I think you have to be careful to not let pride get in the way of the bigger picture. At the end of the day, it's raising money and raised awareness, showing people how they can help out however small that might be which can only be a good thing. I agree that a lot of the people buying the song now don't think about Africa the majority of the time but that still doesn't make it wrong that people are donating money now. That's the reason why things like charity singles are a good idea, to get people on board. This is all my opinion of course.

That image of poverty and famine is extremely powerful psychologically. With decades of such imagery being pumped out, the average westerner is likely to donate £2 a month or buy a charity single that gives them a nice warm fuzzy feeling; but they are much less likely to want to go on holiday to, or invest in, Africa. If you are reading this and haven’t been to Africa, ask yourself why.

 

This is the first bit of criticism I've read that is in any way convincing. A good point that I had not considered before. However, at the end of the day if they didn't use the shock tactics, far fewer people would care. And if a simple song convinces people beyond evidence that Africa really is helpless then those people are unlikely to have cared much regardless. People who do genuinely care about Africa will continue to do so and Band Aid 30 at least temporarily gets other people to care as well so on balance the good outweighs the bad in my opinion. (Also it's not like ordinary people can have much impact on investing in Africa).

 

I respect Fuse's decision to not be a part of it though, as much as I was kind of excited about the prospect of him getting a #1 single :ph34r:

Ironically the controversy keeps the single in the news and probably keeps it selling!

Like I said in the other thread (didn't know this one existed so created the one in the Pop forum oops~) it's quite sad that many people can't JUST donate money without getting something in return, even if it's some crappy cheesy song you'll listen to once and forget about its existence 2 days later. You donate 5 pounds - you get a discount for your next trip, you donate by buying a song, buy useless crap and 0.00001% of the proceeds will go to save penguins from evil zoos in pakistan charity. I get this is how the world works but it doesn't make it less f***ed up :(

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2...campaign=buffer

 

Written by Fuse ODG, interesting read.

That is an interesting article actually, and is very well written, I don't know why I'm surprised by that. Although if I'm being honest, I am a little disappointed he didn't start the article with "It's fuuuuuuuuuse!"

The French version has been released and it's awful.

 

How is it awful? It's pretty much just the same as our version but with French vocals :unsure:

Got me wondering if there are other foreign language versions seeing that video.

Is that Bob Geldof in the background, I think it is.

For a moment, I thought a member of Status Quo was there too.

How is it awful? It's pretty much just the same as our version but with French vocals :unsure:

 

I think you've answered your own question there :P

I think you've answered your own question there :P

OK, point taken :lol:

Just wondering, were there plans for a Band Aid thingy in 1994? If so, why it didn't happen? Was the Band Aid II's embarassment still too recent?

Did Band Aid II flop as badly as this one?

It's far better than the painful German version (although that at least has a different backing track I guess) (and Andreas Bourani)

 

Did Band Aid II flop as badly as this one?

 

No it was No1 for 4 weeks but with much lower sales than the original and a lot of people ridicule It due to its association with pop kings SAW!

Is that Eurovision star Amandine Bourgeois I see at the back (towards the right) of the group section at the end?

No it was No1 for 4 weeks but with much lower sales than the original and a lot of people ridicule It due to its association with pop kings SAW!

3 weeks :D

 

It wasn't bad it was just much more of its time and released at a time when sales were much lower, it was still the 9th biggest seller of 1989 on three weeks sales so everything is relative IMO.

 

Re the French version- at least we get to see Vanessa Paradis again, I still recall her on TOTP 26 years ago as a fresh faced 15 yr old :(

That's true - ididnt realise sales were low - was that the change over to cd singles or something?

That's true - ididnt realise sales were low - was that the change over to cd singles or something?

Most (over 90%) of singles sold in 1989 were still on vinyl with 7" singles still accounting for over 60% of the market. But sales on cassette and CD were starting to take off. However cassette singles didn't reach their peak for sales until 1994 to 1997 with CD singles reaching their peak at much the same time. But in the second half of the 1980s there was just a general decline in singles sales and this continued into the first three years of the 1990s.

 

Some of the decline was probably due to people moving from buying records on vinyl to cassette / CD but it probably also reflected the move by many record buyers towards buying albums in preference to singles.

Band Aid 30 has dropped to #9 in the midweeks. I do wonder how much of an impact the CD singles will have next week. I think some form of promo needs to happen for this to get going again and to drive CD sales.

 

Edit: My 10,000th post. :o

It'd be nice to think that the physical release next week would push Band Aid 30 back to #1 and possibly be the Xmas #1 as well, but I think unfortunately, that is going to be far less likely.

Sadly, the least likely scenario does appear to be, it going back to #1 this Sunday!