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Did Live Aid do more harm than good?
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Back in 1985 Band Aid and Live Aid raised over 100 million pounds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Few question that it saved many thousands of lives. So, job done, case closed?
The reality is more nuanced.
In this episode we ask the questions:
- What are the problems with the song "Do they know it's Christmas?" (the clue is in the title)
- Where were the African artists at Live Aid? Was "fame" really the only thing that mattered in choosing the performers?
- Did all the aid go where it should or did some fall into the wrong hands? Does that matter?
- Far from helping Africa, did the Live Aid phenomenon create a Frankenstein? A view of Africa as broken and helpless? And with the west who caused the problem in the first place happy to pose as white saviours?
Lots to chew over. Join us for an entirely reasonable discussion.
Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.
Chapters
1. Did Live Aid do more harm than good? (00:00:00)
2. Introduction (00:00:21)
3. The Medium Sized Dive (00:01:31)
4. Is the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" a problem itself? (00:03:36)
5. Where did all the money go? (00:09:17)
6. Long term negative perceptions of Africa from Live Aid (00:12:37)
7. Summing up (00:16:07)
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