“Where is the Love?”

By Maia Ogembo

Black Eyed Peas’ 2003 song “Where is the Love?” which was produced by Interscope Geffen (A&M) Records which is a Division of UMG Recordings Inc. It is a music video that did a good job of relating to the viewers through the location about a serious issue, which is the lack of love and unity of our country. Which is important because “we only have one world” and we should take care of it for the next generation.

The video was shot in different locations in New York City and included people biking down the streets, at a gas station and inside of a portable radio truck. This was a really good job way of engaging the audience by making the video seem realistic and relatable to the viewers because it is their everyday scenery being shown in the music video. It also included “normal” people of all ages and races singing the chorus of the song to showcase the unity that our country should have. There were people biking around the city and posting the question marks, tattoos of it and it appearing on television, that causes it to seem like a big issue as the #BlackLivesMatter campaign in our current society. #BlackLivesMatter is popular on social media, as this seemed popular in general. They both shared the common denominator of race as their main issue and the “Where is Love?” lyrics explain it well in that “... love for your own race… leave[s] space to discriminate… [which] only generates hate.”

This loss of compassion is important because “instead in spreading love we're spreading animosity,” “most of us only care about money makin'/ [so] selfishness got us followin' the wrong direction” and “not respectin' each other, [by] deny[ing] thy brother” and these types of behavior are being observed by children. They will be passed on to the next generation and create a colder country because there is a lack of love compassion for each other. To show examples of the things children are viewing, the video showed them playing a violent video game. And because “kids want to act like what they see in the [videos],” it is teaching children negative scenarios to reenact. We should not let our children play violent video games and let them view the wrong role model because it “infect[s] the young minds faster than bacteria” and will lead to a new generation of hateful people.

“Where is the Love” music video was well performed because it related to the audience with the people included as well as the location and it relayed the message of protecting the love and compassion for one another for the next generation to come because hate will lead our country away from unity.