Why I think Live 8 missed the mark
Let me begin by saying I think Live 8 was a great idea. The ONE campaign is something I fully support. I admire the desire to DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, about the social inequalities of the world.
All of that said, I have to speak up about why I think Live 8 essentially failed. My main problem stems from the fact that the concert was carried on MTV. MTV's coverage consisted of two minutes of a band playing followed by VJs talking about what a great thing they were doing followed with the usual variety of MTV commercials. Now that Live 8 is over, MTV is back to its heavy rotation of Date my Mom, Room Raiders, and Real World.
Changing the great inequalities of the world first requires America to to repent of being the great consumer nation that it is. MTV plays into that culture as much if not more than any other media outlet. But right now MTV and those it follow feel great about what they did last Saturday. People are now wearing the white wristbands and carrying on like everything is as it always was. Months and years from now when the Live 8 buzz dies down and injustice is still ongoing in places like Africa, I worry that people will suffer because the concern will pass like every other fad that outlets like MTV push onto their eager consumer market. Unless MTV is willing to quit driving the consumer culture of American youth, nothing will truly change.
To truly change the world, we must call our peers to a true change of consumer mindset, instead of just a raised awareness of the plight of others.
posted by Adam Phelan @ 6:31 PM
3 Comments:
Yes, I agree but is your critique not more about MTV than the Live 8 concerts themselves? MTV was not the only station to carry the concert. Were stations like MTV and the others who carried the concert out to really make a diffrence in the world? NO of course they were not, they found a great chance to show some great bands and help its viewers feel like they were doing something good by watching. Once again though, that was not Live 8's fault. New Score Totals: Live 8- 1, Cooperate Bungholes- 0
Pax
Stephen
Agreed Stephen. But we live in a world were the medium of the message(MTV) is just as important as the message itself. I'm fairly sure MTV was the only network that carried the concert worldwide. Here in the states VH1 also carried it but they're owned by MTV. I didn't even mention the gift bags all artists and celebrities received that were worth over $10,000 each. And the fact that within days of playing Live 8 Bon Jovi also played the corporate convention of Wal-Mart. There is no perfect message or messenger and I state again that I love that Live 8 was an attempt to do something. I'm just afraid that it unintentionally became yet another commidity to be consumed.
hey adam, i see the point that you are trying to make about our nation,heck our world, being too consumeristic and because of that...it lessoned Live 8's importance. I think we were lucky to even get MTV to show the thing for as long as they did. ABC showed it for 2 hours and it was a total flop for them ratings wise. It might have been because anyone that cared about watching it had already done so...or because our culture would rather watch someone eat cow stomach than watch some of the best artist in the world play and make music. The whole point of Live 8 was to get people talking and to raise awareness. I am pretty sure that it did what it set out to do. About those $10,000 gift bags..you know that all that stuff was given away from corporate sponsors...its not like they spent all that money on the bands...or that the bands refused to play unless they got some stuff. My feeling on the day was this...if half the people who either went to the concert or watched it on tv just went home and read about what is going on, or talked to friends about it..or went online and checked out one.org then the thing was a success. Most people aren't aware of what is going on in the world at large. This was like a giant plea for people to think about something other than themselves for one day. So i don't think it failed or missed the mark. I think it set out and did exactly what it intended to do...cause millions of people to pause for even just a second and think about others first.
Post a Comment
<< Home