Rhetorical Analysis: Love Die Young and I don’t miss you by Eric Nam

There’s millions of songs about romance and break ups, but Eric Nam’s I don’t Miss You stood out to me. I don’t miss you is a song that brings out so much emotion in me and most people who have gone through relationships. In this song Eric Nam is having a conversation with his ex and is trying to tell them that it’s over and they should move on. Nam really drives the point home with the repetition of the main chorus and other supporting statements. In this essay I will discuss the rhetorical features and persuasion. My target audience is those who do have an understanding of rhetoric. The main points I will cover are how Nam appeals to pathos with repetition and storytelling. The argument being why the other person should let go.

  Before we get into the summary and break down of the song, let’s talk about the author, Eric Nam. Born on November 17, 1988, Eric Nam is a singer, songwriter and entertainer based in South Korea. Nam was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Boston college with a degree in International Studies. After posting a video on Youtube and going viral, Nam was invited onto a talent show and jump started his career in South Korea. Since then, Nam has had a successful career in the entertainment industry. But that’s not without any obstacles, being in the entertainment trade means having your livelihood be based on your relevance and that means no breaks. The problem with that is people suffer from burnouts and the same happened to Nam. This brings me to another point, in this essay I will also discuss another song and that song is Love Die Young, another song of Nam’s. Love Die Young is a song about burnout, how young love never lasts and the undying passion Nam has for his work. In this song imagery is heavily emphasized. This helps the listener visualize the feeling of losing someone or something you love.

The song I don’t miss you is about losing patience and wanting the other person to let go. In I don’t miss you the songwriter is having a conversation with someone, the topic of that conversation being breakups and getting over it. The author is being harsh on his ex in order for her to be able to move on. Some examples of that would be the verse “I hear you speaking. Your words lost their meaning. And I’m so done with dealing. Dealing with you” is about a person’s patience running out and no longer finding pleasure in the actions of the other person. Another example that really cements the author’s point is the chorus of the song “I don’t miss you. Don’t miss me too” is the author telling his ex to forget him because he’s doing the same. Overall, any listeners on either side of the relationship can relate to this song. Accepting the outcomes of breakups can be hard, especially if the split isn’t clean. It’s hard to let go if they think there’s still a connection, which is why you need to let them know it’s really over.

Love Die Young is about losing your love and passion for what you live for. The author helps the listeners imagine that feeling by describing a scenario where a young couple’s relationship gets ended by one of their deaths. The first line of the song “Flowers in your hair now on our grave. A little bit of pressure’s all it takes. Shoulda known we’d shatter that we’d break, break (oh oh)”  lets us, the audience visualize what burnouts feel like. The author wrote this line while experiencing burnout, being stressed and overworked. Another example of the author’s love for his work even though he has to suffer is the second chorus of the song “I wonder where the love goes. When Pleasure turns to pain. When the memories fade away. Can you tell me what happens?” and this is similar to a line in I don’t miss you. Where something you used to enjoy doing is now causing you pain. The listeners of this song can have their own interpretation of what Love Die Young means and although the author intended for this song to be about burnouts, it could also be about a relationship abruptly ending. The joys of life are a fleeting glimpse into what I think heaven is like but since we’re still on earth, nothing good lasts forever.

The sadness, regret, loneliness and anger felt from listening to I don’t miss you can be classified as Pathos in Rhetoric. Pathos is the use of emotions to persuade the audience of the author’s idea. This is an acoustic song with the backing track being just drums and guitar. This makes Nam’s singing standout and we’re able to feel the emotions behind his voice. The choice of not using electrical instruments makes the song feel sentimental and brings me back to the songwriter’s use of emotions to convey his message.  The storytelling can be seen by the first line of the song  “I hear you speaking. Your words lost their meaning. And I’m so done with dealing. Dealing with you” this lets us the audience visualize the context of the song. As the song goes on and the story continues to expand, we get to the main idea of the song and that’s letting go. The author supports his main idea by listing the reasons as to why the relationship is over and could never be reconciled. This further cements the point where the other person should just go their way. When you get to the main chorus of the song, you can see the repetition in the lyrics “ “I don’t miss you. Don’t miss me too” this is an reiteration of the author’s intentions. This line is repeated throughout the song to really get the narrative across.

Love Die Young uses imagery and storytelling to build an intense story about heartbreak, mourning, denial and burnouts. Throughout the song, the lyrics can be interpreted as part of the story or something more general. The song begins with a question most of us had pondered at least once in our life, “What happens when it’s over. When we’ve breathed our last breath. And we’ve loved each other to death. Can you tell me what happens?” and in this song it’s about a young couple’s romance abruptly ending. This is then followed by “I wonder where the love goes. When pleasure turns to pain. When the memories fade away. Can you tell me what happens?” and this has two meanings. One being the memories of your loved one becoming painful now that they’re gone. The second being your patience ending with your love for that person. The two quotes I showed were both examples of storytelling, and they both relate to the author’s main method of persuasion. Another way the author shows pathos is the imagery used in the song. The author talks about flowers on a grave and the meaning of that is how frail life is. This gives us another view on the purpose of this song, that being the author’s grievance due to burnout, and now we know he is referencing how risky his career is. Another emotion I got from this song is the feeling of desperation. We can see that in this lyric “So before it’s really over. Can we have a little faith. Baby say it ain’t too late. It’s all that I’m asking” and I interpret that as begging the other person to give them one more chance. Overall this song leaves us with the feeling of familiarity. We have all desperately begged for another chance at whatever it is and the feeling while asking for forgiveness is humbling. 

These two songs are both about losing something. The reason why I chose to analyze both of these songs is because although they are similar in genre and author, the intention behind them is different. The intention behind I don’t miss you is wanting the other person to let go and forget about the memories they made together. The song is a dialogue of a person who had already moved on but is chained down by their ex. This is very different to the intention behind Love Die Young, I would even say that it’s the complete opposite. The reason being Love Die Young is a person in denial, they are wondering what life would be like without them and desperately praying for the other person to have more faith. This could also be two sides of the same story and the person represented by I don’t miss you is the person who is being cold in order to get the other person to give up on the idea of getting back together. Saying harsh things like “We could try to work it out. But tell me what’s the use in that. ‘Cause I don’t miss you” and “When I said we could stay friends. Why’d you believe it” although the person is cold, this is the only way for the other person to move on. This leads to the person represented by Love Die Young to become extremely desperate.We can see that by the vocabulary used; words like death, pain, grave, die, over, and blame. These words set a dark tone to the song and if we only looked at Love Die Young we wouldn’t think that this is about a breakup but instead mourning. The rhetorical features and choices the author made contributes to the fact that we are able to relate and empathize with the song. 

My personal reason for why I chose these two songs to analyze is that they helped me through the process of break up. I also chose these two songs for my written narrative because the two songs had helped me realize the power words held. I related to I don’t miss you the most because I was on both sides of the spectrum. In one relationship I was the one doing the break up and I was only on the receiving end of the break up. I also heavily related to Love Die Young, I was very desperate when I was getting broken up with and I had also tried everything I can to get them to stay. 

In conclusion both songs bring out so much emotion to the audience. Although the two songs may seem similar, they are the total opposites and can even been seen as a sequence of events. This ties into the storytelling in both songs. I believe that the author intended for us to be able to relate to I don’t miss you and Love Die Young. The purpose of I don’t miss you is getting the other person to move on, even if the method they use is cruel and this is relatable because breakups get messy. The purpose of Love Die Young is to show the other person of your desperation and to get them to stay by showing how much they mean to you. Pathos is the main method of persuasion in both of these songs. The rhetorical features supported the main message and intensified the emotions of the lyrics.