Thoughts About Pop Stars Making Records For Haiti…
Ever since Band Aid, there has been an expectation that pop stars (currently famous pop stars, mind you, not the older ones like H from Steps) should roll up their sleeves and DO something in a situation of sudden need like the Haiti appeal, or risk public outcry. It may not be the thing which will make the most difference, but it is the thing which will get the most attention. This is just how things are.
There are benefits, such as increased public awareness, and a sense of communal effort – and drawbacks – in that it’s a bit ripe being encouraged to donate by a moneybags like Simon Cowell. Or Bono and the Edge and Jay-Z and Rihanna. Or Quincy Jones.
All of which generates the kind of moral maze that bloggers and Twitterers LIVE for. Everyone’s got an opinion, my friends, and here’s mine…
Listening to ‘Everybody Hurts’, I find I’m basically in total agreement with all the horrified people complaining that it’s the wrong song. This is not because the original is an untouchable classic of modern music – it is to ME, but when I remember what it is now being used for, I find I can’t really bring myself to care that much.
It’s more that the situation in Haiti is not a good example of everybody hurting, or the effects of not letting yourself go when the night is yours alone. It’s a damn near perfect example of thousands and thousands of people’s lives being torn to shreds by a dreadful event, and them needing actual physical help from anyone who can possibly offer it.
However, I’m also reminded of Winston Churchill’s quote about democracy, in which he said this:
“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried.”
And that’s the problem. ‘Everybody Hurts’ is the worst song they could’ve chosen, except for all the other songs which are available.
What song could hope to bypass the honking awkwardness of incredibly rich, talented people attempting to encourage other, less rich people to pay them to sing, on behalf of a ridiculously rich impresario, acting on the instructions of his country’s Prime Minister (with a massive treasury), in order to raise funds to aid people who have NOTHING.
I’ve never heard that song. And I listen to a LOT of songs.
I’ve never heard a song which essentially says “I cannot begin to understand this on a human level. It’s too big, and churns up too many emotions that I can’t process – love, empathy, anger, fear. In fact I’m sitting here boiling in my own impotence, knowing that I can’t come over there with a big broom and my enormous wallet and help clear this mess up.”
And that’s just the first verse. The chorus would have to go: “Look, this singing thing is just A way to raise money, it’s not the sum total of everything we as a nation can do to help. Plenty of people aren’t even going to buy it, because they have already donated or are raising money themselves, and I think we all know that this is fine. I just want you to know that we’re trying.”
Even those “I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to fall” kind of songs like ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, ‘Lean On Me’ or ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ sound trite and horribly insincere when you think about the people who are doing the asking. They all contain lines which, in this new context, are crass and self-serving, like the bit in ‘Lean On Me’ where Bill Withers sings “it won’t be long till I’m gonna need somebody to lean on”.
Perfectly fine in a song of friendship and empathy at any other time. Pretty insulting to a Haitian in 2010, if sung to him by the millionaire Rod Stewart. Do you see?
So, I guess what I’m getting at is this. Buy the song, don’t buy the song, donate, don’t donate (actually, strike that last one. DO donate), just PLEASE get off the moral high ground about how badly music is being treated in this sort of situation.
It is, and I really can’t stress this enough, MISSING THE POINT.
Get the latest information on Haiti from BBC News…
Here’s Newsbeat’s report on the ‘Everybody Hurts’ being recorded…
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