Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Africa for Norway
Hilariously funny as it is, it makes a serious point: "Imagine if every person in Africa saw the “Africa for Norway” video and this was the only information they ever got about Norway. What would they think about Norway?" And, of course, it says something about celebrity culture in the Western world that so many features of the video are easily recognized tropes.
(ht: Feminist Philosophers)
5 comments:
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Hee hee!
ReplyDeleteI can just remember when "We Are The World" came out for Ethiopian aid (and now I'm doubly dating myself, because when I was little I heard about the starving children in Ethiopia -- my dad heard about the Chinese children; my youngest brother about the Rwandan children) and concerned choirs everywhere rallied to raise awareness by swaying and hand-clapping and big soulful harmonies.
And just for reference, we had to go back and watch the original. It's a Who's Who of the pop music scene at the time. The kids got little out of it except that 80s fashion was bizarre.
ReplyDeleteAnd to give you a sense of the sheer importance of the project, here's a quote from the Wikipedia article about the song:
On January 24, 1985, after a day of rest, Jones shipped Richie and Jackson's vocal guide to all of the artists who would be involved in "We Are the World"'s recording. Enclosed in the package was a letter from Jones, addressed to "My Fellow Artists":[9]"The cassettes are numbered, and I can't express how important it is not to let this material out of your hands. Please do not make copies, and return this cassette the night of the 28th. In the years to come, when your children ask, 'What did mommy and daddy do for the war against world famine?', you can say proudly, this was your contribution."
One last thing: the best parody of the group recording ethic was the faux anthem for soldiers from Wag The Dog.
ReplyDeleteI love that scene.
ReplyDeleteI remember once playing a game in which for any artist you had to identify one of their songs, and I kept saying, "We are the World".
ReplyDelete