"Skin"

Link to lyrics:
http://music.aol.com/song/skin-sarabeth/11331871

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhnU9IYTD9c

In their song, “Skin,” Rascal Flatts uses a touching story to show that hope can be found when facing painful and sorrowful times. The story revolves around a girl named Sarabeth. In the first verse of the song, the audience finds her in a doctor’s office and soon discovers she has cancer, but will be receiving treatment as soon as possible. In the second verse, Sarabeth wakes up and is devastated when she finds she is losing her hair, but all hope is not lost. At the end of the song, she goes to the prom with her “first true love” who shaved his head just so everyone wouldn’t just stare at Sarabeth, but at him as well. This song is about finding hope and love in the darkest of places.
Rascal Flatts uses pathos all throughout this song. The first verse is full of these appeals to the heart. The very first line makes the reader recall feelings of fear and anxiousness in order to relate to the character. When they talk about how Sarabeth’s bruise “just won’t go away,” the reader can almost feel the fear that comes when something is wrong in a person’s own body and he or she is finding it difficult to get an answer to such an important question. When the nurse comes out, she is smiling and pleasant which gives the reader hope. Ironically, Sarabeth is about to hear the worst news of her life. In the line, “the doctor just told her the news,” they don’t use good or bad, but keep it neutral. The reader’s emotions are left to struggle with hope and apprehension at the same time. They try to give the reader hope with phrases like “gonna take care of you”, the therapy is “the strongest there is” and “we caught it in time.” The song transition to the chorus now. It is filled bright and cheerful words and images such as dream, “without any cares”, dancing, first love and soft wind.
Now, the second verse begins. This verse is filled with sadness and loneliness. The phrase, “it would be a mistake for someone to take a girl with no hair to the prom”, speaks especially to female audience members. A female knows the importance of hair in a girl’s life. A bad hair day is disappointing, but having no hair would make many girls feel ugly and depressed. “The cruelest of any surprise” is an interesting phrase. Most times when someone thinks about a surprise the first things they think of are parties or presents. This phrase gives mixed feelings, but that is so the reader can sympathize with Sarabeth. As the reader feels these mixed emotions, they read “the proof that she couldn’t deny.” This phrase evokes a feeling of hopelessness and despair. Her biggest fear have been confirmed and she can hold the proof in her hands.
In the third verse, Sarabeth’s prom date arrives. When everyone starts to cry, the reader becomes confused and wonder what has happened. The very last line, “Softly, she touches just skin,” is the most emotional line in the song. Rascal Flatts uses the word skin instead of describing his bald head. This word choice gives a softer more meaningful tone to the line which lets the audience feel the sweetness of the moment. The final chorus is only slightly altered, but it give the reader feelings of absolute happiness and hope. The most emotion provoking change is the change from first love to first true love. With the addition of the word true, the audience can imagine all of Sarabeth’s dreams coming true.
Rascal Flatts uses ethos and logos as well. Being well-known country singers, the members of Rascal Flatts are seen as professionals in music. The audience trusts them to be accurate in their telling of this story, especially one as serious as a cancer story. When they use logos, they are using cultural assumptions. Not everyone in every country understands cancer and the side effects of its treatment, but all of this is fairly common knowledge in the Unites States. Rascal Flatts is able to be rather non-descript about the cancer in the song because of this. When they talk about something not being normal with the red blood cells and white blood cells, they are talking specifically about leukemia which is cancer of the blood cells. At this point in the song, most people may not know Sarabeth is battling cancer, but they do know something is very wrong. Not until the second verse when Sarabeth loses her hair do many people realize she has cancer. We can now assume that the treatment the doctor talked about was chemotherapy.
In the music video for “Skin,” Rascal Flatts uses several interesting techniques that draw the viewer in and help the viewer understand the story better. When the video has scenes that are about Sarabeth and her family, these scenes are all a series of still-shots, almost like photographs. This technique makes the viewer feel as though they are looking at pictures in an album making the video more personal. Another technique used in these scenes is the use of color. All the still-shots are in black and white, but in each and every one, Sarabeth is in color. This technique makes the viewers focus on Sarabeth and the emotions running through her at the time. It also shows a certain level of isolation in her suffering, a feeling of loneliness. At the very end, a small clip is shown as Sarabeth and her date are leaving. This clip is in full color and allows the reader to see exactly how happy Sarabeth is through her smile and her body language. At this time, the audience can see Sarabeth’s loneliness and isolation being dispelled and they can feel the joy, happiness and hope she has found.