Where is the Love?

Gotta keep my faith alive 'til love is found

Hi all,

Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Where is the Love?”, by the American hip hop group Black Eyed Peas. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.

Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics (written in italics). Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1. 

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The song Where is the Love was released in May of 2003. What was happening in the world at that time?

On March 19, 2003, the U.S. and its allies began its invasion of Iraq. The U.S. government said that Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction (nuclear or chemical weapons that could kill many, many people) and that he was a danger to the countries around him.

This song is asking questions about the purpose of the war, and about an alternative to war - love.

You’ll find many words written with an apostrophe (‘) at the end, such as livin’ for the word living. This shows how the word is pronounced, although it usually isn’t written that way. 

What's wrong with the world, Mama?

People livin' like they ain't got no mamas (in other words, people are behaving without respect for other people)

I think the whole world's addicted to the drama (people enjoy watching the horrors of conflict in the media)

Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma (the images are exciting but can be dangerous for your mental health)

The government was trying to (pronounced tryna) stop terrorism, but the actions of the government organizations like the CIA were also like those of terrorists. The Bloods and the Crips are names of gangs in the U.S. The KKK is a white supremacist organization.

Overseas, yeah, we tryna stop terrorism

But we still got terrorists here livin'

In the USA, the big CIA

The Bloods and the Crips and the KKK

.

But if you only have love for your own race

Then you only leave space to discriminate

And to discriminate only generates hate

And when you hate, then you're bound to get irate (very angry)

.

Madness is what you demonstrate

And that's exactly how anger works and operates

Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight (make changes for the better)

Take control of your mind and meditate

Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all (be pulled toward love, not hate)

LOVE HATE sculpture in Munich. Photo by Laurwil (Wikimedia Commons)

People killin', people dyin'

Children hurtin', hear them cryin'

The next line is Can you practice what you preach? This is asking people to act in a way that agrees with their beliefs. If they believe that they should love their neighbor, then they should try to get along with them.

There is also a phrase from the Bible, And would you turn the other cheek? that means if someone hits you, you should turn the other cheek. In other words, don’t hit them back because that only makes things worse. 

The singer asks god for help in deciding what is right.

Father, father, father, help us

Send some guidance from above

'Cause people got me, got me questioning

Where is the love?

…

It just ain't the same, old ways have changed

New days are strange, is the world insane?

If love and peace is so strong

Why are there pieces of love that don't belong?

.

Nations droppin' bombs

Chemical gases filling lungs of little ones

With ongoing (continuing) sufferin' as the youth die young

So ask yourself, is the lovin' really gone?

.

So I can ask myself, really, what is going wrong

With this world that we livin' in? 

People keep on givin' in (to give in means to give up or to be defeated)

Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends (the money you make from buying stocks in the stock market)

.

Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother

War is goin' on, but the reason's undercover (the reason for war is never made clear to us)

The truth is kept secret, and swept under the rug (to sweep something under the rug means to ignore something in the hope that people will forget about it)

If you never know truth, then you never know love

.

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder

As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder

Most of us only care about money-makin'

Selfishness got us followin' the wrong direction

.

Wrong information always shown by the media

Negative images is the main criteria (the media shows what will draw the biggest audience)

Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria

Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem plaque near the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco Chinatown's Jack Kerouac Alley. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Whatever happened to the values of humanity?

Whatever happened to the fairness and equality?

Instead of spreading love, we spreading animosity (hate, anger)

Lack of understanding leading us away from unity 

The singer sees so much hate and anger in the world that it makes him depressed (feeling under/down), but he has to hold on to the hope that things will change.

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down

It's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under

Gotta keep my faith alive 'til love is found

Now ask yourself

Now sing with me, y'all

(One world, one world)

We only got… that's all we got 

And something's wrong with it

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Question

One of the lyrics says Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema. Do children in your culture try to be like characters they see on TV, in the movies, or in cartoons (manga)? If so, what do you think about this?

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Vocabulary

weapons of mass destruction 大量破壊兵器

chemical weapons 化学兵器

white supremacist 白人至上主義者

generate 生成する

irate 激怒

madness 狂気

soul 魂

gravitate 引き寄せられる

insane 狂気の

suffering　苦しみ

dividend　配当金

stock　株

deny 否定

undercover　隠れている

criteria　基準

infect　感染

bacteria　細菌

animosity　敵意

unity　団結