There are a lot of cruel things in this world. (A recent episode of Dateline identified the top three as modeling agencies that will take your money but then neglect to turn you into a model; online suitors who use their love of music to steal your heart—and your money; and Chris Hansen.) But by far one of the cruelest things in the world is a lie that has been perpetrated by MTV News reporters and music video directors the world over for several years: namely, that pop songs and videos have subtext. I mean, obviously they don’t—especially when the song and video in question is the work of the Black Eyed Peas.
That’s why asking Fergie and Wil.i.am and the various and sundry Peas what they were going for with the song “Boom Boom Pow" is either a cruel joke, or an exercise in stupidity. Probably both. I know that MTV has a lot of air time to waste and only so many professional Real World/ Road Rules Challenge contestants to fill it with, but that's what re-runs of Fat Camp are for. Giving Fergie the opportunity to intellectualize why she's wearing a silver jumpsuit or Wil.i.am the platform to expound on what the words "boom boom pow" mean to him, hurts more than it helps.
(Via Videogum)
"The concept of the video is the Peas birth into the digital afterlife." Wow. You mean like The Sims, Fergie? That's some crazy Max-Headroom-Sandra-Bullock-in-The-Net type stuff you've got going on. It's so silver and neon and futuristic —it's like the viewers are the floppy disk. "Boom Boom Pow" must be the sound a human mind makes when it is totally blown.