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Xavier Stacy

Prof. Hellmers

English 1201

2 May 2021

Sweet Dreams

“Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics and Marilyn Manson use the same lyrics to

convey two completely different messages and appeal to different audiences. The

Eurythmics made the original version which was released on January 4, 1983. The

Eurythmics used a more upbeat, pop, and techno style of music to get their message

across. The Marilyn Manson remake of the song was released in 1995. Marilyn

Manson used an alternative metal, slow, dark, and eerie music style to get his message

across. Even though “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics and “Sweet Dreams” by

Marilyn Manson have very similar lyrics, the delivery and themes are polar opposites.

“Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics focuses more on the positive aspects of life, while

“Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson focuses on the darker side of going through life,

which attracts completely different audiences.

The Eurythmics version of the song has a much more positive claim that people

are on their own personal quests to conquer their dreams and achieve self-fulfillment.

Some people will help with their journey, others will take advantage of this, but no

matter what, keep pushing on. For example, this can be heard in the song because it

states, “Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree? I've traveled the world

and the seven seas. Everybody's lookin' for something.” This clearly shows that the

song is trying to say that everyone is on their quest to conquer their dreams and to

achieve self-fulfillment. This is because of the lyric “everybodies lookin’ for something”,
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the something in this statement is conquering dreams and self-fulfillment. In addition,

the song next states, “Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to get used

by you. Some of them want to abuse you. Some of them want to be abused.” This

conveys that whenever people are on these personal quests some people will help with

their journey, but some will take advantage of them. Finally, this can be seen in the

song when Annie Lennox states, “Hold your head up. Keep your head up, movin' on.

Hold your head up, movin' on.” This illustrates that no matter what happens to people,

whoever takes advantage of them, or whatever challenge is thrown their way they must

keep on pushing through the challenges to achieve their goal. This is important

because this proves that this song is positive and gives motivation for people to keep

pushing on and going after their dream, which is the polar opposite compared to the

Marilyn Manson version.

Unlike the very positive claim that the Eurythmics version has, the Marilyn

Manson version is a much more negative song that claims the world is darker than

people think, people’s dreams only matter to them. People do not care about anyone

else’s dreams because it is a me-first world. For instance, this can be heard in the song

when Marilyn Manson states, “I'm gonna use you and abuse you. I'm gonna know

what's inside you. Gonna use you and abuse you. I'm gonna know what's inside you.”

This reveals that the song is saying that no one will help people with their dreams, they

will all take advantage of them. When the song says “I’m gonna use and abuse you,” it

is saying that no one cares about anyone else's dreams. They only care about their

dreams and will destroy other people’s dreams if they get in the way of their own. Also,

the music video itself is very dark which changes the meaning of the song to a darker

meaning. This is important because this reveals how Marilyn Manson feels about other
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people’s feelings and shows that the song's claim is that people’s dreams only matter to

them.

The Eurythmics video appeals to ethos and pathos. The video appeals to ethos

because the singer, Annie Lennox, is saying that she has traveled the world and the

seven seas trying to conquer her goals and achieve self-fulfillment. This means she is

speaking from experience. The Eurythmics video also appeals to pathos because it is

motivational to go out there and get your dreams and get self-fulfillment. The Marilyn

Manson video appeals to pathos because it is disturbing and is freaky. The Marilyn

Manson version says “I'm gonna use you and abuse you,” which is very emotional to

people. This is important because they may both appeal to pathos, but they are for

completely different reasons which affect the audience.

Although they have the same lyrics, both songs have majorly different audiences

because of the different claims and how they are both able to appeal to their audiences.

The audience for the Eurythmics video is people who are pursuing their dreams or want

to pursue their dreams. This is because Annie Lennox talks about people pursuing their

dreams and what to watch out for when doing so. Also, Annie Lennox is trying to

motivate people to keep pushing on for their dreams. This is completely different from

the audience of the Marilyn Manson video which are the people that think like Marilyn

Manson. The people that think only about their dreams, do not care about anyone

else’s dreams and are willing to abuse and ruin them.

Although both songs use the same set of lyrics, this is the only way they are

related because the claims and the audiences of both of these songs are completely

different. The Eurythmics song is focused on a much more positive claim that people

should go after their dreams. Some people will help them, some will take advantage of
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them but no matter what, keep pushing on. This brings in a much more positive

audience of people that are trying to achieve their dreams. The Marilyn Manson version

is focused on a much darker claim that people’s dreams only matter to them, no one

else cares about their dreams. People should not go after their dreams, and if they do,

they will be taken advantage of. This brings in a much more negative and dark

audience of people that believe in this same idea.

Works Cited:

Lennox, Annie. Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart - Sweet Dreams (Are

Made Of This) (Official Video). Youtube, 25 Oct. 2009,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.

Manson, Marilyn. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (Alt.

Version). Youtube, 8 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=QUvVdTlA23w. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.