MOTS: 7 Behind Video - Study Guide

#ARMYStudyGuides are designed to highlight some important information in videos and other sources for fans and researchers to have easy access to information of interest. ARMY Study Guides are summaries, but I hope they will help you find the information you’re looking for. Direct quotes are in quotation marks, the rest is paraphrased, and anything in brackets [ ] are my notes. Click here for the full MOTS: 7 behind video.

This was filmed during the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea in early 2020. 

Namjoon notes he'll be sharing his own personal stories and behind information, stating that other members may do the same on their own (but this is just his thoughts). 

He says they originally planned to release "Shadow" and "Ego" separately, but due to certain circumstances, they were unable to release an album at the end of 2019. Instead, they had their long vacation and planned to release "Shadow" and "Ego" together. He says when he heard "7" as a possible title, he thought it was fitting since the number could symbolize various things. 

Namjoon notes they worked on the album for a long time, even before the most recent Bon Voyage. 

"We couldn't help but choose the number 7 because the number represents BTS itself in a way. [...] I think you can find everything about us from this album. All the answers for questions that you or anyone can have of us. [...] How we grew up, what we think, and how our thoughts changed."

"This album is...personally for me, it feels like an agreement of the seven of us. [...] We basically made an agreement. We agreed on the fact that the seven of us need to go on all together."

"Persona, shadow, and ego, in a way they just seem to be a series of concepts. But we will have a conclusion after having contrasted the light and darkness, like thesis-antithesis-synthesis. We just present a kind of joy, darkness, then a kind of mindset we need to have. Seven of us are in the same boat, so even though we look at different directions, we are heading to the same point, with the same mind/heart. I think the mind/heart is represented in the album as the Ego. I made the album based on this idea. I had lots of conversation with other members. I felt very complicated. The album reminded me of our old days because ‘ON’ is the reverse of ‘N.O.’”

A Note on Solo Songs

He mentions that the in-house team asked each of them what they wanted to do for their solo work (such as the subject matter, how they want it to be, etc) and that's how their themes were decided.  "We always think that we should work on our current feelings and actual thoughts to show our honest identity, to make good songs and emotions." "In other words, all of our solo works are something directly from our emotions." He says they talk about their opinions with the in-house team and come up with a draft, and then they (along with others in the songwriting team + topliners, etc) all work on it and then "select and combine good ideas." He says that some of the members would give him text files with information such as what lyrics they want where and other ideas. He says for Seokjin, he "didn't want the lyrics to be too figurative and he wanted some parts to be intuitive."

Interlude: Shadow

He says while listening to the song, he realized how sad it was and that Yoongi is "so good at delivering the sentiment of the song." He also notes that it's "more beautiful because it's sad." He says that Yoongi samples the intro from O!RUL8,2? and that he heard Yoongi worked a long time on the song. Yoongi texted him to ask him to review his English lyrics, Namjoon explains, citing that his name also appears on the credits. He says Yoongi doesn't usually ask for help, but he thinks he did because it was English. 

Black Swan

Namjoons says he thinks "black swan" is a popular term recently; he's even heard it used in economics. He says he watched the film Black Swan again after he received the song, before writing the lyrics. (He says he cried watching it.) "And I felt something desperate, in the process of transforming from a swan to a black swan. I could see all those conflicts and emotions. Movies give us sentiments different from those we feel from music." He says the film made him think of how dancers live, and he wrote the lyrics while thinking about that life. 

Filter

Namjoon says he didn't take part in this song and that Jimin took the lead. He remembers watching Jimin as he practiced and practiced. [The lack of detail here is because he didn’t work on the song.]

My Time

Namjoon says this is the song he wrote during Bon Voyage. (He says it was a first draft and the subject changed so he had to revise it later.) He says Jungkook, like Seokjin, would verbally discuss with him to ask his thoughts, and then revise the track. He says when he received the guide for "My Time," it was in random English words that started right away (after the first note), and notes that he was bewildered and not sure what he was supposed to do with it. [Because it was odd and difficult to work with.] He wasn't sure how to write lyrics to that. He says it's not a difficult song and that it was successful thanks to Jungkook's capabilities. 

"You might think, 'Why does he keep saying that was difficult?' But when you create something, you get stuck in your box. You can't see yourself objectively. But if someone from outside points it out, the song becomes very fresh." 

Louder than Bombs

Namjoon says it's the first song he worked on for the album and that his suggestions were turned down many times. He says he was sad while making this one, and he felt like he had run out of energy. The original line for after "louder than bombs I break" was "protective walls collapse," and he mentions he wanted to keep the line because he liked it. "When I wrote this song, I thought about letters, letters that I received. When I read posts on Weverse, fans share sad things. They didn't do it to make us feel sad. Talking about sad things can lessen the burden [...] When I read fans' postings about sad things in their lives, I thought about the feelings that we have, or the emotions. Even when we're at a concert hall with fans, and fans enjoy our exciting songs, all of us can't be happy all the time, even though we were happy at that moment." He says he thought about how he could "embrace all the pain pouring out" (lyrics from the song). "Is it possible for a person like me to embrace their pain? I'm just a person. Is it possible to comfort them?" He says it's a confession/question to himself.   

ON

Namjoon talks about how they had a meeting about the concept of the album, and the idea of "rebooting" a title was discussed. Similar to how "Boy with Luv" came from "Boy in Luv," they were looking at "N.O" and Jungkook suggested they change it to "ON." Namjoon said he liked the idea and then added more meanings to it, including "bring it on" and "keep on." He suggested "bring the pain on" first but then thought (along with the language team) that it didn't make sense, so it was changed to "bring the pain, oh yeah." He talks a bit about the dance and how it was difficult, mentioning he didn't think they'd do anything harder than "IDOL." He says the theme is going crazy so as to not go crazy: "I have said this in many ways. [...] In this complicated world, in this world full of irrationality, there are a lot of irrational things we can't understand. We pretend to be rational, though [...] If you want to be sane in this crazy world, you've gotta go crazy. Whatever it may be, you have to be crazy. Whether it's your job, your hobby, you gotta go crazy about one thing. That's how we can stay sane. [...] This song is about such stories." He goes on to say, "It's also about us. We have to be crazy, crazy for practicing. That's how we, as BTS, stay away from skepticism or something like the shadow. Not to be eaten away by such things as the shadow, we have to go crazy." When talking about the bridge of the song, he says he wanted it to have "a spiritual impression." He worried it was too high for Jungkook (a female vocalist sang it in the guide track, and it was so high), but he says Jungkook did a great job. 

UGH! 

Namjoon says he had a hard time with the chorus and Yoongi helped him out. He says the song is a "roleplay", and admits he had to "maximize the anger" in himself because it wasn't easy to write. He goes on to talk about the lyrics and how they're about people thinking they're ethical and moral on social media and how they’re angry at others/blame others. He says it's hard to know others, mentioning even his mother doesn't fully know him and he doesn't know Yoongi or Hoseok fully, despite having lived together for 10 years. "It's hard to know myself. 'I know him and he's like this, he's such a person' - I thought this is quite dangerous [...] Having confidence about something or believing that I know everything is dangerous." He goes on to say that we see what we know, and that we will interpret others based on this. Namjoon emphasizes that it's all explained in the lyrics of the song. "I feel the anger is rampant around us, here and there, without knowing where to go [...] People blame you for everything no matter what you do. [...] People talk about others too easily, blame them too easily." He says these thoughts caused him to reflect on whether he's like this too. Namjoon says he and Yoongi and Hoseok wrote this because they all had similar thoughts about it. 

00:00

Namjoon starts off by saying the song is "basically about life goes on. No matter what happens, our lives go on." He says he finished the lyrics in the shortest amount of time. The song is about life going on even when bad things happen and we're hurt by various things. He mentions writing the line about snow in response to seeing a field of snow that hadn't been disturbed, and that it made him gasp. He mentions Jimin saying that the lyrics "felt like it was his [Jimin's] story." Namjoon mentions being grateful that Jimin expressed how he liked the lyrics, because many people have a hard time "praising others for their successes, and everyone is jealous of others." He says that the others singing this song was like having his own story told to him for comfort. 

Inner Child

Namjoon says that when he worked on this song, he wanted to put himself in Taehyung's place (to make the song fit him). "When he joined, his first impression was like a troublemaker. [...] We went out to eat ice cream without telling the team and got scolded. We have a lot of memories like that. Taehyung and I have child-like tastes. Both of us, including me, we are rebellious, not so obviously, though. So we have such memories." He says when they didn't have anything in the past, they would spend time at Han River together, and those memories mean a lot to him now, and this song reminds him of little Namjoon and Taehyung. He talks about the "You didn't believe in galaxies" line, recounting how they went to an astronomy observatory in Bon Voyage and Taehyung saw the galaxy for the first time, saying that he didn't believe you could see it with just your eyes. He says that child-like expression left a big impression on him. "Basically I think Taehyung and I feel in a similar way. [...] I wanted to fill the song with pretty words for the little kid Taehyung in the past." He also notes the original lyrics were "We don't change" but that it didn't quite fit, so they changed it to "We gon' change." He says Taehyung also worked on the lyrics actively. Namjoon also says Taehyung gave him detailed info about the bridge (the part about grasping hands). "Grown-up Taehyung will take care of works in reality, little Taehyung may stay in me or in another world and see the galaxy that I started believing in." - This is how Namjoon understood that part. 

Friends

Namjoon talks about Jimin showing him the melody he wrote for this, and how the team wanted him [Namjoon] to write the lyrics, but it was difficult because it was all about them [Jimin and Taehyung]. "I couldn't write about their unique relationship and friendship." He says Supreme Boi worked a lot on the lyrics, and that he isn't sure if Jimin and Taehyung did. Namjoon says it's "cute and small events in their daily lives." 

Moon

Namjoon talks about how Seokjin has his own struggles, despite saying he's okay and appearing easy-going, which Namjoon realized via this song. "It's something we can't talk about together since we're too shy." He says Seokjin composed the chorus, and that he made it in a unique register. He says they went back and forth editing the lyrics. One of the original lyrics was "I'm just a moon to you, your little island that lights up your heart" and that Seokjin changed it to "little star." He also says, "When I read the lyrics, I thought 'His love for ARMY is so deep.'" Namjoon says he also wrote some of the lines in English ("I'll orbit around you") but Seokjin changed them to Korean, noting that maybe he related better to the Korean lyrics instead of the English ones.  

Respect 

Namjoon says he asked Yoongi to make a boom-bap beat because he wanted to rap to that sort of old school style. He says "these days people say respect too lightly [...] I think respect has weight in its meaning." He says they talked about that and agreed to write a track around it, and that they have different ways of talking, but that they "started from a similar point." He talks about how they have more serious songs and that they wanted to have a lighter, fun song. 

We are Bulletproof: The Eternal

Namjoon says he cried a lot while writing this song, maybe because he likes the word "eternal." "Creators long for something that's eternal. Of course they do. They want their work to last forever. Writers don't want their books to be left unread." He says the song is an announcement, "We have 7 members, but thanks to you, we're all one team. We'll go to heaven, holding hands together. We'll go to paradise. That's the theme of this song." He says he doesn't remember any behind stories because he just cried a lot writing it. 

Outro: Ego

Namjoon says he doesn't know much about the songwriting process for this song because he wasn't involved. He says it was difficult for Hoseok to write and he made a lot of changes. "This song heralds the start of a festival, saying that we will keep going on." 

Other Notes

"This album has answers to questions about us, questions that we have about ourselves, or questions about why we succeeded, which many people commonly ask, or questions about our future or our past. This album has all the answers." He says that the album is their beginning and conclusion, as well as their present. "Why are we still together now? Because we're on the same boat. 

He also talks again about how they had a comeback but couldn't see fans, and he felt powerless in the situation. But he thought about how they have to have strength and stay happy, because many people are suffering. "If we don't, it will make our fans lose their energy." He says they prepared for a long time for the concerts and that they felt frustrated because they can't perform. 

He ends the video by saying that the reason he shares his feelings with fans is because "someone is touched by my words or lyrics. 10 years ago, and even now, I have this one and only reason. [...] I hope my sincere heart can be helpful to someone in their life. ... I still believe in the value of a true heart. I believe in a true heart and love. That's the power that makes me move on."