Weekly Blog Post 5

The rhetorical strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos are perhaps not the most obvious in the “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” video but are indeed there. Pathos is the most prevalent, as seen in the visual aspect and in the lyrics of the song, as well as the actual music. A build-up, pause and continuation in the music contribute to the pathos aspect of the song that the lyrics also contribute to, especially the title. This build-up of anger and discontent of the people that are shown arguing in the video that “couldn’t stand the weather” is accompanied by and introduced in the very opening music. Also, pathos is employed at the end when the title of the song is truly proven, in that the rain has proved too much for the people who had just been arguing and they begin to wash away in it.

This segment also establishes some ethos for Stevie Ray and the band because even though they are out in the rain with instruments, they have goggles and are doing just fine in the weather. They lyrics also help establish this because Stevie is speaking with the authority of experience and that he knows exactly what is happening to himself and the person that he refers to when he says “we just couldn’t stand the weather.” He also speaks with the authority of knowledge from experience when he later discusses issues that every person deals with.

Looking at it as an overall structure, the lyrics and the visual aspect of the video also contribute to the logos of the argument. The lyrics are divided into two major stanzas divided by guitar parts. The first stanza is his own personal experience of dealing with things that “ain’t feelin’ right” and his own other person that he has been arguing with, just like each other person in the video has one person they are arguing with. The second stanza states major ideas that apply to all people in general, that “we all deal with trials and tribulations” and it is a logical approach to be able to relate with the audience that he is speaking to. The visual aspect of the video contains logos in a chronological sense, that all the build-up of each pair arguing is contributing to this greater problem and it is most always inevitable that when something has been brewing and building up for such a long time it will end in a storm, as the one shown in the video.