




An unknown author once said, “Get lost in nature and you will find yourself”(Natural News). Gnash essentially does this in his music video “I hate you, i love you,” but rather finds out that he is not himself without the person he loves. When the gets to the first “I hate you, I love you” (0:22) the song’s emotions intensifies and we can see this through the symbolism in nature. Also, we see him go through a journey of emotions when he is in the forest. There are multiple lyrics in which we can pull a deeper meaning from because of the colors and nature illustrated in the forest scene. By the fourth “i hate you, i love you” (3:18) we see him beginning to slowly give up through more symbolism of nature and the lightning. Lastly, when he comes out of the forest we can see there is something different because of how the nature is portrayed. He knows he will never be loved by the person he loves and through nature we see that this literally kills him. In the “ i hate you,  i love you” music video, gnash uses nature to show his emotions about the person he loves and his journey in how he deals with realizing he lost someone he cared about; we see this in the colors and the specific visual imagery of nature.

Through the visual imagery of the waves we can see the songwriter’s irrepressible reaction to their heart being broken. The song lyrics begin with “Feeling used / But I’m / Still missing you…. But I still can’t seem to tell you why / it hurts me every time I see you / Realize how much I need you”(0:01) Right after these lyrics, the video footage focuses on the crashing waves. These waves symbolize the incontrollable and powerful feelings for the person the songwriter loved.  It is like the waves are a buildup of all the tears and sadness the songwriters has experienced because of this person. Waves are powerful and a force of nature no one can control, just like the songwriters feelings for the person they are singing about. Waves have a natural buildup and crash, just as emotions do; they build to a certain point until they cannot be contained. The lyrics, “I hate you, I love you” (0:23); show this person is having an internal conflict with their feelings. Just like the ever-changing motion of waves, her emotions are unstable. The focus of the video then shifts to the forest, after the lyrics say “I’ll never be her” (0:34). We see how the forest symbolizes the songwriter’s journey of emotions and how the songwriter knows that they will never be loved by the person that they care so much about.

Throughout gnash’s journey in the forest, we see his emotions more clearly through the visual imagery the music video uses. The forest to me is a dark mysterious place, but is also alive and green. When I think of the color green I think of rebirth and a new life. In the music video gnash is walking on a path through the forest like he is on a journey. On a journey to find a more stable life considering the color green promotes stability. Also, this makes me think he let his emotions out deep in the woods because it seems to keep secrets and the lyrics says “Oh oh keep it on the low” (1:17), as if he is hiding his emotions from someone. This then makes me think about why he sits on and hides in the trees. Trees are a symbol of protection and the songwriter says there is “Caution tape around my heart” (1:35) while gnash is standing inside of a tree, like he is trying to protect himself from getting hurt. Furthermore, trees are sign of stability because they are strong. When he is lying on a tree in the video the lyrics say “I don’t mean no harm I just miss you on my arm” (1:28), like since the person the songwriter loves is gone they need the tree or something else to keep them stable. After the scene with him in the tree the scenes start to get darker, as if emotions are starting to shift to a more dismal tone.

As we can tell from the video the day is ending and so is his journey. The music video goes back to the sea on a beach for a brief scene and the lyrics say, “Now all my drinks and all my feelings are all f****** mixed” (1:47). The sea is a mix of salt and water so it is a visual imagery of how his feelings are really mixed. The scene also is really dark and there is no sun in the sky. Maybe all the drinks the songwriter has had and his emotions are literally burning them out like the sun does each day. Also, gnash walks besides a river and rivers are a sign of life. Many civilizations were built around rivers because they provide people with the necessity of water, but rivers are also like a border. The rivers symbolizes that the songwriter still has some life in them, but also during the river scene the lyrics say, “Sometimes you gotta burn some bridges just to create some distance” (1:50). The river could also symbolize how he has distanced himself from this person. Furthermore, near the end of verse one he is still leaning against the trees because the person he trusted and loves is gone. Again trees are a symbol of protection and stability that he does not have any more since the person he loves is not around. The trees are a place the songwriter portrays they can feel safe, like he did when that person he loved was in his life. At the end of verse one the lyrics say, “When love and trust is gone I guess this is moving on” (1:59) then the scene gets really dark and the trees seem dead with no leaves. Such as songwriters life without love and trust are cheerless and hopeless. Everything seems to be gradually dying, from the leaves, to the waves crashing and going back out to sea, and the sun setting.  

 Finally, we see the songwriter slowly giving up through the forces of nature, colors, and lighting. We see the strong emotions of the waves crashing again and then them beating against the rocks. Like all these emotions are beating the songwriter up inside. Then we see the red leaves on the trees and usually when leaves turn red they are dying. These leaves are a symbol of the songwriter slowly dying. Then the songwriters finally realize they are all alone when the lyrics say, “All alone I watch you watch her”(2:33) Even more ironic that this whole video takes place on what seems to be a deserted island, as if they were always alone. When the songwriter realizes this person never cared and never did we see the ocean water slowly leaking down the rocks, as if all the life was drained out of the water. This symbolizes what is happening to songwriter. In how this person built them up and made them feel alive, but then hurt them and now his life is slowly slipping away. He is so hurt he is at the point of dying. The lyrics even say, “How is you’ll never notice / That you are slowly killing me” (3:04). At this point it is almost the end of the day. Symbolizing the songwriter getting closer to death because of all the pain and suffering this person caused them. Then the girl starts walking down the beach near nighttime singing the chorus again, “I hate you I love you / I hate that I love you” (3:17), but it is different this time. There are no waves and it seems to be peaceful. Lastly, the lyrics say, “And I’ll never be her” (3:35). Then we see the sunset. Sunsets are the end of a day and symbolize the end of something. This sunset on the beach is showing that the song writer finally found peace with the fact that they are not enough for this person and cannot have them no matter how much they want them, this shows how this chapter in their life with this person has come to an end and maybe even their physical life.

As we can see the symbols, colors, and lightings really help us bring a deeper meaning to the songwriter’s words throughout their journey of emotions. Teal Scott said , “ A thousand times we die in one life we crumble, break and tear apart until the layers of illusion are burned away and all that is left, is the truth of who and what we really are”(@diegoraimonda). Through nature we could visually see his emotions. At the beginning we can see that there is a different tone than at the end and we see this through the imagery of nature. It starts off with the waves crashing and shows how the songwriter’s emotions are uncontrollable. Then near the end we see the water trickling back to the sea showing how the songwriter is giving up on the relationship. Also, we could see the waves crashing against the rocks, showing how the songwriters emotions were crushing and tearing him apart. Plus, even though the songwriter says this person is killing them we could see the songwriter physically dying through the color of the leaves and the change of the time of day or the sunset. Not until the end do we see who the songwriter really is. At the end of the songwriter’s journey we realize, that without the person they love not loving them, they are nothing. The songwriter physically dies along with the relationship. Then the video ends with the sunset and we see nothing else. This shows that there is nothing more to tell because there is literally nothing else to say. Without the person the songwriter loves there is no story to tell because the person they love is there whole life. The truth about the songwriter is that they found their identity in the person they loved and once the person they loved left them; the song writer became and is nothing.








