A Close Read: Singularity

I did this in video form here if you’d like to watch rather than read! There’s some images that go with the explanation but it’s nothing too fancy.

The idea for this new series in which I examine some of BTS’s songs came to me while thinking about literary analysis and how oftentimes students of English/literature are asked to perform “a close read.” A close reading of a text is an analysis in which the writer reads and analyzes only what is available in the given text. No outside influences are taken into account; it’s just a close analysis of what we’re given on the page. It’s common to go line by line, but we also look at word use, metaphors and similes, tone, repetition, and many other literary devices. This sort of analysis also reminds me of my history training since research and synthesis are the entire basis of the field.

Anyway, the idea came to me, and I wanted to give it a go. (Might as well use those college degrees, right?) I plan to use whatever text is available to me for each song, meaning the song lyrics and the music video. If there’s no video, then the focus will be more on the lyrics. However, since BTS’s work often connects to a larger theme, there will be times where I bring in examples from other sources (whether they are BTS-created sources or outside sources) in order to enrich the analysis.

Title

“Singularity” is another way to say “singular,” as in “the state of.”

There’s also the idea of Singularity in science/technology, which refers to moments when our world changes so much (due to advances in technology) that there’s a divide between those who lived before the change and those who came after. Some believe that once AI reaches a certain point, our world will change so drastically that the “human era” will end. (Source)

Namjoon mentions this idea of Singularity when he referenced the book titled The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology in his V LIVE broadcast about the making of Love Yourself: Tear. But he mentions that this idea isn’t related to the song, just that he was interested in the book.

Here, the title likely just refers to its simple meaning of “being singular”; as we’ll see the song is about being isolated within love and watching that love fall apart.

Song

As I’ll mention later, the lyrics of this track are definitely in line with the greater theme of the album; however, the song itself doesn’t really give any indication of what the rest of the album will sound like. The album experiments with many different genres, but this song being neo soul with clear jazz/R&B influences really sets the song apart.

Its tone is dark and sultry, and Taehyung’s vocals are smooth but haunting. It’s a great atmospheric song, but it definitely stands on its own when placed within the context of the album. It’s also a great fit for Taehyung’s voice—Namjoon mentions this in his V LIVE broadcast as well, that no one could have performed it quite like Taehyung can.

The song itself makes use of a lot of space. By that I mean that there are lots of pockets of silence within the track. The instrumentals are pretty muted, and there’s nothing noisy or cacophonous. The vocals drive the track a lot. The use of space matches up nicely with the theme of isolation.

Lyrics

We know that the running concept for this album is love that appeared to be destined but turned out not to be true, as this is a continuation from “DNA.” This is clearly seen in the title, “Fake Love,” but it is also referenced throughout several of the other songs. “Singularity” definitely plays with this theme; it serves as a very fitting intro before the title track, as it builds up the theme. (rest below the cut!)

First, I want to point out the repetition of certain words throughout the lyrics. I see a few instances of 목소리, 소리, 호수, 아픔 (and related), and 가짜. This suggests that these words and themes are important to the message. As we’ll see, pain, isolation, and having a voice are running ideas throughout.

For this lyrical analysis I’ll be using my own translation of the song.

There’s a sound of something breaking
I awake suddenly
A sound full of unfamiliarity
I tried blocking my ears, but I can’t sleep

Reading the first stanza: in the line “there’s a sound of something breaking”, this seems to be a metaphor, possibly for the sound of the relationship or love (which is a fake love) breaking. The illusion is shattering—maybe this is reality setting in. The word “sound” appears twice and could very well be a symbolizing a realization that the narrator has suddenly come to.

My throat keeps hurting
I tried to cover it up but
I don’t have a voice
Oh, today I hear that sound too

In the second stanza, we have “throat” and “voice” as well as “pain” and “sound” appearing. “My throat keeps hurting” and “I don’t have a voice” demonstrate the feeling of isolation and maybe even helplessness in this situation of a love that isn’t what it seemed to be. It seems that the narrator is trying to hold on to a facade, probably for his own sake.

It’s ringing again, that sound
In this frozen lake, there’s another crack
(You know) I threw myself into that lake
(You know) I buried my voice for your sake

The third stanza brings in the imagery of the frozen lake, which is likely a metaphor for the love in general. The first two lines talk about a crack in the lake, like it’s a crack in the façade of the fake love as reality is coming to the surface. The following two lines show the narrator’s sacrifices for the sake of the relationship. “I threw myself into that lake” suggests the narrator plunged into this love that seemed to be pre-destined, but now that love is a frozen lake that is cracking and falling apart. There’s also the juxtaposition of winter and spring, which appears later in the song, so we have the frozen lake and the melting ice.

On top of the winter lake where I abandoned myself
A thick ice is frozen
Even in a dream I enter for a moment
The phantom pain that torments me is unchanged

Moving on to the fourth stanza, the first line references the winter lake where the narrator abandoned himself for love, and there’s a thick ice frozen on top, the isolation and failure of this love represented by a tangible subject. The last two lines comment on how even in dreams, there are phantom pains from this dark, unexpected side of love. The failure is something that is haunting him, in an all-consuming way.

Did I lose myself?
Or did I gain you?

This leads into the next stanza which is simply “Did I lose myself? / Or did I gain you?” This is the narrator weighing the relationship—did he lose himself in this fake love by sacrificing too much of himself? Did he cover parts of himself in order for “love” to flourish? Did he pretend to be someone else? Did he gain the love of the other person at all? Was it all a lie? What’s true, what’s fake, and is anything real?

Suddenly, I run to that lake
Oh, my face is (reflected) inside of it

Going to the next stanza, it’s almost as if the narrator has some sort of epiphany, as they run back to the lake. It’s like they’re returning to the lake, as in, the love/relationship while maintaining hope; however, once they get there, they see the same thing as before. It’s just themselves, trapped in the lake, trapped in the fake love that is suffocating and isolating.

Please don’t say anything
I reach out to cover (your) mouth but
in the end, someday spring will come
The ice melts and flows away

Tell me, if my voice is fake
shouldn’t I have thrown myself away?
Tell me, even if the agony is fake
What should I have done at the time?

The final two stanzas read like resolution or acceptance to me. The narrator is waiting for spring to come, which could mean the end of the relationship, or just waiting it out until the relationship gets better and it’s no longer a fake love. The meaning of spring is vague, but contrasting that with the use of winter earlier on, it’s pretty clear that it symbolizes change and hope—whether that means a rebirth of the relationship or its end.

The final stanza implies that the narrator’s voice and pain were not fake, but asks even if they were, what was the narrator supposed to do? Would it have made a difference? If the narrator is feeling pain in a fake relationship, does that make that pain (and the narrator’s voice) any less real? This ties back to the theme of real vs fake, what is actually happening, and what is perceived reality?

While looking at the lyrics, I also thought of the Chinese four character saying that relates to the progression of composition. We see this in the Love Yourself album titles and also in the video title for Euphoria. In Chinese it’s 起承轉結, and when read in Korean it’s 기승전결. 기 is the introduction, 승 is development, 전 is the turn or climax, and 결 is the conclusion. I can see the stanzas of this song as relating to this progression. I took the first two stanzas as 기, the second two as 승, the next two as 전, and the final two as 결. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it’s evidence of a well put together story because you can follow the progression well through the intro, development, the climax, and a resolution.

Video

We do have a video for this song, so I’ll briefly touch on it here. Like I mentioned, a close read is really only supposed to work with the given text, but since this was produced for the song, I’m going to consider it here.

The video does a great job at making the song come to life—the atmosphere, choreography, and production of the video all serve to enhance the song. The video is more minimalistic in terms of colors and sets, which fits a song that is focused on smooth vocals, space, and emotion.

The choreography itself is wonderful and creative—we see Taehyung, and later the backup dancers, acting out their own parts as if there is a partner there with them. But of course, their partners are just dressed-up coat racks symbolic of the fake relationship that the song addresses. It’s there, but it’s not really there, and there’s no substance.

We get the imagery of the frozen lake and the masks—the lake of course is the one that’s present in the lyrics and representative of an isolated love. The masks are representations of the fakery and are also a recurring theme in album.

I really like the use of space in this video, just like the song. Taehyung’s often depicted on plain backgrounds, blue, black, or white. There are scenes of him in the other room with the frozen lake, where there’s newspapers and flowers around the set. It’s hauntingly beautiful, like the song, and likely serves as something to mix up the video a bit, so that it’s not just plain backgrounds. It also almost looks like a dead garden, perhaps representative of the love that could not flourish. Of course, we even see him standing on top of the frozen lake, bringing that imagery to the forefront. At the end, we have the mask with the single tear track, which is one of the video’s biggest and most obvious symbols–masks are easily examples of fakery and facades, and we get masks mentioned in later song lyrics. In all, the video really fits the song, the theme, and overall atmosphere of the track and album.

Conclusion

With Singularity, we have the solid opening of an album about some of the harsh realities of love and relationships. The music video, lyrics, performance, and theme are all complementary, which means at the end, we’ve got a really cohesive set of media. The tone is preserved throughout it all, which is not usually easy to accomplish.

This song, like the rest of the album, connects to the larger story of this era, but honestly that could be multiple videos in and of itself. The Bangtan Universe is expanding, and this new direction is a nice change.