"Where Is the Love?"

“Where’s the Love?”

By Kashika Bharol

    “Where’s the Love?” by The Black Eyed Peas, is a song with a strong message. The theme, or universal truth, of this song is: To hate is not the objective of living; we live to love. The title of this song basically sums up the theme. It’s asking a rhetorical question which makes us think of a place where there is no love, affection, or peacefulness, which is our world today. The countries and people are fighting amongst themselves and butchering each other in wars and other situations.

    Throughout the song, the words love, killing, dying, and crying are repeated multiple times. This puts emphasis on the subject of the song, which is peace on earth. There was also a lot of symbolism in this song, especially in the music video. The video depicts various races of people who are often discriminated against, singing along to the song. This shows that they want peace and justice in the world. At the end of the song, all of the people look up to the sky. This symbolizes the fact that they are praying to god for all of this to be over. Another example of symbolism in the video is when the band members are putting question mark signs everywhere. This action symbolizes the fact that they are asking about why the world has so much war and pain. They put the signs on specific areas as well. The signs are put on money, which is asking why money is so overrated. The signs are put on gas prices, which is asking why it is so expensive and hard to afford. The sign is also placed on the bible, which symbolizes the fact that people aren’t following it and shows that there is not much kindness in the world.

    There are many lines in the song which support the theme: To hate is not the objective of living; we live to love. The line “People killing, people dying, Children hurtin’, hear them cryin, Can you practice what you preach, or would you turn the other cheek?” explains that humans have become cruel now, and all this hatred’s cure is simply love.

    Another line in this song which supports this theme is “Wrong information shown by the media Negative images is the main criteria Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinemas”. This line tells that children get affected by violent movies and videogames. They believe it is okay to perform the violent actions, and then do it for themselves. The Black Eyed Peas are trying to show that children should not be watching this kind of entertainment because children act as they are told. If they are told by the media to act like this, they will.

    The line, “Whatever happened to the values of humanity , whatever happened to the fairness and equality Instead of spreading love, we’re spreading animosity” tells that people have been so bloodthirsty and cruel, that they have lost humanity. There is no world peace on this planet, is what this line is stating.

    The overall message of this song is pretty clear, that we need to start acting nicer and kinder as human beings. This song is promoting peace and love throughout our society.