The CNN app changed Backstreet Boy AJ McLean’s life.
The singer, who rose quickly to fame in the ’90s, has grown up since his boy band’s early days. Now he has a three-year-old daughter and her future to think about. So McLean decided he needed to be more informed. He downloaded the app in order to keep up with news — and was horrified by the constant flow of injustice at his fingertips.
“I was reading about all the different young black men gunned down on the streets, still dealing with the equality issues. All the online bullying that was going on. Backstreet Boys actually lost one of our fans because of online bullying, which is heartbreaking,” McLean told Mashable. He wanted to help raise awareness of these issues, to “hopefully get us all to treat each other equally.”
The result was a song called “Live Together,” featuring Jordan James — and lyrics like “We should take a break from hating.”
Though McLean told Mashable he still has a lot to learn about the issues, the video itself is overtly political. In it, a white cop shoots at two black men while a young girl holding a flower walks in the bullet’s path, then shakes their hands. In the clip, McLean then raises his fist; the crowd follows suit.
The video closes with the girl approaching a cop in riot gear with a flower. It’s an image similar to Flower Power, Bernie Boston’s iconic 1967 photo of a Vietnam War protester placing a flower in the barrel of a National Guardsman’s gun.
McLean has also formed the Live Together Foundation with producer and songwriter Jordan Omley. Unlike foundations that focus on just one cause, “LTF sets out to raise money and awareness for individuals, families or communities who need help, regardless of the circumstances driving the needs,” according to the group’s mission statement.
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