I heard a number of artists backed down when they heard the lyrics were changed to be specific with Haiti. I agree. I would have turned it down too, unless I was desperate for new publicity.
Number one hit on the charts in New Orleans!
If this is supposed to be a universal theme, where are the Asians, the Aborigines, and the American Indians?
Here’s the full version. I think it’s pretty nice, but that’s just me. I could do without the AutoTune, and I’m pretty sure that Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus have the exact same voice (and may be the exact same person), but other than that, I like it.
Eh, I didn’t think it was that bad. I wish the chorus reflected more people from the world of rock; this seemed nearly all pop and hip hop. The original had Dylan and Springsteen and several other legends. Of course, it also had Hall & Oates… and Dan Ackroyd.
I could do without the auto-tune, and wish they had brought in some harder, edgier voices (thank goodness for Pink), but overall I think it sucked no more or less than the original.
Agreed re: sucking. Nobody jams out to this stuff; it’s to raise money.
My thoughts: waaaay too much Wyclef, although I can understand why they emphasized him. My wife and I were trying to figure out who Jeff Bridges was (Kris Kristofferson? Kenny Loggins? Holy crap, it IS Jeff Bridges!) and we thought the Michael Jackson thing was pretty cool.
One thing, though: am I crazy, or was that Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles? I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Yeah, no reason for MJ to be in it.
Agreed that it tried for too much, and ended up perfecting nothing.
And I’m so glad a know nothing kid got to open the song.
Who the hell is this Bieber kid anyway? Does he know how bubble gummy he is?
Kris Kristofferson = Jeff Bridges unless you wanna really dig deep and get picky.
The whole thing just seems way too desperate for me. They’re trying too hard to be cool and hip.
Barbra Streisand’s appearance takes the cool factor down enormously.
The auto-tune was horrible.
And, worse, it lacked a Ray Charles or Bruce Springsteen, who could add a little bit of much needed emotion and color.
As far as I can tell, he’s the result of a failed experiment to place all three Jonas Brothers into a single body. They put in all three Chipmunks by mistake. All joking aside, he’s apparently really popular with the younger set right now, since his face is on all the tween magazines and I recently came into contact with a dollar bill that had “<3 you Justin Bieber” on it (I’m assuming that was a message to him and not from him, though I have no idea how he would get it unless it was a bribe). I actually heard him sing for the first time a couple of days ago and was amazed at how high-pitched his voice was. Now I can see why cartoon character Dr. Doofenshmirtz calls him Justin Beaver- he sounds like a small woodland creature.
Wikipedia says he was discovered on YouTube and mentored by Usher, and that he’s had three Top 20 singles already. I still think he’s either the missing fourth Chipmunk or Miley Cyrus’s alter alter ego.
I made it about ten seconds in and had to stop it.
Horrendous.
This song was ass 25 years ago, and I don’t need to hear it again to know it’s still ass today.
I heard they had some lined up, but then Haiti called and said, “we’re not THAT hungry.”
I remnemebr watching some documentary about the recording of the original song that was playing on MTV back in 1985, and they were all talking about “leaving their egos at the door,” and how it wasn’t about them, it was a totally selfless act for Ethiopia, etc. The irony is that it was really just a gigantic, self-congratulatory circle jerk and cool club. The record made money for Ethiopia, I guess, but probably not as much as all those rich pop stars could have donated by themselves. They think making a self-aggrandizing video is some kind of a virtuous sacrifice. I say boycott the thing. You don’t have to buy a shit CD to be able to donate to Haiti. This is more about the publicity for the acts involved than it is about Haiti.
Who the hell is that little kid? I’ve never fucking heard of him. Somewhere is a locker with his name on it.
As far as I can tell, he’s the result of a failed experiment to place all three Jonas Brothers into a single body. They put in all three Chipmunks by mistake. All joking aside…oh, wait, I explained who he is already.
Can we please add a disclaimer to every public broadcast of this that has a chance of leaking out into space? “Contrary to the claims herein, these people are not, in fact, the world, nor should they be presumed to speak for it as a whole. Please don’t invade. XOXO, Earth”
100% correct on this—I can just imagine the managers and agents scrambling to insure their clients mugs got on screen for this giant ego-palooza.
It wasn’t bad but went downhill really fast - with no brakes - right after Streisand. Toward the end I thought they were trying to get that “so bad it’s funny” effect.
Something about Jamie Foxx’s apparent Ray Charles impersonation really irritated me.
Where were the rock musicians? There was no diversity at all in the type of acts involved.