Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love Analysis

The video I have chosen to analyse is Where Is The Love By The Black Eyed Peas and although it fits into the hip hop genre of music doesn't actually have many of the characteristics of hip hop music videos. Throughout the video they have many close ups of the band, especially Will.I.Am and Fergie who are the two main artists. This is to empower them and make us as an audience feel intimidated by their power. Although there is not a group of people dancing along to the song in the video, there is this idea that they are all part of the same gang by using a symbol that everyone has. This gives credibility to the song as it makes it look as though many people like this song and that it has a lot of backing, so we want to follow everyone else. Unlike many hip hop videos it doesn't have lots of people with expensive things like sports cars etc throughout it because the aim of the song is questioning 'where is the love?' so wants to show the audience that this is more important than money and so shows a diverse range of people. 


Throughout the video the use of lip syncing is used from each of the artists to enforce the fact that this is there song but is also used by the characters in the story for example the little girl says 'people killing, people dying' during the chorus to show that this is a world wide issue that everyone, even little children, are questioning. Another part where there is a huge connection between lyrics and visuals is at 0:42 where the lyrics are 'and if you only have love with your own race' and at this part you see 4 men cycling and the white man and the black man high five to promote the fact that they believe there shouldn't be any more racism, just like the lyrics are implying. 

There are many close ups and empowerment of the artists all the way through but I think the most prominent one is where you see Fergie and Will.I.Am at the back of a van, with lots of little children looking up and chasing after them. This shows the audience that the Black Eyed Peas are a very influential band and that they have a huge fan base, spanning from little kids to adults. There is also a huge amount of emphasis on the notion of looking, with many of the people in the videos watching the band through things like TV's etc however it doesn't really include many of the same characteristics of hip hop music as there is hardly any voyeuristic treatment of the human body. The music video is more about sharing love than trying to be sexual so this wouldn't really fit into the type of style the artists have gone for.