GOT7′s If You Do MV (Music Video Analysis)
Sorry this took so long! I’ve been sick and highly unmotivated, but it’s done now. The views presented in this analysis are a part of my own individual interpretation of the video, which means they are subject to error. Also take note that is post is done as a request for a group I don’t really follow. If I get their names mixed up or if I’m missing information that a fan would know, I apologize. Please be gracious with me. This post is based off of the video from the official JYP Entertainment Youtube channel. All English lyrics are taken from kpoplyrics.net.
Ms. Selfish: This concept is about the emotional baggage that comes along with a selfish lover. She’ll get pissed and then act like nothing’s wrong so they look like the ones screwing things up. She won’t take responsibility for it. She’ll destroy the relationship, but she won’t end it. “It’s up to you if you want to break up. I don’t care. Just do whatever you want. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll just go to sleep.” She refuses to allow actual confrontation in their relationship, forcing the boys to seek other modes of expression.
The resulting frustration is reflected in the video. Just as they feel that their girlfriend isn’t emotionally present in the relationship, there are no girls present in the video. They’re left by themselves to deal with their frustrations and emotions. Just as she destroyed the relationship, they resort to vandalism, perpetuating the cycle of destruction.
All of the members are dressed really nicely in at least one part of the video. They’re wearing fashionable suits. BamBam and Youngjae are even wearing Chanel pins. And yet, they’re in a grungy, dilapidated setting. The setting is indicative of the state of their relationship. It’s in disrepair and yet they’re dressed nicely–they’re putting in more effort than they should. From a narrative perspective, it could be inferred that they dressed up for a special occasion but their plans didn’t pan out. They got in a fight with their girlfriend, or she stood them up. Now they’re left to wander alone and face the reality that they’re the only ones left trying in the relationship.
This is what JB is doing as he walks alone at night. Neon signs advertise bars, while others are more abstract, reading, “[something I can’t see] than/then a summer” and “linger on your pale blue eyes.” At one point in the video, a neon sign reading, “emotion,” is visible. As there are no conventional purposes for such signs, I believe that these phrases represent JB’s thoughts as he walks along at night. The mention of summer suggests pasts memories, as he “lingers” on better memories from early in their relationship. In his disappointment, he tries to redeem their love but is instead provoked to anger.
Mark is shown in a prison. The setting evokes feelings of being trapped. As she remains distant and hesitant to resolve conflict, this has left Mark feeling trapped.
“Frustrated with no one to talk to
Sometimes I delude myself that I’m trapped”
However, Mark walks around freely. While he may feel trapped, he’s not the one imprisoned. Because of his girlfriend’s refusal to speak openly in the relationship, she’s the actual one imprisoned.
Jr. sits alone in a makeshift art studio, surrounded by canvases. Each canvas has a different portrait, symbolizing the “different faces” that she wears.
“If you do it always becomes the right words
If you do I can never win
Suddenly you become a different person
When we get along well I get more nervous”
He looks sad, absent-minded. In his disappointment, he’s gone to the place where he was inspired by love, where he could express his emotions healthily. Now, he isn’t creating. He’s only bouncing a ball off the wall. Along with his emotions, his creativity has been stifled. Being amongst past art doesn’t spur new creativity, just as reliving past happy memories doesn’t create new happy memories.
In the dance setting (which is a continuation of the sets featuring JB, Youngjae, and BamBam), there’s a parked car covered in graffiti. If the car is that heavily vandalized, the car has probably just been sitting there for a long time without going anywhere. This is representative of the state of their relationship, as well, as they make no progress moving forward.
Some of the graffiti in the background reads, “Not street art, plain old vandalism.” I believe that this is borrowed from actual street art that says the same thing, and in that context, it’s meant to be a commentary about the incorrect perception of street art as vandalism. This ties into the perspective of the girl, that expression would damage the relationship–would be vandalism. To them, expression is expression. Resolving confrontation and discussing the things that bother them is healthy, it’s art.
Jackson sits on a beat up couch (the same couch BamBam sits on). There are boxing posters on the wall and a punching bag in the background. While Jackson does hit the punching bag, and the posters advertise his interest in boxing, it remains that he’s boxing alone. He’s not actually participating in the sport. Where he can think over and over again about expression, without the girl there to express to, he’s getting nowhere. He’s punching a bag over and over with no effect.
Yugyeom waits in the hall of an apartment building, presumedly outside his girlfriend’s home. Yugyeom’s setting mirrors Mark’s. She’s locked herself inside as if in a personal prison. Both Mark and Yugyeom’s scenes show the strength of their separation and the resultant stifled expression.
“So I can’t get any closer
Can’t deepen my love for you”
The alternative dance setting is a wasteland. Either snow or ash is falling. It’s a dismal, eerie, apocalyptic setting. This shows the emotional toxicity of their relationship.
The girl looks through the peephole. She sees Yugyeom waiting outside, seeking reconciliation. She sees him yearning to mend their relationship and yet she keeps the door locked.
BamBam sits on a beat up couch. There’s a faux zebra skin, suggesting a wild element to his anger. He has a baseball bat. The baseball bat is the tool he’ll later use to wreck the car. He has the tools to end their relationship. The resentment is present. He only has to act.
To the left of the screen, a carousel horse can be seen in the background. Stripped from its setting, the horse is rendered immobile. Like the vandalized car, the horse cannot fulfill its purpose. It’s going nowhere. Unlike the car, even if the carousel horse were mobile, it’s incapable of going anywhere else but round and round. It suggests that the relationship was destined to go nowhere.
Jr.’s expression is one of resignation. He’s reached his end. He’s done.
Where JB walks at night, Youngjae walks during the day. It’s suggests a continuity of the frustration, something that plagues them night and day. As Youngjae walks, spray can in hand, we see actual street art. It contrasts Youngjae’s vandalism, suggesting that while expression at one point may have been art, his frustrations will be vandalism and destructive. If they had acted earlier, their expression might have saved the relationship, but now it can only end it. Youngjae’s vandalism contrasts to Jr.’s actual art, showing the difference between once healthy expression in comparison to the pent up frustration.
The members reach their limit. Their frustrations explode.
Youngjae wrote “b****” in spray paint just above a monkey holding a sign reading, “laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge.” This shows his desire to take charge of his life again. This is his motivation behind finally allowing himself to release his pent up frustration.
BamBam trashes the vandalized car with his baseball bat. He destroys the part of the relationship that’s stalled. He’s decided to move toward the future. BamBam’s destruction parallels the scenes with Jackson and JB. They show three degrees of destruction. Jackson shows destruction without harm, as the punching bag isn’t damaged. JB shows destruction that can be repaired, as the trashcan he kicks over can be picked up. BamBam shows destruction beyond repair. The glass can be replaced but not repaired. It’s been shattered, as have the rearview mirrors.
Jr. trashes his paintings. He destroys the sentimental part of him, the good memories, that prevents him from ending the relationship.
Eventually Jr. just breaks down and cries. Deeper than his anger is his grief because he knows that her apathy means that he loves her more than she loves him. At first there was frustration, and then there is heartbreak, and then you move on.
BamBam throws away his bat, lets go of his resentment, and Mark walks away. The relationship is over.
