Released in June 2003, “Where is the Love?” by the Black
Eyed Peas (BEP) is the first single in their album Elephunk. The BEP is an American hip hop group founded in Los Angeles in 1995 made up of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, and singer Fergie. Their album Elephunk brought them their widespread fame, and their major hit "Where is the Love?" topped the charts in 13 countries. At the time of its
release, the United States was going through a troublesome period. The song addresses
various issues that were prevalent in the era such as terrorism,
discrimination, war, selfishness, drugs, and propaganda. Additionally, at the
time, the media was portraying a lot information that was not necessarily true, which was causing society to be misinformed. Some examples of key events that influenced the song were the
9/11 bombings and the USA invasion of Iraq. BEP hoped to bring attention to these problems in order to influence the people of the time to recognize the issues and realize that change needs to occur.
The US seems to have been built on protesting power structures (even in its adherence to them) and maintained that protest even now. In the current government shutdown, aren't protesting power on the macro level? Interesting business.
ReplyDeletei like that song, i'm interested in see where yall go with this project. very good start
ReplyDeleteMany find trouble drawing the line between appealing to the youth desire to rebel, and true desire to incite change. This is the issue of commercialism vs. meaning, and i feel to get a deeper analysis of these two songs you need to attempt to draw this line and define where these songs and artists are in comparison to it.
ReplyDeleteI really like this song and the things that it addresses. I also like how you pointed out that the black eyes peas used the song to make people aware of the real things that were going on at that time and that something was needed to be done about it.
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