very slowly, and the film is very smooth, unlike the original video. The next

couple of scenes show the same woman looking upset while she was driving. Later in the music

video, this woman leaves behind this attractive man and walks away from him. This is

symbolizing her breaking up with him. In the next couple of clips, it shows her driving in the

truck again, but this time she doesn’t look upset. It shows a man in the passenger seat whose face

is distorted. Their hands are touching, and she grabs his hand and brings it up to her face and is

smiling. This is representing that someone’s looks are not everything and personality means

more. Just like how the claims and videos of the songs are different, the tone of the songs and

their emotional levels are different as well.

The original version of the music has a supremely different tone than the covered version

does. In the original version of the song, the music is very upbeat and is no doubt a pop song that

you can dance around to for fun. In the music video, Haddaway is dancing around while he is

singing. There are also women who are dressed in really skimpy outfits, like in lingerie, dancing

near him. On the other hand, the covered version is a very slow and an emotionally deep take on
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the original. The video shows a woman looking very upset and devastated while the lyrics are

being sung in a very smooth, calming, and melodic voice.

The two versions have different tones emotionally that are felt through how the song

progresses musically, lyrically, as well with visually. The tones between the two versions are

different because of the beat, tempo, and how they are sung. The different details in the videos

and how the artists went about filming make the tone of the video are very different. The tones

emotionally are different because in the covered version the feeling that is being displayed is

more sad and devastated because of the tone, musicality, and the woman crying. Both videos use

pathos to get these tones and emotions through. In the original version, they use pathos to show

that the woman doesn’t love him and just wants him in a different way. In the covered video,

pathos is used to show the emotion of the woman being sad and then leaving the attractive man.

Even though the lyrics to the versions of this song are the same, the songs and videos

would appeal to different audiences. The audience that Haddaway was trying to appeal to would

be a young adult because of the suggestive clothing that was used in the video. However, if the

audience was just listening to the song, the audience would open up to children and teenagers

because of how fun the beat is and how danceable the song is. The audience that Jaymes Young

was trying to get across to would be for anyone who is a teenager or older because of the deep

message that is being said through the style of the song and video.

The two versions of the song are very different. They are both about the emotion of love.

The original version is about loving someone who doesn’t feel the same way, while the covered

version is about loving someone for who they are as a person even if they aren’t the most

attractive. There are also many other smaller differences that add up to these claims made about

the versions of the song. While the lyrics used between the two versions remain the same, the
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versions have different emotional appeals through the music and video, different tones, and

different ways on how the videos are filmed.

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Works Cited

Haddaway. “What Is Love.” The Album, 1993, track 1. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I. November 4, 2019.

Young, Jaymes. “What Is Love.” 2011. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0QuCtjVLk. November 4, 2019