Johnny Cash: Song Analysis

In the music world long ago, artists were talented songwriters, performers, and musicians. In today’s society, many aspiring musicians dream of following in the footsteps of the great performers that lived long before them. As a result, many artists decide to do cover versions of songs that were made famous by some of the greatest musicians to ever walk the earth in hopes of becoming just like their idols. While many performers tend to do renditions of songs, meaning that they are done almost the exact same way as the original, some artists may decide to do transformations of original songs, meaning that the idea of the song is still there, but they change certain aspects of the song to make it their own. In one particular case, there is one specific song that follows the idea of song transformation, in which made the song most well known for. The song “Hurt”, originally performed by Nine Inch Nails, was taken and revamped as a cover in 2002 by the great late Johnny Cash, which shows how the same song can be

The mixture of the different clips shows how Cash’s life had progressed: he was no longer in his prime and the concept of the video was attempting to show his fragility as he was getting older. Cash’s version of the song also removed all profanity unlike Nine Inch Nail’s version to show the audience his devotion to Christianity and for his love towards God. While the two versions may prove different ideas of musical identity, at the same time, there is also a similar message that is trying to be portrayed to the listener: life is very short, and sometimes, you may find yourself lost and feeling hopeless and as a result, one must push past all of the hurt and hopelessness to achieve