This is spun off from my OP here and a lot of the comments about it (in which people say how many they recognize and how old they are).
So, a poll, if you will.
Here is the video/song itself.
Watch it and keep track of how many artists you recognize. I’m defining recognize by you being able to name them, not just knowing their face.
I’m 30 and I recognized nearly everyone in it. But as the topic linked to above shows, my 20 year old brother and his girlfriend only recognized one (!).
15, I’m 28. I dunno how big a hit that was here. Band Aid was a much bigger deal. I’m too young to recall either when they originally charted. I’d like to see the video with each singer captioned. There are some people who by the look of their place in the video, were huge, but I can’t place them.
18, I reckon. I’m 45, and live in Scotland.
Actually 16. I wasn’t sure about a certain actor that appears in the background. A higher resolution video and I could probably spot one or two more celebs.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
I love the YouTube description. “Song by Michael Jackson and a couple others” 
I’m a bit older than your brother but still in his generation, and I recognize 7, possibly 8.
If one of them was Tina Turner. Two of them -Lionel Ritchie and Kenny Rogers- I recognized probably only because the original thread mentioned them, so knew they were in the video and knew to look for them. It was a nice surprise to see Willie in there. I thought I saw LaToya, so maybe it might be 9. And was that Bob Dylan? Maybe 10. If you talked to me about many of the people in that video I could tell you who they were and what they did. I’d fingerpick some “Rainbow Connection”, or melt out “Time After Time”, tribute The Boss, “Want a New Drug”, “Piano Man”, I get it. Really. But I wouldn’t be able to recognize their faces from 25 years ago.
And why bother? Pop music doesn’t keep relevance easily two decades later. I know what the story behind the song is, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”, Band Aid, the big start of that celebrity collaboration charity thing, but it’s been done a lot since then. Your brother’s own generation has All Star Tribute - “What’s Going On?” for AIDS and 9/11. That was only 8 years ago, and who among them is still around? How many would YOU recognize?
I’m 29, and recognized 15 of the soloists (I think my roommate can name 5 or 6 more).
I admit that I wouldn’t be able to recognize Steve Perry from his looks, but his voice is unmistakable.
52 here. I was an avid watcher of music videos when this song came out and a fan of most of the performers. I can still name all of them just by watching the video.
All of the soloists anyway. And I could recognize a few of the others, such as Dan Aykroyd , John Oates, and Harry Belafonte. Not so much individual members of the News or any of Michael Jackson’s brothers.
Finnish, 36 years, and just returned to my youth by reviewing the American and British performances. It’s a 15-12 win for the USA I’m afraid, and that’s when I count Duran Duran as five. Shocked by how young they all look, and did we really think George Michael’s hair looked sexy?
Around 17 years old back then, 43 now, Could identify all of the soloists, most of the background people. Could probably have named 75% of the soloists by just listening to their voices. I was heavily into MTV back then.
Age 44; could name 24, and recognised three others. Admittedly, I looked at the video on a pretty low resolution screen (and a computer without speakers!)
Not to shabby considering I teach a class on the history of rock 
I’m 29 and (after double checking my on wiki to make sure I was right on a few) I got 17 of them.
There was a few I recognized, but didn’t count since I couldn’t come up with the name, like “Hey that’s the guy from Journey, what his name?” or “Is that Sheila E.?”
There were some on the wiki list I didn’t even notice but would have recognized if I had seen them like Bette Midler or or Dan Akroyd.
Almost all of them, but I was a young teen when this came out so I’m exactly the right age to have been interested in knowing who they all were at the time.
Even more with Band-Aid, I can recognize all of them, and can identify who is saying what parts in the extended remix that has the spoken holiday greetings included.
17, plus 2 I recognized the faces, but couldn’t place names to…well, 3, if you include the Jackson brother I couldn’t HOPE to identify.
The ones I ID’d in no particular order:
Michael Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Dan Aykroyd, Quincy Jones, John Oates - but not Daryl Hall, oddly enough.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry to see who was there, the two non-Jacksons I recognized, but couldn’t name are Dionne Warwick, and Steve Perry - the first of whom drove me nuts, since she is pretty recognizable. Also, I seem to have failed to see (not just identify, because I’d have recognized her) Bette Midler.
I’m 33.
53 year old from NZ.
I recognised 24 in total & all but 2 of the soloists.
Bloody awful song though. Don’t make me play it again! 
All of them, except I’m unsure of the guy in the white sweater. I want to say it’s James Ingram, but I can’t be sure. I hated that sappy POS song then and I hate it equally as much now. At least it’s not as idiotic, though, as “Do they know it’s Christmastime, at all?” In Africa? I have always wondered if they really care.
I was a tween (even though we weren’t called that) when the video came out & watched MTV whenever I could at the time (my parents wouldn’t get cable).
There’s only one soloist I don’t recognize (turns out it’s James Ingram). And I recongize most of the people in the background. I wouldn’t expect anyone born in the 90s to recognize most of them.
I recognized about 12, and I’m 29. In my defense, I didn’t grow up with cable or music videos. Half the people I did recognize, I did so by voice. That’s not cheating, is it?
Make that 18…which was my original count - I recounted based on this list…which I forgot to add Bruce Springsteen to. :smack:
I’m 24 and I was only able to recognize four of them by face: Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and Ray Charles. Many of the others I didn’t recognize immediately by voice, but were artists I definitely would be able to name: Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Kenny Loggins, Bob Dylan, and Bette Midler.
So, 13 of them in total were artists I’d be able to recognize in some way or another.