Rhetorical

analysis
Chelsea Doebereiner

Lou Reed and All Time Low

Lou Reed
Lou Reed was born in Brooklyn, New York, on
March 2, 1942. He grew up in Long Island, where
he grew up in a Jewish family. His parents tried to
cure his bisexuality with electroshock therapy
three times a week. Reed was interested early in
music and played guitar in several bands during
his high school years. He would write, play and
perform his own songs.(Biography)Reeds dark
romanticism was profoundly influenced by a
unique combination of underground writings and
the yearning teen-reminiscent of early rock and
rollalong with his own painful experiences.
(Encyclopedia)

d
In 1965 he co-founded the band The Velvet
Underground managed by Andy Warhol. Reed helped
invent punk rock and wrote about touchy subjects like
femme fatales, black angels and heroin. The band
produced four albums that investigated life's darker
side. In 1970 Reed left the Velvet Underground and
went on to create his own solo career. In 1972 he
released his breakthrough album, Transformer, with
the help of David Bowie. Reed transitioned to the
glitter rock fashion sense with bleach-blond hair and
black fingernail polish. Glam rock was the rage at the
time, and Reed was one of its central figures.(Rolling
Stone) Lou Reeds addiction to heroin played a large
part in his life. At age 71, Reed died on October 27,
2013 due to liver disease.

Song: Heroin
Ethos:Lou Reed creates credibility in singing this song due to his prior drug addiction to heroin. In this
song he is singing about shooting up and feeling like he is on top of the world while on this drug.
Pathos:Emotionally this song makes the listener a bit sad with the lines like It makes me feel like a man,
when I put a spike into my vein, like he needs this drug to help him in life and gain respect and it puts
him on top of the world. He explains that heroin is his life It's my wife and it's my life And while that
heroin is in my blood, and the blood is in my head, thank God im good as dead, thank God im not aware,
thank God I just dont care. This line makes you feel sorry, like he knows what this is doing to him and he
knows of his addiction, he just simply doesn't care. The musicality, the use of the instruments and no
harsh, loud sounds help create a more peaceful feeling.
Logos:This song is not designed in the usual verse chorus verse set up that some songs use. The same
chorus is not used nor is the same verse used repeatedly, there is continuously a new line used to
express Reed's story and message.

All Time Low is an American pop punk band from

Towson, Maryland,, formed in 2003. The band is
made of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex
Gaskarth, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jack
Barakat, bassist and backing vocalist Zack Merrick
and drummer Rian Dawson. Formed while still in
high school in 2003 at the ages of 16, All Time
Low started covering songs by pop punk bands
such as Blink-182.Before graduating high school,
they get a record deal with Hopeless Records. The
band put out EPs and 2 albums (Put Up or Shut
up and So Wrong, it's Right) as they gained their
popularity and made appearances on Jimmy
Kimmel Live and mtv UWoodie Awards.

Continue
d
After their third album was released in 2009, Nothing
Personal, they won titles like best pop punk band. In
2011 they released their fourth studio album Dirty
Work, which is their highest selling album overseas. In
2012 they released their fifth album, Don't Panic. In
September of that year they played a headlining tour
with Pierce the Veil and A Day To Remember. In 2014
their most current album was released called Future
Hearts. Future Hearts debuted at No. 2 on the
Billboard 200, selling 75,000 copies in its first week,
becoming the band's highest charting and biggest
selling week ever. (Wikipedia)

Song: Weightless
Ethos:All Time Low has credibility singing this song due to after being around for six years, the band had
gotten into a type of pattern. They ultimately were tired of doing the same things constantly and being tied
the this same motions and watching everyone else live while they sat still.
Pathos:This song attaches to your emotions because it makes you think about your own life and whether you
are living it to the fullest or just watching as others go by. It makes you think about if you are living in this
comfortable label youve made for yourself or if you are going out and showing people who you are and
what you are made of. Turn a page, Im a book, half unread is important because it shows there a lot more
to you than youve discovered and more than meets the eye and people keep going on with their lives and
you are still writing your own story.
Logos: This song is constructed in a verse chorus verse pattern. The each section is tied together using the
same chorus to create a story and a meaning.

Compare And Contrast

Lou Reed
~Plays off of a more sad emotional state
~Song is not written in Verse Chorus Verse
~Credibility is more to the heart and meaningful
~Single person telling a story
~Musicality is soft and calming

All Time Low

~Has an upbeat tempo that makes you not think
about the meaning, just the beat.
~Written in Verse Chorus Verse
~Credibility is more general, not so apparent on
what is being sung about.
~Multiple people telling this story

Both:
~ Credibility, just expressed in different ways
~Tell a story

Resources
"All Time Low." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

"Lou Reed." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

"Lou Reed Biography." Rolling Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

The
End!!