“Lights” by BTS
“Lights” is a song designed primarily to express BTS’ appreciation for a certain friend. The titular ‘light’ is actually a metaphor for a positive, uplifting feeling a person can experience via the love of another. And BTS presents themselves more or less as depressed individuals – or at least people who sometimes suffer from depression – throughout the track. And the person(s) they are addressing is the one who serves as their “light”. This person or group of persons helps them overcome times of darkness. Moreover, they also willing to serve as a “light” to this individual or people also. So succinctly put, this song centers on a strong, empowering friendship.
It has been postulated that this emotional track is actually directed to the “BTS Army”, which is the name given to the band’s highly-committed fanbase. This Army serves as BTS’ “lights” and vice versa. And considering that BTS regularly gives such shoutouts to their mutual dependency on the Army, such an interpretation is the one which is being widely-accepted.
Release Date
“Lights” was released as the lead single from a three-single pack BTS released entitled “Lights / Boy with Luv” specifically for Japanese audiences on 3 July 2019. Thus “Lights” marks the first Japanese single the band dropped in 2019.
Music Video for “Lights”
The setting of the music video to “Lights” seems to be connected to that of the music video to the original, Korean version of “Boy with Luv”.
Writing and Production
This song was produced by UTA (for Tiny Voice Production), Yo-Hei and Sunny Boy. They also contributed to its lyrical composition alongside BTS member RM.
The lyrics and music to this song has taught me that there will be good and bad parts of life, but whatever you go through, you should always love yourself.