Weekly Blog Post 5

The music video "Concrete Angel" By Martina McBride shows many examples of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout. The two most predominant of the three modes of communication are logos and pathos.

Logos is shown in the overall structure of the music video. The video starts out introducing a little girl named Angela and the life she lives. With this form of structure, the audience gets a chance to meet and know more about the little girl that may secretly live among them. It isn't a coincidence that most "life lessons" are built into stories: people can easily relate to them and begins to understand the deeper meaning behind them. This is why I believe the songwriter and video designer chose to use this as the form of logos. It allows the audience to put themselves in the story and maybe accuse themselves of being the teacher who didn't ask about the bruises or the neighbor who simply turned off the light. It makes the audience think about the world around them and how, in this case, child abuse that might be occurring just next door.

The title of this song/ music video also shows another form of logos. The title "Concrete Angel" isn't very straight forward and makes the audience wonder what the song/video is about. At first, you may simply think about an angel made from concrete, similar to what may be in a church. But listening to the story of Angela you come to learn how she is the concrete angel. "Through the wind and the rain, she stands hard as stone": Martina McBride uses these lyrics to describe Angela as the concrete angel enduring the "secret storm" of her abuse. Using word choice to describe Angela as the concrete angel helps put deeper meaning behind her lyrics and ties in pathos, another mode of communication into this video.

Emotion is often said to be one of the best ways to open an audience's heart to a message. Animal abuse commercials don't show cute, happy puppies. They show abused, sad animals to get your emotions running and make you want to help save that cute kitten on your television screen. I would say that pathos is the strongest form of communication in "Concrete Angel". While in some situations a lot of emotion can be more harm than good for communication, in this video it is necessary. It shows the story of Angela, shows how this epidemic of child abuse has touched Martina McBride, and how child abuse can affect the audience's life as well. It brings awareness and while you may not end the video without tears in your eyes, it gives you hope that you can help end child abuse.

Overall, I think that without these forms of pathos and logos, "Concrete Angel" would not be as touching as it is. Understanding logos, pathos, and ethos definitely helps form a better presentation: whether it is an essay, a painting, or in this case, a music video.