Can Past Lovers Still Be Friends Analysis

Can past Lovers still be Friends? Deborah Cox’s song, We Can’t be Friends featuring R.L. on the album, One Wish, was released September 1998 by Arista Records. Deborah Cox is a Canadian singer/songwriter who time and time again made her thoughts come alive through her music. The purpose of the video is to build an emotional rollercoaster of sadness and joy for the audience to keep the viewers interested. She makes the argument, that once you are emotionally involved with a person, there may not be a chance to have a platonic relationship afterwards. She appeals mainly to the viewer’s emotions, but also she illustrates with her actions the personal experience as the video unfolds, as well as the reasoning as to why she feels two lovers can not be friends. Deborah Cox uses visible emotion in the video to give the viewers the idea of how emotionally and mentally stressed one can become when battling what the heart may need but not want. The video begins with the singer, R.L. holding a …show more content…
Deborah Cox and R.L. does this by using emotional appeals, relatable experiences depicted in the video, and showing good reasoning as to why a man or woman whom may still be in love with their past lover can not be friends with them. The video strongly relies on sadness, which can be easily understood, especially if they have been in a similar situation. Deborah Cox gives a walkthrough of a personal experience and that alone will help a person relate to what she is going through. She provides good reasoning that it is hard forming a friendship with a person one was once in love with. Although the video is relatable to most, another person may look at the situation in another light based on different circumstances. Overall, the video effectively got the point across that some if not most, can not be friends with someone they are still in love