When IVE releases a music video, they are not merely presenting a visual accompaniment to sound — they are constructing a symbolic world in which identity, growth, and self-awareness are translated into image-language. Their videos are structured like mirrors: you do not simply watch IVE; you recognize yourself through them. Every scene becomes architecture for emotion, and every prop becomes metaphor designed with intention. For IVE, visual symbolism is not decoration — it is narrative.
Visual Storytelling as Identity
In most pop music videos, imagery serves as background.
In IVE’s work, imagery is the story.
Their artistic approach begins with a question:
“Who am I becoming?”
Rather than showing plot-driven narratives, their music videos express transformation through symbolic movement — walking upward, stepping forward, emerging from shadow into light. These are not aesthetic gestures; they are psychological markers of awakening.
“I AM” is the clearest example: the MV is less about physical travel and more about crossing thresholds of the self. The viewer witnesses not a character going somewhere, but a young woman discovering who she already is.
The Language of Color – Emotion as Palette
Color in IVE’s visual vocabulary is emotional philosophy.
| Color | Song | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| White / Silver | I AM | awakening, clarity, transcendence |
| Pastel / Soft tones | Either Way | introspection, sincerity, vulnerability |
| Red / Black | Baddie | declaration, self-ownership, unapologetic identity |
In I AM, the dominant white and silver palette symbolizes self-realization — not the discovery of something new, but the revelation of what has always been there.
Either Way softens its palette to create a private emotional interior — as if the song takes place inside the mind.
In Baddie, the colors sharpen into contrast, representing the moment when inner truth becomes outward choice.
Thus, IVE uses color progression as emotional chronology — a visual timeline of becoming.
Space as Narrative – Architecture of Becoming
IVE’s music videos repeatedly use height, perspective, and spatial expansion to symbolize the evolution of self.
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Stairs = ascent, passage into selfhood
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Corridors = decision, contemplation
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Open cityscape / rooftops = transcendence
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Glass buildings = self-awareness through reflection
The “I AM” MV is filled with rising structures — staircases, elevated floors, and panoramic skylines — visually reinforcing becoming larger than the horizon that once contained you.
The narrative message is not: “I want to be more.”
It is:
“I am already more, and now I claim the space that matches me.”
🎥 IVE – “I AM” (Official Music Video)
The Mirror Motif – Reflection as Awakening
Mirrors in IVE’s cinematography do not represent vanity — they represent recognition.
Where others might ask, “How do I look?”, IVE asks,
“Who have I become?”
The mirror is not surface — it is confrontation.
In Either Way, the reflective surfaces often distort or soften the members’ images, suggesting the uncertainty of self-perception.
In I AM, by contrast, reflection becomes affirmation: the moment self-doubt dissolves into awareness.
The message is not “I want the world to see me.”
The message is
“I finally see myself.”
The Gate and Threshold – Crossing Into the Self
One of the most recurring symbolic structures in IVE’s visual world is the doorway — a liminal space between who you were and who you are becoming.
Doors, car interiors, revolving entrances, and rooftop access points all serve as metaphors of threshold. You do not simply move through them — you arrive into yourself.
“I AM” constantly frames the members on the brink of passage: poised at the top of a staircase, standing on the edge of a skyline, or walking toward bright open space. These visuals suggest not escape, but arrival — the understanding that transformation is not a journey outward but a recognition inward.
Where many artists depict “becoming” as chase, IVE depicts it as unveiling.
Camera as Philosophy – From Observation to Becoming
IVE's MV direction uses camera movement as narrative argument.
The camera rarely follows — it joins.
Rather than documenting motion, it embodies motion.
Early frames in “I AM” are observed from a distance — the perspective of external expectation.
But as the MV progresses, the camera shifts closer, then upward, then aligned directly with the performer — and by the final chorus, the viewer no longer watches IVE; they stand with them.
This shift in perspective is subtle but radical:
you stop being audience, and you become witness.
It is a visual statement that identity is not a spectacle — it is a becoming that the self must finally participate in.
The Trilogy of Becoming – I AM / Either Way / Baddie
These three singles are not separate concepts — they are a philosophical triptych:
| Song | Stage of Self | Symbolic Function |
|---|---|---|
| Either Way | inner truth | Who am I inside? |
| I AM | awakening | I see who I am now. |
| Baddie | declaration | And I choose it — publicly. |
This transformation arc is not a story of rebellion; it is a story of permission — permission to inhabit one’s own magnitude.
IVE is not fighting the world to be seen;
they are stepping fully into what they already are.
Thus, the “I AM” trilogy is not about becoming someone new —
it is about remembering the self you had not yet claimed.
Wrap-Up: When Symbol Becomes Self
IVE’s symbolism is not ornamental — it is ontological.
It reveals identity not as a performance, but as emergence.
Their MVs do not say “watch me evolve”;
they say “witness me arrive.”
Stairs become agency, doors become thresholds,
reflection becomes recognition, and light becomes embodiment.
This is why IVE’s visual storytelling resonates so strongly:
it does not teach you who they are —
it reminds you who you are becoming.
When the frame fades, the feeling that remains is not spectacle —
it is self-affirmation.
<The end>
