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Hannah Goonan

Professor Echols

English Composition II

January 30, 2022

Heartless

Kanye West’s song, “Heartless” was released in 2008, becoming a huge hit and entering

the US billboard Hot 100 at number four. He wrote this song with the help of Ye, Malik Yusef,

Kid Cudi, and No I.D. Heartless was said to have a lot of negative criticism because of its

reliance on auto-tune, but still ended up being a huge hit with over 5 million copies sold. This

song became very popular and has had multiple artists do covers and remixes with it. One cover

being by The Fray. Their version made it on the Hot 100 list as well. Their cover was released in

2009 and they twisted the meaning a little bit in their music video. They made the song less

about a heartbreak, and more about the emotions of one person. Heartless by Kanye West and

Heartless by The fray share a similar theme; however, the version by Kanye West focuses more

on toxic relationships, while the version by the Fray focuses on someone's emotions being

bundled up inside of them.

Kanye West wrote Heartless about Amber Rose, who he was engaged to for two years,

but the engagement was called off. In the song, he sings that women are “heartless” and “as cold

as the winter wind.” He is referring to his ex because she was not able to change for the better for

their relationship or fix her mistakes. He acknowledges that he was able to fix his mistakes from

the past, but she has no intent of doing that. He then goes to sing about her “new friend”

(meaning love interest) she has and how he is no where no ready to move on after their long

loving relationship. Even after how he was treated and how “heartless” she was, he is still unable
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to let go of what they had. The version by Kanye West is very upbeat and it sounds like he is

ranting about what they had and how heartless she is. The cover by the Fray is significantly less

powerful than Kanye's version because of how down beat it is and it is a lot less soulful. The

Fray kept the lyrics the exact same so just by listening to the song you would think they had the

same message, but the music video gave off a very different message than the one by Kanye

West.

In Kanye West’s music video, he is shown singing in an animated place about the girl

that left him and how she is heartless. He makes it seem like they were in a very toxic

relationship mainly because of her friend group influencing her decisions and how she does not

make the relationship as public as he does. He sings, “You run and tell your friends that you're

leaving me. They say that they don't see what you see in me.” He also goes to sing, “You walk

around like you don’t know me.” These things show that she is sharing information about their

relationship that should be private and how she pretends to be in a relationship with him when it

is just them, but acts like he is not a person while in public. I think The Fray made the song less

about an ex-girlfriend and more about emotions in general. In The Fray’s music video, a little

boy is shown sitting at a desk very sad. He is drawing in a notebook and ends up drawing a heart.

Throughout the video, the heart is shown either walking around with a sad face or it is being

crushed in some way. It also looks as if the heart is running from something. In the end, the boy

ends up crumbling the piece of paper up and throwing it away. All of the lyrics by The Fray are

the same as Kanye’s version but they are just slowed down. You would think the song had the

same message, but if you watch the video it gives off a very different message. The message

given is to not hold your emotions inside all balled up because they will be expressed eventually.
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Both versions of the song appeal to pathos. Kanye West made the whole song about his

feelings and made people relate to him on another level. The whole time he is singing about a

failed engagement and how he treated the girl. This makes the people listening feel sad for him.

People who listen to this song may also start to feel sad because of a toxic relationship they may

have been in. It really could remind them of a very sad time in their life. The version sung by

The Fray appeals to pathos too because in the video it shows a very sad heart walking and getting

crushed by different things. It also shows a very sad, distracted boy sitting at school not paying

attention, but instead drawing his emotions on a piece of paper. You can tell this boy has

depression and is holding it back inside of him, but it will one day come out. Both songs have an

emotional message behind them. I think the audience for Kanye’s version is people who have

been broken up with or are going through toxic relationships. I think The Fray’s version is meant

for at least 18 year olds because the video is harder to understand the message behind it. I think it

is also meant for people going through hard times who do not usually talk about how they feel.

Overall both songs have a very good message behind them that apply to not only the song

world, but to the real world as well. These songs allow people to relate to them and can make

people feel as if they are not alone. Kanye West and The Fray each pour their heart and soul into

both of their videos and you can tell they tried hard to get a meaningful message out there.
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Works Cited

London, Amanda. "'Heartless' by Kanye West." Song Meaning and Facts, 19 Dec.

2020, www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/heartless-by-kanye-west/. Accessed 8

Mar. 2022.

Emcee. "Extensive Analysis of Kanye West's Heartless." Emcee Network, 18 Apr.

2017, emceenetwork.com/2017/04/18/

extensive-analysis-of-kanye-wests-heartless/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Herrera, Dave. "Moving Pictures: The Fray May Be Heartless, but That Doesn't

Mean It's Art Less." Westword, 20 Oct. 2009, www.westword.com/music/

moving-pictures-the-fray-may-be-heartless-but-that-doesnt-mean-its-art-less-56839

55. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.