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Adam Stanley 

Professor Casey Flores 

Eng.1201.NY0 English composition

14 February 2022 

                                                                  What is Love 

The purpose of Haddaway’s version of “What is Love” was to be a 1990’s dance club hit, but

one that actually has some substance in its lyrics while speaking less about the typical party

rhythms and more about a flaw in someone’s personal life. The song became a number one hit in

thirteen countries as well as being voted the “best national dance single” in Germany in 1994.

Jaymes Young’s version was directly linked to the original Haddaway version as the lyrics are

exactly the same. The difference is that the cover version is slower, and it feels, when you listen

to it, that there is sadness involved which is depicted in the music video starring Jake Gyllenhaal

as the main character who cannot get over what he had previously experienced. In Haddaway’s

version the music video is more upbeat and fast- paced, there are several women dancers dancing

through the house to the lyrics, and there are no similarities to be made regarding the two videos

for the two versions of this song. Haddaway is a Trinidadian born singer/songwriter whose

biggest hit was “What is Love.” Jaymes Young is an American from Seattle, Washington whose

genre is alternative and indie.  "What is Love" cover by Jaymes Young uses the same lyrics from

the 1993 original bearing its name by Haddaway, but its message is completely different, so were

their audiences. The songs that were released 20 years apart show different sides of the same

coin; wondering what love is, but also knowing what it is but not being able to grasp what was

once had. 
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“Baby, don't hurt me 

Don't hurt me no more 

 What is love? 

 Yeah, yeah”   

Those lyrics from Haddaways’s hit single “What is Love” depicts a person in a relationship

making a plea to his significant other who keeps hurting him, and making him question what

love is. “What is Love” by Haddaway was an instant club-dancing classic released in 1993,

becoming the number one song in thirteen countries when it debuted. The "What is Love" cover

by Young uses the same lyrics from the 1993 original bearing its name by Haddaway, but its

message is completely different, so were their audiences. One thing that makes the two versions’

different is that Haddaway’s version is all about wondering what love is and what it feels like to

be loved by a significant other. Getting hurt over and over and having to make it known to the

other person that you don’t want to be hurt again isn’t love.

“What is Love” by Jaymes Young was released in 2013, it was unlike the original regarding the

tempo and the meaning of the song. The music video stars actor Jake Gyllenhaal, and adds a

form of ethos. The use of Gyllenhaal in the video isn’t a distraction, but an appeal, because of the

way the actor conveys the message with no words better as an actor is able to. Gyllenhaal being

cast in the video doesn’t distract from the message of the video, quite the opposite, if anything it

is a well-known name in a video that draws the viewer into the video. The Young version is

different because Gyllenhaal plays a man whose love of his life passes away in a car wreck and

he questions what love is now due to the one person who had shown him unconditional love

dying, and him not being able to experience that anymore. The Young version being slower and

the overall feeling in this video more of a tragedy, somber, and less dance-oriented.
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The cover version of “What is Love” by Jaymes Young is better than the original, which was

released twenty years before by Haddaway. This is because the cover version gets the message

across in a more effective way, the second version has the same lyrics but takes the same song to

different levels of emotions rather than just a dance chart topper. The video for Young’s version

explains this point, because the video starts with a car wreck and Jake Gyllenhaal sees his wife

die in front of his eyes, right away the emotional appeal of losing a loved one is present, and the

images create a common ground; a strong relatability between song and the listener. The music

video from Young shows that Jake Gyllenhaal is really struggling with the grieving process. The

covers music video invites the listener to tap into their emotions and to think about past

experiences. When you watch the two music videos, the Haddaway version is more about him

speaking to the unknown in the beginning of the video, there is little to no emotion given by him.

In the Young version there’s more emotion which brings the song to a different depth.  

  The rhetorical appeal used in both music videos would be pathos for emotion. The Haddaway

music video uses pathos by questioning and getting emotional about what love is while pleading

with the vampire to not hurt him anymore. Haddaway is seen as emotionally fragile and franticly

moving around the mansion looking for something that is not there to make him feel better. The

music video could also be seen as a figment of his mind, because Haddaway was moving a little

too fast and was not sure what he wanted. The Jaymes Young music video gives the viewer an

insight into what it feels like to experience heartbreak from a person close to you, and the video

does this through the appeal of pathos. Pathos is used from the beginning of the music video with

the young in love couple driving and joking around, with how they looked at one another it hits
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the audience as a thought of “I know what that feels like,” it brings emotions. Then the car wreck

happens and it triggers the emotions due to the tragic loss of life. Young’s video version is far

different because the slowness of the song tugs at your emotions because you feel it.

 Both versions were popular but the less emotional, more upbeat version that Haddaway released

was far more successful; the Jaymes Young cover version is still the more serious. Young’s is a

better version of the song to bring emotions to listeners and the words hold more meaning than

the catchy dance version. That is the reason it is such a heavy song, because he knows what it is

like to love with all your heart and lose that through no fault of his own.

                                                                    Works cited

Young, Jaymes. “What Is Love - Jaymes Young (Cinematic Video) - YouTube.” YouTube, 28 Apr.

2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIvvHKp0JNI.

Haddaway, Nestor. “Haddaway - What Is Love [Official] - YouTube.” YouTube, 18 June

2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I.