Songs to Inspire Change: A Playlist
We are (still) the world.
Gen X had the Wide World of Sports, but no worldwide web. Raised in the pre-dawn of globalization (under the weight of the Cold War and potential nuclear annihilation, NBD), our world expanded primarily through music—we wanted our “MTV” when it actually played music videos. Revisiting some of the issues that loomed large back then, through the lens of music, has recharged our get sh*t done spirit. While we lacked so many of the tools we use today to engage with important issues—chief among them the awareness and the connectivity the internet affords—these moments made us the interested, active, global citizens we are today. (We made a playlist for this road trip down memory lane, obvi, which you can download here.)
Live AID, July 1985.
In November 1984, a different kind of video appeared on MTV. Far from the overly stylized fare of the time, a home movie-quality compilation of every major British rock star of the time (mostly sans makeup, a rarity) met our eyes as Band Aid, a charitable supergroup lending melodies to famine in Africa. Bob Geldolf and Midge Ure had picked up on a BBC report from Ethiopia, where famine had killed over eight million people in the previous two years, and were inspired to act. Harry Belafonte and Lionel Richie took notice, assembling an eclectic group of American performers to record “We Are The World” in January 1985, also to benefit famine relief efforts in Africa. What followed, in July 1985, was unlike anything the world had seen. With more than 150,000 attendees in Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium in Philly, the Live Aid Concert remains one of the largest television broadcasts of all-time, seen by a whopping 40% of the world’s population. Joan Baez called it “our Woodstock,” and she’s not wrong.
U2 releases WAR, 1983.
If we were once in the dark on the conflict in Northern Ireland this side of the pond, we were illuminated the first time we heard “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” The title of the album is direct by design, and although the first single “New Year’s Day” is about the Polish Solidarity movement, most tracks infuse the perspective of people living in the shadow of violence. “The Troubles” continued throughout most of our musical upbringing, with The Cranberries’ 1993 hit “Zombie” recorded more than four years before the Good Friday Agreement finally offered peace.
Artists United Against Apartheid, 1985
While Peter Gabriel had previously released a song about Anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko and The Specials had released “Free Nelson Mandela,” it wasn’t until Little Steven (of E Street Band fame) assembled his protest band and released “Sun City” that many of us got a sense of the human toll of Apartheid. Footage of violence against black citizens of South Africa with the pledge not to play “Sun City” --a luxury resort and casino in a North West province of the country.
Yo! MTV Raps premiers, August 1988
Sadly, it took MTV close to seven years to get woke and realize their network was disturbingly homogenous. Elsewhere, hip hop was becoming increasingly popular, voicing a truth seldom reflected in the news. Enter Yo! MTV Raps, which brought hip hop from a regional phenomenon to a global stage. It became the must visit for up-and-coming stars and frequently showed them in their element instead of in the studio. The show was on air just in time to capture the urgent protest music of N.W.A., when host Fab 5 Freddy famously went to Compton to interview the group.
