Monday, October 7, 2013
Ethos of "War" by Edwin Starr
Edwin Starr's popularity as an acclaimed soul singer provides extrinsic ethos to his song, which grabs the attention of the audience and makes them listen to his new song "War". The song "War" sold over 3 million copies and was awarded a gold disc, which also gives the song extrinsic ethos, and persuades the audience even before the listen to the song. However, the song "War" is undoubtedly Starr's claim to fame, so when the song was first released, it may not have had as much ethos, so Starr has to persuade his audience effectively. Starr subtly developed powerful intrinsic ethos throughout his song, by establishing the Vietnam war as a problem and creating a sense of urgency through his tone of voice. Starr briefly addresses the opposing argument in his line "they say we must fight to keep our freedom", and follows it up by saying "But Lord knows there's got to be a better way". Starr effectively uses the "they say I say" format in a brief two lines of his song. By addressing his counterarguments, Starr gains respect from his audience. He shows the listener that there is another way to solve the problems of the 70's.
Jeannette Van Sickle
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I agree that Starr definitely used the general dislike toward the war to his advantage. Because Starr was catering to the people's beliefs in the war, the song was bound to gain a large fan base. I wonder if the song still would've become popular if Starr hadn't had a name for himself before hand?
ReplyDeleteThe universality of the arts is essential to this example of rhetoric. Because the message continues, even though the conflict that inspired it is over, it's rhetorical value remains, and even improves as the extrinsic ethos you mentioned increases. In contrast, something like a newspaper article will reach a large audience once, make an impact, and then will largely be forgotten.
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