Bejeweled Finger Pointing
Posted July 6, 2007 — in KOAR Rants, Music News
Between natural disasters, terminal illness, political agendas and social awareness, there seems to be more money raising than ever. But how effective are benefit concerts, really? With a new cause every other week, are they losing their meaning? Wealthy celebrities begging for money and the most frivolous artists appearing on CRIBS one day and lecturing the public about their irresponsible lifestyles the next?
Now, I’m all for social activism. I think it’s important as human beings to help our fellow man, even when the cameras are off. But how many people are really helped by Madonna flying her 100+ person circus on gas guzzling private jets to play a benefit show intended to raise awareness about environmental responsibility? People don’t tune into massive line ups of the biggest stars in music because they care about Africa or AIDS or global warming, and I don’t believe all of these artists show up because they care either. There are few benefits Paul McCartney and Bono aren’t a part of, and artists like Fergie will show up to the opening of an envelope. These shows are supposed to be about a cause, not the artists trying to appear human why they peddle their products. In the end, people won’t even remember what the causes were. They’re only watching to be entertained. So, what’s the point?
Benefit shows have turned into what? Organizers say things like “if we can change the thinking and habits of just one person, then we’ve succeeded.” REALLY?! That seems like a lot of effort to make ONE person start recycling. I don’t doubt that some of these people have their hearts in the right place, and I applaud the true efforts people make to better the world. However, I’d rather see these celebrities write gigantic checks to these causes than ask me to write one, or at the very least, practice what they’re preaching.
KOAR is not alone….more here:
Arctic Monkeys shiver at Live Earth ‘hypocrisy’ ….
Superstars flying 222,623 miles between them to get to the LIVE EARTH concerts…
Click here to watch all the shows live and online.
Live Earth fails to pack large-scale punch…
Earth underwhelmed by environment pop extravaganza…
Live Earth Internet streaming sets record: 9 Million Streams…
AJ/KOAR
i agree with this…society really needs to focus on whats important… celebs need to set the example bc they are in the public eye… good article aj
helani
Comment by helani — July 6, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
i second that. you hit it right on the head aj. glad you brought up cribs too. as if playing a benefit concert for energy conservation once in a while will absolve you from all of the energy you consume daily with your 15,000 square foot house. not to mention the concert itself. “but i drive a hybrid…” uh huh.
Comment by gideon merritt — July 6, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
I don’t want to get off topic, but its the global warmning benefit concerts that really pisses me off. Global warming is a myth brought to you by the one and only politicians who want to manipulate the american people. Blaming humans because the earth is warming? Are you kidding me? Jupiter is warming as well. Will the goverment tax me for that to? You cannot scientifically prove that humans are the sole cause for global warming. The celebrities who buy into this junk science are insane. The california sun is melting their ability to reason. Remember acid rain? We don’t talk about that anymore…bottom line: the benefit show lost their true value because of ‘iHYPE’.
Comment by koar — July 6, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
I loved and agreed every line of this article. Yah PSB!
Comment by A2daC — July 6, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
Next week, there are 3 sold out shows at Madison Square Garden for Dispatch : Zimbabwe. Now that is interesting and worth paying attention to.
http://www.dispatchmusic.com/
Comment by parocks — July 6, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Amen…KOAR.
Comment by larry anderson — July 6, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
Charity is losing it’s importance and impact on society. The monthly benefit concerts aren’t helping one bit. Sure, they gaining awareness of global warming. But they aren’t changing much. This whole “go green” movement has turned into one big marketing scheme sadly. I don’t care what’s causing global warming, I just know that there’s going to be serious effects that we might not be able to prevent. (nobody’s in denial that the earth IS warming up. The whole debate is about wheather it’s natural or humans caused it.) Going “carbon neutral” isn’t going to fix anything. If the celebrities really want to help, how about they raise money to stop the effects of global warming, because they should know they can’t stop global warming. If we know there’s going to be a flood, then you build dams. Right now the politicians are stuck argueing, and the celebrities aren’t using their influence to tackle the real problem. Benefit cncerts just turn the whole problem into hype.
Comment by annie — July 6, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
To quote one of my favorite bands, 10 Years- “absent minded actions outweigh forgiveness.”
How very true.
Comment by AJ-KOAR — July 7, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
“You cannot scientifically prove that humans are the sole cause for global warming. The celebrities who buy into this junk science are insane.”
Yikes. Big points off, KOAR. I’m disappointed.
Comment by Stu Gots — July 7, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
How could it not be the Humans fault? The metal carbon floating in the atmosphere got there by itself?
I believe global warmimg is a fight that everyone needs to take serious.The politicians are shying away from Global Warming not “hyping” it up!! Its a problem thats gonna cost BILLIONS to even start “scrubbing” the waste coming from these BIG Corporations and the truth is it will destroy our VERY week economy!Thats why nothing will be done about it,it will expose the true status of the US economy.Although the concert won’t do much,we have to start somewhere.
Comment by full devil jacket — July 8, 2007 @ 9:34 am
It isn’t just about the Earth’s temperature - what about the many polluted streams, so dirty you can’t dip your foot in them and how about the air pollution. Pollution is real, you can stick your head in the sand if you want to, drive a gas guzzling SUV if you like, but for me that is just being naive. BTW - Acid rain is real and was caused by humans, so what exactly is your point - that we have let it go - that it is a forgotten cause and you hope the Global Warming cause will go away too. Really bad KOAR!!
Comment by Blah — July 9, 2007 @ 9:10 am
It is about the earth temperature. In fact, this is called global warming. Its a fact that the earth, the sun, and other planets are ‘warming’, its a myth that humans are causing the warming. I agree, let’s focus on what we do know and clean up the oceans. Common sense!
Comment by koar — July 9, 2007 @ 9:38 am
It is called LIVE EARTH and is about saving the planet, not Global Warming - from what? you may ask; insert any number of things and you can worry about who is to blame, but there is no arguement about whether or not there is a problem. You cannot prove a negative, another words, I would ask you to prove that we (humans) do not affect the climate/warming of the earth, but that would be even sillier than saying we have NO affect on it.
Comment by Blah — July 9, 2007 @ 12:22 pm