My view on the new We Are the World remake? It’s not great. Just Like most movie remakes/sequels, it was much better left untouched.
Look, my study is in classical vocal music and in music theory. I analyze Bach, Beethoven, and the boys. I’m by no means an expert at modern music, but I hate that people call themselves musicians if their sound is piped through electronic means. Rap isn’t music. Rap may be poetry, but it’s definitely not music. Music requires two elements: rhythm and pitch. Rap has rhythm, but people at a Def Poetry jam don’t call themselves musicians. Rap didn’t belong in the remake. If you’re going to invoke the musical stylings of Michael Jackson to raise money, you should keep true to his writing and not fuck it up.
I vividly remember the original. It was on every 20 minutes on KTFM 102.7 here in San Antonio (which is now Jack FM). I liked the song so much, I held the tape recorded to my radio to try to record it… but the damn DJ’s would always talk over the first or last parts. I never got a clean recording of it. The musicians were talented. I can watch a video of the original and tell you just about each and every single singer. Maybe I don’t care for the remake since I only know a handful of singers.
And is it just me, or did Tony Bennett and Babs (Barbara Streisand) just seem to stick out like a sore thumb? Haha! I have a strange feeling if you DO NOT know who Tony Bennett and Babs are, you could probably point out who the artists in the remake are by name. Maybe they brought them both in so Josh Groban wouldn’t feel out of place.
Also thought it was funny Justin Bieber (too young to remember the original) needed sheet music with the words to sing the FIRST LINE of the damn song. Lionel Richie (co writer alongside Michael Jackson) had the honor of singing the first line in the original, and they gave it to the flavor of the week in the pop scene?
