Who is “HER”?

BTS have referenced someone called “Her” throughout many of their songs in the LY Album series. They even placed “Her” in the title of the first album: Love Yourself: 承 Her, and included the song “Her” in both Love Yourself: 承 Her and Love Yourself: 結 Answer.

Clearly, “Her” is very very very special.

In my humble opinion, understanding the significance of the pronoun “Her” (and by extension “she”) is incredibly important to understanding, interpreting and appreciating the possible meanings and stories embedded in the lyrics of their LY songs.

If my conclusions on this page don’t appear to be fully supported, it is because to understand “Her” properly, you need to understand “Just Dance”, “Tear”, “Seesaw”, “Dimple”, “Love” etc holistically. But to understand them, you need to understand the significance of the pronoun “Her”, and round and round in circles we go.

I also don’t want to overload you with information. Hence, I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible by publishing this post containing only what you need to know and a simplified version of my song interpretations. Hopefully when the rest of my full song analyses are released, the pieces will easily fall into place 🙂

If you can’t be bothered reading the whole thing – I get it. Click here to skip to the end.

New Readers, if you don’t know what is going on, please start here.

The “Her(s)” in “Her”

“Her”, the seventh song in Love Yourself: 結 Answer was written by Namjoon, Yoongi and Hobi. The chorus goes:

“You’re the answer
I call you her, her
Cause you’re my tear, tear“.

As per my assumptions, I analyse lyrics from the author’s point of view and therefore considered the possibility that one word may have multiple significant meanings.

There are three authors and three distinct rap parts in this song. Thus, I considered the possibility that there are three distinctive groups of “Her”.

In addition, there are two things of significance I want to discuss from the chorus:

1. The oddity of specifically stating someone’s gender; and
2. The significance of assigning someone a name.

1. The oddity of specifically stating someone’s gender

When I first listened to the song “Her”, I found the lyrics “I call you her, her” strange and awkward because… if I was singing about my lover or a friend who was a girl, I would have simply used the possessive pronoun “her” directly in the lyrics (e.g. “I called her today”) because… obviously she is female.

I wouldn’t think to point out that detail or clarify her gender.

Unless… this person… or maybe persons is/are not.

The act of having to state specifically that you’re assigning this person the pronoun “Her”, implies that maybe, this person (or persons) isn’t obviously a singular female.

2. The significance of assigning someone a name

The significance of names in BTS’ songs (and particularly in Namjoon’s work) are connected to the Korean Poem ‘Flower’. The poem explores the significance of being assigned a name, or calling a name, as a Name defines you.

In the above lyrics, by assigning the pronoun “Her” to this person(s) and calling this person(s) “Her”, Namjoon, Yoongi and Hobi are effectively defining the pronoun “Her” to a specific person or persons.

Therefore, whenever Namjoon, Yoongi and Hobi refer to “Her” in their lyrics, they are referring to the same person(s) they have individually and specifically assigned this pronoun to.

Discovering who are the “Her(s)” in Namjoon’s, Yoongi’s and Hobi’s lyrics

As you may know from my post about the the hidden puzzle in the LY Albums, I have a slight obsession in trying to understand the significance of things.

One of the things I obsessively questioned when I first started listening to BTS is why there were three specific songs with the Prefix “Trivia” in the LY series.

The explanations I found always felt “very surface level” and given the genius of BTS, I personally felt that the intricate details of their meaning had yet to be fully explored and appreciated.

In other words, I believe BTS gave the songs: Trivia 起: Just Dance, Trivia 承: Love, and Trivia 轉: Seesaw, a Prefix for special meaningful reasons, and to highlight their particular importance amongst all of their songs.

In addition, given that Hobi is the sole accredited BTS author for Trivia 起: Just Dance, Namjoon for Trivia 承: Love, and Yoongi for Trivia 轉: Seesaw*, these three songs would naturally contain lyrics that are specifically personal and meaningful from Hobi, Namjoon and Yoongi’s point of view (POV) respectively.

*For your ease of reference, you can see view the full track list of the three LY albums and their respective accredited BTS authors here.

Analysing song lyrics specifically personal to Hobi, Namjoon and Yoongi is important as it gives us a pure Hobi, Namjoon and Yoongi POV.

This pure, unmixed POV allows us to understand clearly who each of them may be referring to when they sing/rap about “Her”.

Hence, I analysed these three songs with context and reference to the other songs in the LY Album series and have set out the relevant points of my interpretations below.

Who is “Her” from Hobi’s perspective?

Without going into too much detail, my interpretation of the song Trivia 起: Just Dance is that Hobi is singing about his love for performing and dancing for ARMY.

The lyrics in Trivia 起: Just Dance set the scene of BTS preparing for a concert:

“We each stretch
Getting rid of the nerves”

Further, these lyrics conjure up images of a BTS concert experience at night:

“…watching this sunset with you…
to the rhythm of the music
however our bodies move,
we’re shadows underneath the moonlight…”

Hobi also appears to be directly speaking to his global fan base:

“…where are you from…
my dreams that once had no answer
now becomes something we can relate to…
I like the feeling of dancing with you”.

The lyrics in Trivia 起: Just Dance suggest that Hobi is singing about his love for ARMY. This is consistent with Hobi’s line in “Her” where he raps:

“Greeting me with cheers, her. I’m your star, I shine as if nothing’s wrong” .

This line paints a beautiful image of Hobi (aka Sunshine of our lives) stepping out on stage for the first time at a BTS concert to a stadium full of cheering ARMYs.

In other words, when Hobi is referring to “Her” in his lyrics, I believe he is specifically referring to us, ARMY. <3

Who is “Her” from Namjoon’s perspective?

The song “Trivia 承: Love” written solely by Namjoon is the 6th song in the Love Yourself: 結 Answer Album, right before the song “Her”.

Trivia 承: Love describes Namjoon’s feelings of being in love with a certain person. This person is Namjoon’s “person… desire… pride… love… (My) one and only love.”

This is consistent with Namjoon’s lines in “Her” where he raps:

“We was looking for love
I…didn’t even believe in true love…
but I found myself…
I wanna be the best man for you…
you’re the whole world to me
When you said you wanted to die with me
I promised to be the man you want…”

Namjoon’s lyrics in “Her” describes the complexity of being in love and being so in love with each other that they “wanted to die” together. Generally, the proclamation of wanting to die together is only used in intimate relationships like in Romeo and Juliet.

In other words, when Namjoon refers to “Her” in his lyrics, I believe he is specifically referring to his lover, the love of his life.

Who is “Her” from Yoongi’s perspective?

The lyrics of Trivia 轉: Seesaw suggest that Yoongi wrote this song with his BTS members in mind:

“…we grew tired…
we’re getting sick and tired of each other…
we know someone gets hurt if the other is gone…
we showed off who was heavier
we bragged and smiled at each other…“

In addition, we know from Yoongi’s interview that the song “Tear”, the song after Trivia 轉: Seesaw, was written for the members and it was about them nearly breaking up.

“The lyrics for ‘Tear’ were written for the members. At the time, we were deeply contemplating whether we should quit or not. When I played the song for the members, we all cried together.”

As above, the lyrics from Yoongi’s songs in the LY album series suggest that he is rapping about his BTS members.

This is consistent with Yoongi’s lines in “Her” where he raps:

“Maybe I’m your enemy and friend…
Make up….and dress up to mask on…
I put on clothes I hate, excessive make up…
I always make an effort to be the best for you”.

Yoongi’s lyrics paint the picture of a day in the life of a BTS member: Of waking up, putting on excessive make up, battling to understand and stay true to their own personas, and doing their best to be the best person for each other.

In other words, when Yoongi refers to “Her” in his lyrics, I believe he is specifically referring to his fellow BTS Members.

Author’s Summary

To sum it all up:

“Her” can either be referring to ARMY, Namjoon’s love of his life or the BTS Members depending on the song’s context.

This is an important concept to understand as it provides context and meaning when analysing the lyrics of each group of songs*.

*If you don’t understand what I mean by group of songs, please read my post here.

Author’s Update 15/07/2020 – Since writing the above post, it has been kindly brought to my attention by @namjin_home that the word “Trivia” means “the meeting of three roads/ways” in Latin.

Three ways… like three ways to interpret the songs… like maybe three perspectives? How very very fitting indeed… 🙂

Thanks for reading ARMY! As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my post! Please retweet if you agree and feel free to reach out and connect!

x G
(Follow me on Twitter @btsgtheories)

Lyric Sources: HER, Trivia 起: Just Dance, Trivia 承: Love and Trivia 轉: Seesaw

Disclaimer:

As per my first author’s note, please, no hate!

I do not have a shipping or individual bias and I love all seven members equally.

I analyse songs with consideration to the author’s perspective.

It does not matter one bit to me if they are straight, gay, intersex, a skrull, a mutant or if they could lay eggs. I love them wholeheartedly (as a sister who would love her younger brothers) for their individual selves.

These are my theories based on my interpretations of their amazing songs. Please enjoy.