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MUSIC AND ITS STEREOTIPES
MUSIC AND CHARITY - Not only “silly songs”…
Music. Vehicle of emotions, of broken or stolen love, of hate cries that can’t stop, of rage, of joy, of desire that can never be satisfied…distort guitars, drums to wrecking, bass lines similar to an heartbeat and sometimes the sweet sound of a piano caresses all of this.
Music and emotions, music and fun, music as a gun against boredom and sadness that every day threat us.
But that’s not all, folks.
Many musicians are not satisfied of keeping company with us by our radio or mP3 devices, but rise their voices in favor of the poorest and the sickest in this world, knowing that nothing like the music is able to attract the masses’ attention.
The beneficent projects pertain to the poorest zones on Earth and particularly are dedicated to Africa, the continent where Starving and Diseases make the very majority of victims. Since the 80 many musicians have worked to gather funds to donate to many populations come down with starving.
Could we forget – for example – the “USA 4 AFRICA” project and the famous song “We are the world”? This project went along with the continuous struggle of the irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof , who about at the same time had recorded together with Midge Ure (Ultravox’s leader) the song “Do they know it’s Christmas?”, dedicated once again to the children of Africa. From this collaboration Live Aid was born. Live Aid is a huge concert which took place at the same time into the Wembley Stadium (London) and into the JFK Stadium (Philadelphia). All the greatest representatives of the eighties’ music took part in it (for example Queen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elton John, Tina Turner just to give some names).
Even in more recent times, Geldof carried on his ideal of music as means of complaint and gave his support for the Third World’s debt erasing, together with Bono Vox, leader of U2: from their collaboration in 2005 the Live 8 took its life. Live 8 is the biggest concert ever done, with 8 stages set up in the 8 capital cities of the most industrialized countries. The show machine, besides attracting the media attention, received also a lot of blasts (for example about the little attention paid to ecology, if we consider the amount of energy that has been used), but none of the organizers let himself down. Don’t forget we are talking about people like Mr. Paul David Hewson (Bono actually!), a man we could never consider regardless of what was happening on earth; the one who - live on MTV – ventured to blame the French President about Mururoa nuclear experiments (his “What a city! What a President! What a MISTAKE!!!” still can be heard) and who never exited to purpose a different use of the American Army by the video “The Saints are coming”, during the emergency created by hurricane Katrina. This song has been played also thanks to Green Day’s collaboration. This band went on to work with U2 and other artists recording the cd “Instant Karma” in favor of Amnesty International.
And what about Italy? Luckily we can say we can talk about a strong sense of charity, even when we don’t expect. Besides the social attention that a lot of singers like Jovanotti, Piero Pelù and Ligabue – who sang together the song “Il Mio Nome E’ Mai Piu’” – just in these days two very interesting projects: the collaboration between our Francesco Renga and Irene Grandi with Youssou’N Dour and “Rezophonic”.
What have in common the former Timoria’s lead singer with one of our best female rock voices, a great African artist, Patty Smith, Simphiwe Dana and – even more – the business man Alessandro Benetton? It’s simple: the “Birima” project, that is about microcredit in the Africa Countries. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, microcredit is a kind of free-interest loan (the money is – for our measures – a very small amount) that allows to the Third World inhabitants to start a business and live with dignity. That’s it: we don’t give them fish, we teach them to fish.
Moreover, being tied to private initiatives, microcredit is not subject to the government’s influence that often is the key element in preventing some countries from rising above their pauperty.
Even in the metal business, something is going on: it is the wonderful “Rezophonic” project, a name behind which we can find many artists of the Italian alternative spot. This initiative supports the AMREF water project and purposes “To offer water to those who really suffer for thirst”, digging water well in the Kijiado zone, which can be found on the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
Among the artist that joined “Rezophonic” we can find Lacuna Coil, Linea 77, Verdena, Deasonika, Negrita, Bluvertigo. Luckily, many others are joining the team, showing to the world that even here artist are able to catch with sensibility the hard failures afflicting our society. They are trying to bring music at a higher level as a means to change what is wrong.
Music and hope: a duet we hope will never end.
Legolas _di_Mirkwood
Planned and developed by Mrs Lindstrom with the help of Nailedtoacross, Legolas di Mirkwood,
Shikaia590 and Maia.Editor in chief: Mrs Lindstrom, Graphic Project: Dan[616]
