Live 8

Live 8 was a series of concerts that took place in July 2005, in the G8 nations and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and Summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland from July 6-8, 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Running parallel with the UK's Make Poverty History campaign, the shows planned to pressure world leaders to drop the debt of the world's poorest nations, increase and improve aid, and negotiate fairer trade rules in the interest of poorer countries. Ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July the G8 leaders pledged to increase aid to Africa by US$25 billion by the year 2010.

Criticisms

A lack of African presence

London-based group Black Information Link described the list of performers at the Hyde Park event as "hideously white" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4602763.stm, noting that Mariah Carey, Ms Dynamite and Snoop Dogg are the only non-white performers scheduled to perform at the event. Damon Albarn re-iterated this criticism, saying that "This country is incredibly diverse," he said. "More than ever, black culture is an integral part of society. So why is the bill so damn Anglo-Saxon?". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4079644.stm Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z and Kanye West also turned up at Philadelphia to perform.

Related Topics:
Black Information Link - Mariah Carey - Ms Dynamite - Snoop Dogg - Damon Albarn - Black Eyed Peas - Alicia Keys - Destiny's Child - Jay-Z - Kanye West

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Albarn is now reportedly happy about Live 8 now that they have addressed his criticism. He told a reporter on 21 June:

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I have said certain things in relation to the density of African performers... In some way that's been addressed and that's really good... Live 8 will make a difference – it's already created a debate that we're all involved in.

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A Live 8 spokesman said that a number of black performers had been approached to participate and that the event would feature a "large urban element", and pointed to the number of artists of African descent like Ms Dynamite. However, Youssou N'Dour and Dave Matthews of Dave Matthews Band, remained the only African-born artists signed to perform at the main concerts. Bob Geldof originally said that this was because he had aimed for the biggest-selling, most popular artists to ensure a large television audience; but critics noted that even if this was acceptable as the sole criterion for inclusion, some of the minor white artists signed up were substantially less well-known than some major African artists. Bob Geldof has been accused of compounding the original error by announcing an entirely African line-up ("Africa Calling") at a concert to be held at the Eden Project in Cornwall on the same day as the main Live 8 concerts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4094482.stm

Related Topics:
Ms Dynamite - Dave Matthews - Dave Matthews Band

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Incidentally, artist 50 Cent cancelled his appearance due to a clash with his acting commitment for the upcoming film Get Rich Or Die Tryin.

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The concert was also been criticized by African intellectuals for not addressing issues such as corruption and governance. A Cameroonian op-ed appearing in the New York Times stated:

Related Topics:
Cameroon - New York Times

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Who here wants a concert against poverty when an African is born, lives and dies without ever being able to vote freely? But the truth is that it was not for us, for Africa, that the musicians at Live 8 were singing; it was to amuse the crowds and to clear their own consciences, and whether they realized it or not, to reinforce dictatorships. They still believe us to be like children that they must save, as if we don't realize ourselves what the source of our problems is. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/opinion/15tonme.html

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Artists' careers

As with many charity events before it, Live 8 has come in for some criticism in the media. Some of these criticisms are not specific to Live 8 but representative of a particular point of view concerning western attitudes towards Africa. However, some criticisms are directed at Geldof himself and the motives for Live 8:

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I am coming, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Live 8 is as much to do with Geldof showing off his ability to push around presidents and prime ministers as with pointing out the potential of Africa. Indeed, Geldof appears not to be interested in Africa's strengths, only in an Africa on its knees. http://comment.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=647356&host=6&dir=140

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Geldof is criticised for using Africa as "a catwalk" which is more about reviving the careers of ageing rock stars than about helping the poor in Africa. For example, some fans and music critics feel that some of the lineups, such as that in Barrie, are not only largely ethnically homogeneous but not likely to connect with, or speak to, younger fans ("Live 8 organizer dismisses criticism..." Globe and Mail article).

Related Topics:
Barrie - Globe and Mail

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Many believed that it was hypocrisy that many of the performing artists had tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars of "spare cash" lying in their bank accounts whilst wanting to "Make Poverty History". On stage, Kanye West criticised G8 politicians for riding in Bentleys and Mercedes Benzs, although he himself owns 12 vehicles. (Even more controversially, West also used the global platform to make claims of "man-made diseases placed in African communities", a reference to the conspiracy theory that AIDS was created to exterminate Africans.) Counter-critics, however, point out that these celebrities are still not rich enough to be able to cancel the debts of nations. Damon Albarn also suggested that the performers' record labels should pay "a tariff" as the accompanying publicity would increase future record sales and hence their profits. Live 8, it is important to note, is not a charity event. Indeed, public figures and media have since called on the artists and their record labels to donate the profits of increased sales that followed appearance at the event (see "...Live 8 profits plea" BBC article, for example).

Related Topics:
Kanye West - Conspiracy theory - AIDS - Record label - BBC

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More criticism has been leveled at some of the performers based on what they took home for participating in the Philadelphia concert. While they received no monetary compensation, some were given gift bags containing lavish gifts and designer goodies - including Gibson guitars and Hugo Boss suits - valued at approximately $3000(see "Fancy gifts at odds with cause?" The Philadelphia Inquirer). None the items appear to have been fairly-traded, sweatshop-free or environmentally friendly.

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General

Many charities had been planning a rally on 2 July targeting the G8 summit and were apparently surprised at the Live 8 announcement, although, due to the common cause, protest has been muted.

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The debt relief idea being promoted by Live 8 is seen as giving a blank cheque to governments, many of which are plagued by corruption http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/25/wnig25.xml, and in the past have used debt relief to increase their defence spending. Some have criticised him for ignoring what they hold to be the root causes of Africa's problems, the actions of Robert Mugabe being one, and seeking to solve complex political problems by simply throwing money at them. http://veraciraptor.blogspot.com/2005/06/live-aid-2-why-left-needs-needy-africa.html

Related Topics:
Corruption - Robert Mugabe

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The economic principles and theories behind the event have also been subject to criticism as ill-informed and simplistic. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/knowinghumans?p=59 Some citizens of G8 nations are discontent with the idea of their tax money funding developments in another continent that could be spent on their own education, health, pension and infrastructure systems.

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Despite the show being broadcast before the watershed in many countries, there was no attempt at censorship. The BBC apologised http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/bbc%20sorry%20for%20swearing%20stars for an instance when Madonna asked the audience "are you fucking ready, London?", and for Snoop Dogg's perfomance which contained the use of swear words without censorship. When Green Day's performance in Berlin was broadcast to the other venues, it was aired uncensored. In the United States, MTV censored swear words from the performances it broadcast, except for the word "bullshit" as part of the lyrics to Pink Floyd's "Money".

Related Topics:
Watershed - Censorship - Money

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Criticism was also drawn from viewers of MTV (and possibly other networks), in which the broadcaster cut to commercials while bands were still performing, specifically Pink Floyd and The Who. Criticism was also aimed at MTV for focusing too much on ill-informed VJs and not enough on the music. In fact, very few of Live 8's songs were played in full by MTV and almost none of them were broadcast live, leading some to contend that MTV may have covered the event but they did not broadcast it.

Related Topics:
MTV - Pink Floyd - The Who

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The Daily Mail commented on the event for running two hours late, with a frontpage headline reading 'Live L8'.

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