✧･ﾟ*✧･ﾟ Lights

"Lights" it's an original japanese song released as a singles on June 3 of 2019 at midnight, but later being re-released on the Japanese album, "Map of the Soul: 7 ~The Journey~" in 2020. The music video shows the continuation of the BTS Universe and also is linked to "Boy With Luv" MV. The "Lights" MV also generated theories for the album that came after "Map of the Soul: 7"

I will split the analysis into two parts, I will explain first only the necessary of lyrics, connecting with the MV, and then a more detailed analysis at the visual of the MV itself. So make yourself comfortable, grab your popcorn, and enjoy!

Written by	SUNNY BOY, Uta, Yohei
Produced by	Uta
Copyright	Big Hit Enterteinment, Universal Music Japan
Performed by	BTS

The song's message revolves around the connection between BTS/ARMY, and between the members of BTS,where everyone is connected by music, by sound.

We are all each other's light, the light that lights the way, that makes the darkness of everyday life disappear. If we take a closer look, we can find a connection between the song "Mikrokosmos", which says that we are all lights.

"The lights we saw in each other"

During the MV we can see several scenes where lights appear, which can be indicating the ARMY or even the light of each member of BTS, we can also see a lot of lighting effects during the video, contrast between light and shadow. We even found a similarity between the "We are Bulletproof: The Eternal" MV, where there are several lights indicating the ARMY.

Now the analysis of the lyrics of the song.

"[Verse 1: Jungkook, V]

Sunday, when I can't answer any calls or texts

I'm not in the mood for anything

Though not very often, I feel sick of it

I feel a little helpless right now

[Pre-Chorus: Jimin, Jin]

But I still feel like I can save someone

I hear your voice

Within the noise, time stops

We are connected by sound, woah

[Chorus: Jung Kook, V]

When I close my eyes

In the darkness, your light woah

Lights the way for me

We can walk forward without fear, you & I, woah"

In the tired days of so much schedule, tired of working (like any other human being), in the moments of hopelessness; there is always a light that makes time stop, that illuminates the way, that encourages and gives you strength. That light for BTS is ARMY in the same way that BTS is our light.

We are what encourages them, what gives them strength, "I feel like I can save someone", and vice versa. So many times BTS has been inspiration for ARMY to create movements for social and environmental causes, or try to save someone in some way. Because "We are connected by sound".

"[Post-Chorus: Jin, Jimin]

You're my light you're my light

Always shine into my heart

You're my light you're my light

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me

[Verse 2: j-hope]

All the angels who know pain

Flying on damaged wings through the night

Every time I'm thinking about love

Every time I'm thinking about love

I don't wanna listen to just happy songs

I'll face my loneliness, color my life

Losing and gaining, but I'm still searching for something today"

J-hope makes a reference to the Wings Era, referring to angels "with damaged wings". In the Wings Era, BTS appeared with wings to represent the ambition, the temptation, that they had when they were young, to fly high and far. After much suffering, they find and know love, self-love, flying now with damaged wings after so much struggle. *poetic*

Love is not just joy; it's suffering, sad moments, struggles, but that what makes it real and perfect for each one, is molded for each human being, at the right time. Face the hard times, don't be afraid of the past, never give up, color your life, and never stop looking.

"[Pre-Chorus: Jung Kook, V]

Yeah I believe that things will change

No one is perfect

Even this moment has its own meaning

And we are connected by sound, woah

[Chorus: Jin, Jimin]

When you close your eyes

In the darkness, my light woah

Lights the way for you

Let's walk forward without fear, you & I woah

[Post-Chorus: Jung Kook, V]

I'm your light I'm your light

Always shine into your heart

I'm your light I'm your light

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me

(Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)

(Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh)

In that second post-chorus, there was a role reversal. Now BTS claims they are also our lights.

Comparison between post-choruses.

"[Post-Chorus: Jin, Jimin]

You're my light you're my light

Always shine into my heart

You're my light you're my light

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me"

"[Post-Chorus: Jung Kook, V]

I'm your light I'm your light

Always shine into your heart

I'm your light I'm your light

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me"

"[Bridge: SUGA, RM]

I never thought there'd be a sleepless night

Turns out they weren't lies

And it made me get stronger

What is love? If there's an answer, I wanna know right now

I'm breaking down I can see there's light inside

Dawn will come to the darkest of nights

Overcome, even the future

We won't stop from now on

Decide for yourself what it means to be happy

Every day, take a step to grow up"

In the bridge sung by Suga and RM, we see a reference to some of the old songs of BTS, early in their career, in which they talk about trainee difficulties, difficulties of a group without recognition after debut, sleepless nights, training non-stop, events that seemed like lies but that made the boys stronger, "We won't stop from now on". We also find in this verse a reference to the song "Mikrokosmos".

"The starlight that shines brightest in the darkest night"

"[Pre-Chorus: Jimin, Jung Kook]

But it's okay sometimes

To show weakness

It's okay to be you

Don't lie to yourself any more

Everything connects by sound, woah

[Chorus: Jin, V]

When I close my eyes

In the darkness, your light woah

Lights the way for me

We can walk forward without fear, you & I woah

[Post-Chorus: Jung Kook, Jimin]

You're my light, you're my light

Always shine into my heart

You're my light, you're my light

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me

[Outro: Jimin, Jung Kook]

No matter how far apart we are

Your light shines on me"

---

Now I'm gonna do an analysis only of the MV, the MV's aesthetic, the scenes, scenarios, and how it connects with the BTS Universe, and the other MVs as well.

Following BTS' journey, from teenagers who just wanted to break stereotypes and follow their dreams, to young adults who went through the temptation phase, and following the 'Soul Mpa' in order to get to know each other, BTS on their previous album "Map Of The Soul: Persona" arrived in the first stage of the 'Soul Map', the surface, the persona.

A brief explanation of what a persona is:

The term persona appears in the Latin language to designate a mask used by actors in theatrical representation, when playing characters in their presentations. [...] The mask revealed the character, but hid the actor behind it, leaving only they voice to be exposed to the public.

And with that we understand that persona is more like a character, a facade, someone we show to the public, it doesn't necessarily stop being you, because we are a series of personas, but our "being" is much deeper than that.

As I said at the beginning, I believe there is a very strong connection between the song "Lights" and the song "Boy With Luv", for the simple fact that the main setting of both MVs is a movie theater. In "Boy With Luv" we see the entrance of the cinema, the facade, and we know that the cinema is called Persona, representing the literal meaning of the word really.

I think "Lights" was a bridge, which connected the album "Map Of The Soul: Persona" and the album "Map Of The Soul: 7", which MOTS Persona was the album that showed us how BTS feels about regarding fame, their relationship and love for the fans, and who they are as idols; while MOTS 7 showed their depth as human beings, after acknowledging their shadows and ego. So "Lights" was the gateway to a deeper understanding; outside the cinema we have the persona, inside the cinema we have the "self". Very visual the description of the human being.

Let's get to the MV itself then...

First I would like to say that I think the chronology of this MV is a little off, a little strange, at the same time that it seems that the MV starts with the boys getting ready to enter the movie theater, it seems that the MV is starting at the end, in which we see Jungkook returning to the movie theater after the movie ended. Throughout the MV we see the boys inside the movie theater all together, and at the same time in some scenes, they arrive or leave the movie theater.

I believe that in fact, this mess in the chronology, is related to the fact that they are inside the persona, in which time itself does not matter, but the interaction between the being and the community in general it does matter, so many times during the MV we see one member as the focus while the others are frozen in time.

It starts inside a movie theater, where we will see the movie "Lights".

First member to appear is Jungkook, and as I said it could be after the movie is over because it looks like JK gets scared to see the spotlight turning on as if the movie is going to start again.

The other members appear one by one and gather, all but Jin. And this is not a coincidence for those who closely follow the story line and the BTS Universe closely, in which we often see Jin isolated as if he were on another plane of history (thus breaking the 4th wall), for being the protagonist of this BU.

Soon we see Tae trying to get in through the back door of the cinema, but he can't because it looks like the door is locked. Let's analyze this point first then. What would it be like to enter through the back door?

Let's take this situation to a practical scenario. If you arrive somewhere and try to enter through the back door, you probably don't want to be seen, you want to go in unnoticed. Now let's analyze knowing that Tae is trying to enter the 'Persona' through the back door, it would be as if he wanted to enter hidden, without having to go through the facade, through the front door, without having to go through the front of the "mask".

And with that, Jimin finds him, and they both enter the cinema through an ATM machine. ATM stands for "Automated Teller Machine" which are machines, like automatic bank teller machines. In this part I have two theories, both of which can be right or not, because the BTS Universe opens doors for various interpretations. (You saw what I did there. Doors. Opens doors, and in the MV the door is locked. Ah nevermind).

ATM can also mean, in common English vocabulary used in everyday life, an abbreviation for "At The Moment" and can indicate something at a specific time for the person, for example: I'm busy atm = I'm busy at the moment.

With these two interpretations of the acronym ATM, I think that BTS could be criticizing the fact that money is currently always involved (or being the priority) in the music industry. To enter the persona, it was necessary to enter the ATM, representing the money; to get to know BTS "better", you need money (bon voyages, some behinds, exclusive content on v live, concerts, fanmeetings, things that bring the artist closer to the fan).

Here we see the other members appearing, and clearly like I said before, Jin seems to be on another plane of the story, displaced, being ignored by the other members.

When Tae and Jimin open the door to the theater, time stops, totally changing the dynamics of the MV. JK inside the movie theater doesn't seem to freeze right away, so we can say that he was the last to "suffer" this phenomenon. If we look at the BTS Universe as a whole, Jungkook, being the youngest of the group, was always the last to go through all the stages, so it could be something they also brought to the song "Lights".

Jin, outside the movie theater, still moving, passes RM, j-hope and Suga who are frozen in time, and we have a break in the chronology when he enters the movie theater and all the boys are already inside.

I believe that this relation of frozen time serves both to focus on one member only, having an idea of persona in which the individual interacting with the environment (one of the boys in motion looking at the frozen scene around it); to reference the song's lyrics, "Inside the noise, time stops"; and can represent the conscious (in motion) and the unconscious (frozen).

Inside the movie theater who is not frozen now is Jimin, who is surprised to see Jin entering the room, as if it was not something expected.

As the scenes progress, we see the frozen members with only one moving, as the focus.

J-hope

Jungkook

And it have a break in the MV timeline again. Jungkook goes outside the cinema and freezes in time, meeting Tae, as if he hadn't entered the cinema yet. Then we realized he was just sleeping, unconscious, and probably dreaming.

Analyzing what dream means for Jung, philosopher and psychologist used as a reference in this era of BTS, we have to:

“Dreaming is, as you know, a natural phenomenon. It is not the result of an intention. We cannot explain it from a psychology that comes from consciousness. It is a specific mode of functioning that does not depend on the will and desire, intention or goal of the Human Self. It is an unintentional event, like all events in nature."

Jung believes that the dream is more an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious, with that in the MV when Jungkook wakes up, in the movie theater, all the members are conscious.

From there we see several interactions between the boys, all of them conscious. Scenes within scenes, where they're watching themselves in the movie theater. Re-affirming that outside the cinema we have the persona, the public figure, BTS as an idol, and within the cinema is the "being" really, the "self" of each of them; BTS, in the scenes that are watching themselves through the movie screen, it would be like they're analyzing themselves as a person, who they are as idols, and who they really are as a whole, as a human being. Literally the whole idea of the Map of the Soul (self-knowledge) that we see throughout this series of albums.

In case it's getting too confusing, I apologize, as this MV has a bit of a messy chronology, the scenes overlap several times, having a lot of significant details. Stop for a while, take a breath, watch the full MV again, and then go back to reading.

As I said we have a series of the boys interactions:

We have a really cool transition from the spotlight in the movie theater to the lights found in the parking lot. So even this next scene is connected with the movie theater.

BTS is in a parking lot, which you can think of as the cinema parking lot, where I found a reference to the "Boy With Luv" MV, and we have the lights representing ARMY, like the army bombs, just like the "We are Bulletproof: The Eternal".

We see the boys interacting with the lights...

And we see them seeing each other from inside the movie theater...

We see Jin isolated from the scene again, just analyzing and observing everything that happens, as has been seen several other times during the BTS Universe. I even imagine as if Jin was watching what he recorded in that camera he carried in the HYYH Era.

We see some other scenes where some of them are frozen in time, scenes with contrasts of light and shadow, and then we see everyone consciously heading to the cinema, where Jin is already there.

And again the messy chronology lol one enters and leaves the movie theater. But the MV ends with all of them watching each other in the room, happy, having fun. The parking lot scenery, with lights and them singing, further represents them as idols, a stage, the lights representing ARMYS, them singing. Showing one of their personas.

Abstract: Trying to summarize what I analyzed from this MV is that, it shows a lot of the meaning of the lyrics of the song in which it says that we are each other's light, BTS/ARMY, and that the time stops when the song plays (so that's why it has several freezes in time), and so we are connected by sound.

The MV tries to make a connection with the whole theory and timeline of the BTS Universe, and connecting to the next album they had, "Map Of The Soul: 7", showing the interaction between the "being" (who was inside the cinema) and the personas (who was outside the cinema). The interaction between the conscious and unconscious that exists within the human being, and the play of light and shadows.

I think it's just it lol it was a lot, but I hope you liked it.

;)

disclaimer: the reviews are mine and nothing it's official.

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SOURCE:

Lyrics - Genius