Where IS the love?

For those who haven't heard this song or seen the video, as usual, I highly encourage you to do so. The message is truly moving.

Where is the Love is one of my songs for this week. The Black Eyed Pees recorded Where is the Love with Justin Timberlake in 2003. Beginning in LA, the Peas have five albums and are working on a sixth now. The hip-hop group consists of Fergie, Will.I.Am, Taboo, and Apl.de.Ap (I don’t know how they got their names). At the end of 2011 the Black Eyed Peas were the second best-selling group (with over 42 million record sales) because of their album the E.N.D.

            Where is the Love is one of my favorite political songs. In a nutshell, the song is about being accepting and tolerant of different races and countries and all of the violence taking place in our world today. The question is posed: where is the love? Strings and the xylophone are incorporated with the simple guitar line and clapping, created what I would call a tropical feel. It’s a relaxing uplifting tune, but when you listen to the lyrics you see that the peaceful melody is the only peace the Black Eyed Peas see in the chaotic world.

“If love and peace are so strong, why are there pieces of love that don’t belong? Nations dropping bombs, chemical gasses filling lungs of little ones, with ongoing suffering as the youth die young.” The part that hits me every time is the comment he makes about children dying young in horrible ways. I’m unsure if he refers to pollution or terrorism when he brings up chemical gasses though. I bet it can go either way, since there both unfortunate. “Father, father, father, help us, send some guidance from above, ‘cause people got me got me questioning, where is the love?” A desperate plea for the almighty to help us and fix our world. This line is repeated several times in the refrain, which makes me think that this is a question the writer of the song has had for a long time, and with what’s taking place in Syria… Well let’s hope if there is a god he pitches in soon.

I the music video, which I encourage to all of you fantastic mortals, shows hooded figures running around a city. They are posting signs containing question marks in a box everywhere they are in the video. A van with the question mark is driving around with the Black Eyed Peas inside as they sing their song in the van which is projected through a loudspeaker to the streets they pass. During the refrain they have shots of sad children singing “where is the love”, which is an emotional plea that I find insanely effective.

 

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc