What modern songs relate to the acts of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

To pick
songs related to Shakespeare's acts in , we would first identify a major
theme in each act. Then, it's easy to perform Google keyword searches on songs based on the same
theme and pick the ones that interest you.

In the first act of the play,
Shakespeare introduces the theme concerning violence and juxtaposes it with love to show the
inanity of violence. Many popular antiviolence
songs exist. One song was released by the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas in
2003 and titled "Where is the Love?" As a song that covers many topics, including
racism, terrorism, senseless killing, pleas to God for help, and love, the song ideally
expresses the central theme found in the first act of the play.

The play
opens with servants of the Montagues and Capulets breaking out into a senseless brawl in the
streets of Verona. echoes the cries for peace found in The Black
Eyed Peas' song when he declares, "Part, fools! / Put up your swords; you know not what you
do" (I.i.50-51). Similar cries for peace are found throughout
the song, such as in the following two lines of the fourth stanza:

Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love,
y'all, y'all.

In asking their audience to "take
control of [our] minds," the performers are asserting, just like Benvolio, that we are
being foolish, even insane. And, just like Benvolio, the performers are asserting that the only
way to establish peace is by being calm, rational, and finding love in our
hearts.