Criticism on the Song “We Are the
World”
After reading Orgad’s “Imagining
Others: Representations of Natural Disasters” I came to one conclusion: what
does it matter? Instead of wasting time and effort critiquing the attempts of
others to help the world, why not invest that by doing something productive to help
those in need? I’m not trying to be a human’s rights activist, but this is the
first thought that came to mind. Yes, perhaps the first version of the song,
“We Are the World” (1985) lacked the link to make audiences feel connected to
the suffering Africans in Ethiopia, but shouldn’t the effort to help them
matter more? It did become the
fastest selling American-Pop single of its time and raised over $63 million for
aid; (Orgrad 64) shouldn’t that be more relevant than whether the song
accomplished to create a connection between sufferers and listeners of the
song? I think that when Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie were writing the lyrics,
their intentions were in the right place and focused on sending the main
message rather than in minute details that Orgad criticizes; music is an art,
and shouldn’t be analyzed like a human right’s policy.
The article doesn’t specify how much money was raised with the most recent
version of the song, “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” (2010), but a total of $9.9 billion was pledged to help aid Haiti. (Ograd 68) I do agree that it might have had
other intentions besides helping raise money for Haitians (like promoting the
several musical artists and corporations that participated), but again: why
waste time criticizing that? And what about the use of auto-tune in the song is
wrong? Auto-tune is presently popular in the music industry, so it makes sense
for it to have been used in 2010’s version of the song. (Ograd 70) How is it that Wyclef Jean's portion in Haitian is acceptable but the auto-tuned parts of Lil' Wayne and T-Pain aren't? Everyone is going to have their own ways of contributing, and obviously not all will be in the same format. Anything anyone will ever do will always fall
short of perfect, and there will always be more than enough people out there to
share their constructive criticisms.
Everything is entwined in this
elaborate web of social media, artists, corporations, corruption, “fitting in,”
daily life problems, etc. It is difficult to step out of our little bubbles and
help out the rest of the world when they are down in the dumps, but it’s
difficult only because that is how society has spun its web. I say the focus
should be on helping others, in any way we can, and decreasing our focus on judgments of
those who are trying to do so.
That was the first thought that came to my mind as well. Why are we wasting time criticizing how the money was raised, as long as Haitians get the money they need to rebuild? The “We are the World” video for Haiti aired years ago, and people aren’t necessarily watching the video over and over again. I am sure that people who donated are not thinking about the well-being of Haitians every day. In fact, I am willing to bet that people who donated don’t really give much thought to them at all. It is just like Orgad said, “Click, donate, forget”. (Orgad 78).
ReplyDeleteYet, the video does give some lasting impressions to the American people of who the Haitian people are. More correctly, how we chose to see them in how they are depicted in the video. They are represented as innocent, happy, and capable in the midst of such a large disaster, yet simultaneously being fragmented in the background to a celebrity belting out a pop song. I agree with Anden-Popadopolous wherein he states that the shift of positive images distorts reality. I believe that the American people want to feel great about themselves, and would love to live in a distorted reality. Using images of a happy group of people despite this horrible disaster creates this safe space for Americans to hide in. Furthermore, the American fascination with celebrity helps with taking a break in the seriousness of the reality of the disaster. Americans look to celebrities to tell us what is trending, what we should do, and then like sheep, we follow. The “We are the world” video campaign may raise money for those who need it, but I believe that unless we criticize and analyze the video, images and technologies used, we will continue to follow, rather than think critically of what is being spoon fed to us.