The song that I decided to analyze was “heartless” by Kayne West. The song began playing on the radio about a year ago and became a huge hit. The band that covers this song is called The Fray. The Fray is also a famous band that has numerous songs played on the radio. Kanye’s version of the song is more of rap/hip hop while The Frey’s version of the song is more acoustic rock.
The lyrics to both songs are the exact same. The song does not have a lot of literary devices but the tone of each song is different. The song is a narrative and talks about how the man and woman’s relationship had ended due to the woman’s “heartless” personality. I chose to analyze both these two songs because although they have the same lyrics, they have completely different tone. Throughout the whole song there is a lot of characterization. He is using characterization to describe the girl and how she is “heartless.” For example, he says “after all the things we got into/and I know some things you aint told me.” This shows how the girl was lying to him throughout the relationship and treated him with disrespect. Another example of characterization is when he says “how could you be so Dr.Evil.” This is showing how he believes that she has truly changed and become some kind of crazy madwomen. The statement, “so you walk around like you don’t know me” shows that the women walks around acting like she never had any relations with this man. This is considered disrespectful and “heartless.” The man also describes her as “hot and cold” which is giving an idea feelings or emotions. Another verse where he uses characterization is when he says “you just gonna be hatein me/and now we gonna be enemies.” This is describing their new relationship and how the two of them are disrespecting each other and acting “heartless.” This whole song does not have a lot of literary terms because it is a narrative song. Although there is a lot of characterization the song sounds mean when Kayne sings it but it sounds sad when the Frey sings it. It basically depends on the tone of the song and the mood.
