We Are the World - 25 Year Later

[JamieSix]

:scream: AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL!!!!!! Lil' Wayne with the shitty Autotune that has recently ruined music and real singing, Justin Bieber opening the song :yikes: stupid rap part that shouldn't have been there (I love hip-hop but it just should NOT have been there!), Wyclef Jean's screaming... all I heard was crap crap crap.... except for the Janet/Michael duet, Celine Dion, and... that's about it.

[PrincessLeppard]

I thought it was AWFUL... :scream: :scream: :scream:

The original is waaaaaaaaaaay better!

And the original sucked. It shouldn't have been hard to do better. And yet...

[Rex]

And the original sucked. It shouldn't have been hard to do better. And yet...

It was not the best of songs. With all those different vocal styles and such, it was always a bit of a mish-mash to me. It lacks vocal harmony. The new version isn't much better.

[duane]

And the original sucked... Tell me about it!!

But as bad as the original was, the huge number of A-List stars was impressive. Other than Prince (who reportedly was to do a duet with MJ but backed out at the last minute), nearly every elite artist at the time participated. 25 years later, we have old-timers, has-beens, who-dats, and how-comes (as in...they're famous?? How come?)

[skaternum]

I thought it was no worse than the original. :shuffle: There were some rough parts in it, but overall it was about as well done as the original. I found the MJ dubs to be quite disconcerting and just tacky.

As for the complaints about who sang, consider these stellar participants from the original 25 years ago:
Dan Ackroyd
Kim Carnes
Sean Hopper
Mario Cipollina
Latoya Jackson
Willie "Warble All Over The Place" Nelson

If those folks don't make you scratch your head, why should you be bothered by Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber? ;)

[duane]

Soloists of WATW 1985: Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Darryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles.

Soloists of WATW 2010: Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Nettles, Josh Groban, Tony Bennett, Mary J Blige, Janet Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Miley Cyrus, Enrique Iglesias, Jamie Foxx, Wyclef, Adam Levine, Pink, BeBe Winans, Usher, Celine Dion, Fergie, Nick Jonas, Toni Braxton, Mary Mary, Isaac Slade, Lil Wayne, Akon, T-Pain, LL Cool J, Will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Swizz Beatz, lyaz, Kanye West.

[skaternum]

^^ I'm not sure what the point was of duane's posting. But I do think the reasons some people think the 1985 soloists were better is because (a) that's when they (the listeners, not the stars) were in their "formative" years, musically speaking, and we all know how much better things were back when we were young :rolleyes: , and (b) the 1985 soloists have had 25 years to sort of stand the test of time. Many of the current batch are still fairly early in their careers, relative to the 1985 batch. Let's see how they stack up in 25 years.

I'm not saying I thought it as a great song/video -- far from it. But it wasn't the monstrosity I was expectating based on the panning it got here.

[Veronika]

The end of the song is really bad--what is Wyclef doing?

And I'm not a fan of Auto-Tune, so Akon and T-Pain did not sound good to me.

[duane]

^^ I'm not sure what the point was of duane's posting. The "point" was to list the soloists and to allow people to make up their own minds as to which group is more "stellar".

As I said earlier, IMO the number of A-list stars of WATW 1985 was impressive. The soloists were artists who--at that time--were top-selling artists (Michael Jackson and "Thriller", Springsteen and "Born in the USA", Richie and "Can't Slow Down", Tina Turner and "Private Dancer", Cindy Lauper and "She's So Unusual", Huey Lewis and "Sports", Billy Joel and "An Innocent Man"...), music icons, and Grammy Award winners. I would say nearly every soloist of the original WATW had instant name recognition in 1985, and when the purpose of a song is to raise money, you want the top artists. I think this is why the original WATW--as bad a song it is--became so popular, because people were simply fascinated by the collaboration of so many top artists.

[FiveRinger]

The remake was an absolute travesty. Not that the first version was ever anything to write home about, but it was the first time that anyone had attempted to do a recording like this with such a large group of respected musicians (operative word, not musically engineered noise makers), many of whom had long and well-respected careers even at that time.

I am still trying to figure out why Jermaine Jackson is mad for not being asked to participate. I understand that his ego is large enough for him to be offended because he wasn't included. However, he should be glad his name isn't attached to this hot mess.

[StonewshMullet]

The more things change the more they stay the same. The song sucked 25 years ago and it still sucks.

[Simone411]

A noted couple of changes that would have improved this new version immensely . Two artists that should have been included as Soloists and not just in the background ... Gladys Knight and Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart). :respec:

[skaternum]

Not that the first version was ever anything to write home about, but it was the first time that anyone had attempted to do a recording like this with such a large group of respected musicians

Aside: I hate that Bob Geldof's "Do They Know It's Christmas" gets short shrift because of the WATW hoo-hah 25 years ago. Bob did it first, and he did it better!

[Rex]

And The Jonas Brothers for feck's sake!!! It's like Tiger Beat was sitting in on the session!

[reckless]

Aside: I hate that Bob Geldof's "Do They Know It's Christmas" gets short shrift because of the WATW hoo-hah 25 years ago. Bob did it first, and he did it better!
ITA. DTNIC is a better song, IMO.