“7 Years” Visual Analysis

In September of 2015 Copenhagen Records released the single “7 Years” by Lukas Graham. The song was Graham’s own story about growing up and his realizations about the importance of life. As he moves though the song he explains his past, present and how he predicts his future. The song was later followed by a moving music video. Both the song and the video work together to relay the message to the audience that time goes by so fast and that growing up is not only an inevitably hard thing to do, but provides a reason for people to focus on the importance of family. This essay will explain several rhetorical appeals that the text uses.

The goal of this text is to warn people about letting life pass them by because they are stuck in a negative past. The demand of this text is the modern goal of money and a successful career instead family and bliss. Lukas Graham wanted his message to be heard by young adults. The young people needed to hear this song to have something to relate to and to hear a story where a troubled child was able to be genuinely happy with his life. “7 Years” uses many images to get his message across to the reader, like his personal journal, constant eye contact, the father’s grave, and the repetition of the first and last images and lyrics.

One of the opening scenes takes place with Lukas writing calmly in a personal journal. This scene gave a feeling that the journal somehow gave him comfort in tough times. Even that the journal brings comfort it also keeps him attached to his negative past. The journal from this point becomes symbolic to parts his undesirable past. The journal does not represent all of his past memories but the negatively outlook that his past would be his future with no room to move forward or be happier.

In the middle of the song, the journal is shown again but the author is tearing pages out of the journal. Also, at this time the lyrics get happier showing that his life is getting better. Therefore, as life continues happily, he learns he doesn’t need to stay attached to his past. This change to happiness works similar to the common statement “things will get better” from a caring mother or mentor. It effects the audience into feel a sense of hopefulness.

As the song ends, the ripped out pages of the journal are shown burning. The author not only wants to let go of his past, but he wants to start a new life without any negativity in it. Soon afterwards, the pages are shown not only on fire but exploding behind him as he walks away. If there was any question left about the author’s decision to leave his past behind him and move on with his life, he affirms that choice now.

The image of the journal is used as the design element repetition which is the reusing of the same element in a design to show a pattern or a sense of consistency. In this case, the repetition was used to form a type of progression where the image became increasing more seen and its importance and symbolism became clearer.

The color contrast and eye contact was a strategy to use pathos, which is an appeal to the audience’s emotion. During most of the video the audience is looking at many different people but they are all meant to make full eye contact with the audience. The eye contact creates a very personal connection by putting the people in the video and the audience on a one on one environment. The concept that the people in the video and the audience are equals are so important because it puts the audience in a situation that they try to understand their situations without judging them. The eye contact is not only meant to make the people in the video appear more personable but to seem honest and sincere which allows the audiences to feel conformable listening to their story and trying to relate to them. The entire video is shown in black and white a strong contrast. This contrast forces the audience to focus on the lyrics and more importantly look nowhere else but the in the eyes of the people in the video. The video does not just show the author with eye contact but people who vary in age and race. By doing this the author was able to communicate that this was his story but many others are going through the same issues.

The song unsurprising starts when he is seven years old. The song moves on to different stages of his life his troubled teens, thriving twenties, life experienced thirties, and his predicted sixties. As he grows up and has more life experiences he becomes more family oriented. The visual at this time is an older man that is singing the same words as him. This effects the audience to feel that even that he is just starting to grow his family he is feeling that he needs more time. This scene would feel relatable to older people who feel that they are still young and need more time with their families but also relate to the age group of author who is scared of losing their newly formed family. The scene is a play on time because it shows the audience two completely different ages but both worried about the same thing, their time left. The audience can connect with the worry of the images and question what they have done in their time here and what they wish to accomplish with family and God with their time left.

the song he talks about his father. The camera goes to a scene in a graveyard. The camera shots are all of the looking up at the grave. This effects the audience to know that his father is dead and to feel that the father was a strong leader figure to him and that the author looked up to him. Besides the grave itself the audience sees lots of shots of crosses and angels. This could make the audience draw the conclusion that his father was a man of Christ and he believed in an after life with Christ.The lyrics at this part of the song he tell us that his father dies at 61. He also says that no matter what we remember or do with life will forget and be truly happy in heaven. This message about death effects the audience to think about the ones they know who have died and are happier now and the fact that everyone will die. This is important to bring up because it forces the audience to think in about the bigger picture. Compared to heaven and death anyone’s life problems seem really small. It makes them question things like will their children remember you working extra or being there at their baseball game? Is money worth not being able to find love? Have I called my parents this week?

Both the lyrics and the images of the video start and stop in the same place. The text seems to be have a straight direction forward until you reach the end and it becomes clear that the direction of the video and song is actually a circle. The story is actually a cycle that repeats itself with each generation. The audience also questions the generation before them. This cycle effects the audience to questions if they are following the same path of their parents. This also effects the audience to question if their story will repeat to their children or if they have they created a different starting point for them.This creates a sense of worry and need to break the cycle before its to late.

7 years is a timeless music video that displays the message of moving on from negative experiences and that the only thing we should ever focus on is not wasting time. This text can relate to many different people, but the authors chose to use repeated symbolism, such as eye contact and the repetition of the first and last scene as the same images. Time is a gift and no one should waste it, but be thankful to have the people and experiences that one does have.

Works Cited
“Lukas Graham — 7 Years [Official Music Video].” Youtube, uploaded by Lukas Graham, 15 Dec. 2015. Accessed 15 Sept. 2016.

All pictures were screenshots from the video — “7 Years” by Lukas Graham.