Campbell1

Makayla Campbell
Professor Riley
English 1201.1V3
2/15/22

Rhetorical Analysis of a Visual Text

“Don’t go wasting your emotion, lay all your love on me,” these lyrics are some
of the most used lyrics in this song by ABBA, they are some of the best lines that
convey the emotion and message they want to get across to the person they are
singing to. “Lay All Your Love on Me '' was first released in 1980 as part of the
Swedish band ABBA’s Super Trouper album. The song “Lay All Your Love on Me” was
ABBAs lowest charting song in the spot of No. 7 in the UK charts. This ranking took
the place of their previous lowest with the song “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.” The music
video I will be using is a reuploaded version from the original music video released in
2018 from the ABBA official YouTube channel. The other video of the song I will be
writing about is the Mamma Mia! movie clip that came out in 2008. In the song “Lay All
Your Love on Me '' by ABBA, the song almost seems like a plea to another to give their
love to them, while in the Mamma Mia! version it is a couple about to be married
singing it to each other.
The ABBA music video for “Lay All Your Love on Me” came out in 2018. The
video was shot taking clips from past music videos such as “Voulez-Vous”, “Take a
Chance on Me”, and a few others to create a story that matched the feel of the lyrics
and what they were trying to exude. The video starts out as two people spotting
each other at a train station, eying the other as they move to get on the train. As
they continue to grow closer, they go to different places and have different
experiences together. Over the course of the video they start to drift apart and it
shows the man with another woman. This song talks about jealousy and makes it
seem as if that might be part of why they drifted from one another. The ABBA version
of this song makes it seem more like an unrequited love story, one person still being
in love and the other detached from what they may have once felt.
Catherine Johnson is the playwright for the original musical Mamma Mia! as
well as the screenplay for the film adaptation. The Mamma Mia! story was inspired by
ABBA’s music and the stories they told through their songs and Johnson displayed
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their music throughout the musical. In the clip from the movie where “Lay All Your
Love on Me” is from was a conversation between the main character Sophie and her
fiance, Sky. They are on the beach talking about how he’s about to go to his bachelor
party, saying that it was his “last night of freedom.” They both laugh and Sky follows
up by saying “which is how some people might see it, but for me, it’s the last night
before the greatest adventure of my life.” They then launch into their rendition of
ABBAs “Lay All Your Love on Me” as a reassurance that they are in love and will always
be there for each other. As the song progresses, Sky’s friends come in the back with
scuba gear and jet skis and start dancing as if they’re cheering it on. The very end of
the music video is Sophie at her bachelorette party dancing with her friends as they
all scream the song together.
In the song “Lay All Your Love on Me '' by ABBA, the song almost seems like a
plea to another to give their love to them, while in the Mamma Mia! version it is a
couple about to be married singing it to each other. This music video comparison is
just one out of thousands that are the same. While the lyrics are the same for both
versions of the song, the delivery and execution of something can change the
meaning exponentially. Looking at the music videos, you can obviously see that they
convey a different story from the other, one showing love and the other showing
longing. While the videos are an obvious show of how the delivery and execution of
the song can change the meaning, if you were to listen to the audios of both versions
you would also be able to tell the difference. In the ABBA version you only hear the
main vocalist Agnetha Fältskog singing. In the Mamma Mia version, you hear Amanda
Seyfried and Dominic Cooper singing to each other, this alone can change the idea
that you might think of the message of the song.

“Lay All Your Love on Me Abba.” YouTube, 11 Mar. 2018,

https://youtu.be/vfnOaLQHKh8.
“Mamma Mia!: Lay All Your Love on Me (HD Clip).” YouTube, YouTube, 26 May 2021,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txb2Dr74Zyk.
Woods, Added by Tala. “Abba - Lay All Your Love on Me.” Story of Song,
https://storyofsong.com/story/lay-all-your-love-on-me/.