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Cameron Moon

Charles Freeland

English 1201

21 November 2021

Two videos/Different Versions of the Same Song by Different Artists

Haddaway created the original version of, “​What Is Love​.” Although there have been

many remakes, the remake we will be focusing on for this assignment is, “No Love, “By

Eminem, Featuring Lil Wayne. We will be going through the appeals of two influential, but

different videos of the same song with views from different generations. Haddaway’s version of

“​What Is Love.​” originated in 1993 and is the genre of dance or electronic. Eminem's version of

the song has the genre of rap or hip-hop.

In the original 1993 video, you can see the singer dancing in a dark castle building. He is

walking through as if he is freighted or hiding. As he walks through the hallways he sings, “Baby

don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more.” (Haddaway, 1993) Throughout the music video, there

are women portraying monsters or vampires. It seems like the women are trying to "get" the

man. While dancing they attack him; at one point a woman bites the man on the neck.

Everyone is wearing black in the video. The lyrics of the song make you think the author has

been getting his heart broke over and over by the same woman. When you watch the video it

makes you think he is saying “don’t hurt me” because the women are monsters or vampires in

the video. The song is very fast-paced and has a techno sound. This is a song that you would
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dance to at the club in the '90s. In the lyrics, Haddaway also repeats, “What is love?”

(Haddaway, 1993) The singer is begging the women not to hurt him anymore. Listening to the

song you would think he is only talking about love and a woman breaking his heart, which

brings him to question the meaning of love. The story the video tells is more of a “spooky” story

where he is being chased by women who are vampires, or monsters in a castle.

In Eminem's 2010 remake, he featured Lil Wayne in his song. This version of, “What Is

Love,” is called, “No Love.” The genre of Eminem's song is rap or hip-hop and was made for

people to listen to on the radio, YouTube, or music on their mp3 players. At the beginning of

the song Lil Wayne starts rapping about how he has been to, "hell and back." Then he goes on

to talk about how he cannot be knocked down. Then Eminem joins in singing the chorus. I the

chorus he talks about not needing someone anymore because they use to kick him when he

was down. He also said, “B****, you get no love.” (Eminem, 2010) When listening to the song

you would think it is only about the rappers cutting off people who try to be cool with them

now that they are famous, but when they were down and going through hard times, they did

not support them. If you watch the video, you will relate the lyrics to bullying. This is because

the video starts with a little boy being bullied. The bullying continues through the entire video

in different settings like school or the playground. This gives you the feeling of being, “down.”

At the end of the video, the little boy stands up for himself by attacking the other little boys

back outside in what looks like an outdoor cafeteria. This is supposed to represent, “what goes

around comes around.”

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Although both videos originated from the same song, the messages they provide are

different. One song is about love and heart break, and the other promotes the message what

goes around comes around. Both songs use the appeal of pathos. Haddaway's version is hard to

tell but I know it is not based on logic, or ethics. The video could trigger the emotion of fear

because of the vampire women, and scary castle. Some people might feel sad for the man being

hunted in the video. Eminem's version triggers your emotions by showing the boy getting

bullied. This triggers emotions of sadness in the audience. Both videos are very influential for

the decade they were created in even though they have different meanings.

Work Cited

CraagLe. “Haddaway - What Is Love [Official Music Video 1993] (((●))).” ​YouTube​, uploaded

by Haddaway, 19 Feb. 2016, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe5q_TdKbsk​. Accessed 17

Nov. 2021.

EminemVEVO. “Eminem - No Love (Explicit Version) Ft. Lil Wayne.” ​YouTube​, uploaded by

Eminem, 29 Sept. 2010, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2ssT8lzj8​. Accessed 17 Nov.

2021.