No Such Thing as a Broken Heart - Old Dominion

Original Audio:

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Acoustic Version (actual video):

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Lyrics:

I wonder if Jack and Diane ever made it

After the drums and the guitars all faded

Was the best they could do good enough

Or did the heartland just swallow 'em up

How did my mom and my dad ever do it

If there were troubles then we never knew it

I guess they had each other and that was enough

You know you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try,

You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like

You're jumping off a rope swing maybe 'cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

What am I gonna tell my kids when they see

All of this bullshit that goes down on TV

When the whole world is down on its luck

I gotta make sure they keep that chin up

Cry when it hurts, laugh when it's funny

Chase after the dream, don't chase after the money

And know we got each other, that's what's up

'Cause you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try

You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like

You're jumping off a rope swing maybe cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

'Cause you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try

You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like

You're jumping off a rope swing maybe 'cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

You gotta love, love, love, love

You gotta love, love, love, love

You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

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Analysis:

Old Dominion creates this fairly new country song through catchy rhymes and good rhetoric. It’s a tune I heard in my car on my way home not too long ago and it stuck in my mind. In this specific song, diction and clever phrasing lead to an optimistic and happy-go-lucky tone.

To start, he opens his song with an analogy to a previous song, written by John Mellencamp called Jack and Diane (linked to the right), referencing their own struggles. This higher understanding appeals to the ethos of the audience. In this case, the audience would be generally, people who listen to country music on the radio, or specifically people who listen to Old Dominion. However, before the song even starts, their credibility as a well-known singer/songwriter group was previously established to their target audience.

This tune appeals to logos through rhyming lines and good structure. The song itself gets stuck in your head and caught on repeat, making the audience want to find the song and listen again. It flows in a very nice way, including analogies which give a stronger sense of voice, like the allusion in his opening stanza. “I wonder if Jack and Diane ever made it / After the drums and the guitars all faded / Was the best they could do good enough / Or did the heartland just swallow 'em up,” and personal experiences, like his reference to his kids in the fourth stanza, “What am I gonna tell my kids when they see / All of this bullshit that goes down on TV / When the whole world is down on its luck / I gotta make sure they keep that chin up.” Right here, they find a way to appeal to an even larger audience, targeting parents who are listening to the radio on the way home or older siblings who care about the future of their younger brothers and sisters.

To continue, Old Dominion appeals to the pathos of their audience through imperative connections, like the connections in the first and fourth stanzas, and the reference to his mom and dad getting along in the second stanza. They appeal to an audience of people with a potentially rough childhood with divorced parents or parents who argue who wish they had a childhood more similar to the one he mentions. However, through this, Old Dominion also appeals to the other half of the audience who of which had happy parents with a strong bond, connecting their own experiences to those of the audiences.

Throughout the entire song, Old Dominion uses targeted diction, like in his chorus, claiming “You can’t keep the ground from shaking,” which causes the audience to feel an almost sense of relief from his understanding. He creates a go-with-the-flow connotation to his words, an attitude that is desired among many adults who are criticized or potentially no exposed to various experiences because of an uptight personality. As the song goes on, the band uses easy lyrics and understandable phrasing, which helps contribute to an enjoyable tone, much appreciated by his listeners.

Old Dominion creates an optimistic tone through his diction, causing his audience to feel a strong connection to his laid-back mindset and his relaxed approach to heartbreak. “You gotta love like there’s no such thing as a broken heart.” However, the type of “love” he describes is difficult to find yet highly sought after, which helps contribute to his tone. Out of a culture of songs written about heartbreak and songs warning of the horrors of breakups, this song refreshingly appeals to a relatively unknown sense of ease among his listeners.

Old Dominion successfully creates an effective song with a catchy tune in this example (but I guess if they hadn’t, I probably would not have heard this song on the radio on my way home one night). His sturdy diction really creates an eased atmosphere and optimistic tone. His style and language used is very appealing and does a good job targeting his audience.