BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
We Are The World Past and Present
February 13th, 2010
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The 1985 Original
In 1984 Harry Belafonte initiated the ideal to bring top artist together for an African Aid relief song. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie would be enlisted to write and arrange the song, and Quincy Jones helped produce the final product and bring the rest of the artist together. They recorded after the 1985 Grammys while so many artist would be together anyway.
2010’s We Are The World 25 For Haiti
My feelings on the this new version are that despite the criticisms, which are rampant on twitter, it was a very well done redo of a classic; except the terrible autotune portion of lil Wayne, Akon and T-Pain; in which that inauthentic crap should have been left out.
I thought the chant with the Mcees at the end was a nice addition, and the short rhyming of Kanye West and Will-I-Am fit in well, and were not detracting.
As far as the video, very nice visually, though I prefer how the leads parts in the original are shown being sung on the floor of the group recording session, as opposed to how most of the leads in the new one are shown in the recording both.
Also, as for the notion that the artist are just using this for self-promotion, pretty much, so what? The purpose is to use their celebrity to draw attention, and it’s clearly working. There’s no difference in that than the original, unless you had a problem with it then, which again, so what?
And some of us who lived through the first we are the world are being a little too nostalgic. This is not going to wow you again like the first one, because you’ve seen it before and you’re not young anymore. At a certain point in your live, not too much is going to be new and exciting anymore. You’re probably not the primary target for the inspirational aspect of this new release.
Open discussion - give your thoughts below.
Check the original demo, sung by Michael Jackson alone
posted in Action Alert, Cultural, Foreign News, Natural Disasters, Uncategorized, youtube | | | View blog reactions |
2 Responses to “We Are The World Past and Present”
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About The Blog
Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Hi Yobachi! Long time.
I really appreciate “We Are The World 25.” It maintains the same level of passion and spirituality that the original did, and given the purpose, I think that’s what it’s all about.
Hey, Shelia, glad you dropped by.
“and given the purpose, I think that’s what it’s all about”
I would concur.