Rhetorical Analysis: Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPnGPIMUnus

1. Identify the Argument - I love you tender, I would never bring you any kind of sorrow.

2. Target Audience - Scandinavian youths in the 70s who were into the pop music scene, especially when they sang in English. This Finnish video may have wanted to target Americans, considering that it was sung in English, but I highly doubt it made it across the Atlantic very successfully.

3. How the Argument is Made
Ethos - Well considering that they have a boy singing to a girl and vice versa, they are established as lovers or a couple based on the fact that they are singing, "I love you" to an actual person. The problem lies more in the fact that they are in space and that are weird aerobic dancers all around them, that makes what they are saying seem kind of ridiculous. They use an intimate and informal tone, when singing to each other which is fitting for the argument that they are making, but the tone of the music and the environment undermines their credibility,

Pathos - The guy sings, "I love you I want to love you tender, you could be my only sweet surrender, I would never bring you any kind of sorrow." - This appeals to a fear of rejection or betrayal by confessing your love to a guy and then him deciding he doesn't feel the same way. Also he has some sort of sex appeal with his tight pants and low-cut shirt. The girl appeals to the emotion of insecurity when she sings, "How can I be sure you're not pretender, you want me today but what about tomorrow?" - and the guy continues to try and reconcile her insecurities by telling her that he wants to be her "loving vendor" and that he wants to take her where no one can deceive her.

Logos - There is no statistical data or real logic in this song, but one could possibly deduct that if he tells her that he loves her, he will never leave her because people who are in love don't abandon each other. But that's about all the logic I could glean from this galactic performance.

Sufficient Evidence - Not really, there are promises of love and devotion, but we only see him dance with her and then drive off with her into the stars. We don't know if he is driving her off into happily ever after, or a one-night stand.

4. Was it effective and Why? - Well considering the interesting use of the English language, the strange dancing, setting and stiff almost robotic lead singers, I am gonna have to say, no. I think its ineffective mostly because setting and the dancing and the outfits are completely incohesive. There is nothing that unites them other than the song so the whole music video you are laughing at the words, the dance moves or the crappy space simulation instead of listening to the message and argument of the song.