During the 2010 Grammy Awards, Lionel Richie made a wonderful speech about Michael Jackson and all of Michael’s great feats in the music industry. He then followed up with a surprise announcement about the remake of the song “We are the World”. The song was co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones, back in 1985. The song’s purpose was to bring awareness to African Humanitarianism Relief. The first version of the song had a cast of fifty artists of which Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Tina Turner, and Bruce Springsteen (to name a few).
The new version will be redone to bring awareness and capital to the Haitian Earthquake Relief. The new version was recorded with another fifty musical artists cast, all of which did not participate in the first making of the song. Some artists include: Usher, Pink, Celine Dion, Jamie Foxx, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, and Wyclef Jean (to name a few).
The new version of the song was co-produced by one of the original authors of the song, Lionel Richie, and the same producer from twenty-five years ago, Quincy Jones. Not only was the song reproduced, but it was recorded in the same music studio used to record the first version.
Both songs have their own special feel to them, but the two can easily be differentiated. The 1985 “We are the World” was a song based off “old time music”. This means there was more singing and harmony in the music (as a result of the Motown era), whereas the new version of “We are the World” follows the “new music” template. This means there is hip-hop, rap, and computer element added to the new version. There is no doubt the older version has a more harmonious and melodic aspect to it, and that the new version is more up-to-date and hip. But, which is the better version? That is the question on every music consumers mind.
Saturday Night Live seems to have answered that question with its own parody version of the revision of “We are the World”. The show even went as far to say that their version of the song was to bring awareness to the disaster that was the remake. And, in closing off this topic, on Saturday Night Live, a man pronounced, “The first version was fine, so why redo it?” The shows parody was a very funny spectacle, and really outlines how music has somewhat died and has become a computerized art where an artist only has to know how to speak in order to sing. Both songs are great in the fact that they were produced for good intentions. So, go watch both music videos and see for yourself.