Where is the Love?

By Sarah Mullens

The music video ‘Where is the Love?’ by The Black Eyed Peas was released in 2003. Both the video and the song are about racial and societal conflict in America today. The music touches upon the issues of terrorism, bombing, and discrimination. It also acts as a call for change in the way we are bringing up our youth. Overall, I think the video does a good job of bringing to life the issues discussed in the song and providing a visual for the unseen (and often ignored) strife that occurs daily all over the world.

A sign that is seen throughout the video is a question mark. This popular and even universal sign is representative of the theme of the music video and also the title of the song: where is the love? Although a question mark at first seems to be a very vague symbol, as the music video continues it becomes the representation for various questions. It’s seen being placed on a TV screen, covering up a violent video game being played by children. It’s seen being tattooed on people’s arms and in surveillance videos. A black man places it on the back of a bus and is then chased down by the cops. All of these situations that occur were chosen very deliberately and hint at the corruption, discrimination, and terrorism that is occurring today. By placing the fliers/stickers that have question marks in these situations, the band is forcing the viewers to ask themselves why these things are occurring.

Another interesting thing about this video is the way in which the band is presented. They are pictured throughout the video running as if they are being chased, sitting in the back of a black van with a question mark on the side of it, and putting fliers with question marks on them all over a city. The Black Eyed Peas are essentially depicted as fugitives for the duration of this music video, which plays directly into the lyrics: “But if you only have love for your own race/ Then you only leave space to discriminate/ And to discriminate only generates hate”. These lyrics are significant because the Black Eyed Peas themselves are a racially diverse group, and so they understand what discrimination is like from all different perspectives. 

Despite their racial backgrounds they all can agree that there is something wrong with the United States today, and they come together to create a very powerful song regarding these issues. This song begs for love. It questions the morals taught to the youth of today.

Even the way in which the video was filmed seems to be hurried and even spontaneous: The band is seen rapping and performing their song in the back of a van, while they drive around the city and place the question mark fliers everywhere.  Sometimes they are seen running from place to place as if they are being chased. This implies that even while the band tries to speak this message of peace and love, they are still vulnerable to the corruption of America today. The whole video is very candid, just like the message the Black Eyed Peas are trying to convey. There was no editing or special lighting involved in the production of this video. Between shots of the band singing, there are close up shots of children singing along with the lyrics. This creates an emotional aspect of the video that invites one to sympathize with today’s youth. The lighting of the video is also very dull and morbid. There are no bright colors, which makes the tone seem hopeless and pleading.

In the end of the video, it alternates between shots of people of all different races looking up into a light and the band singing, “We only got one world, one world.” These people stop what they are doing and look up at this light, and the colors in the video get brighter. Overall, this video was very effective in conveying the theme of the song (a plea for change) and motivating the public to make a change in their own lives.