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fear of terrorism and environmental concems than on the poor or the dying,
eventually leading to the display of political activism than humanitarianism.
One major pattem that developed during the second half of the last decade
is the resurgence of the charity events and recordings from the 1980s in a recycled
format, such as Band Aid 20 (2005), Live 8 (2005), and Artists for Haiti (2010). Rob
Tannenbaum, senior reviews editor for the music monthly, Blender also said, “We
digest culture in 20-year cycles” (Leopold par. 6); he contended that we can use 20
years as a marketing device and as a nostalgic cycle. These examples lead us to some
clues as to why the 20-year cycle might work.
The importance of a certain cause can help people to set aside
disagreements and opposing views and join the cause together. More recently, it has
been with natural disasters, deaths, poverty, and hunger that brought people of the
world together. With “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” by Artists for Haiti (2010), it
seems the Philanthropie movement in rock music is back where it belongs, but with a
new twist. The song showed the entire world that rock music can be an agent of
social change, especially in times of hardships and disasters, but also it can empower
the next generation of rock music fans with the power of social media, another new
chapter in media technology.
Conclusion
This article has not attempted to disentangle all of the nuances and
complexities of philanthropy in rock music because it is more about history and less
about philosophy. It has focused on illustrating how historical and social
circumstances and changes may have helped rock music to generate a series of
charitable events and how such dynamics may have contributed to the development
and the growth of broader and more integrative Philanthropie work over time.
Because of the attendance in concerts, strong sales figures of records, massive
airplay on the air, and satellite transmission, these events succeeded in drawing
global actions from the countries linked by the consumption and production of rock
music because it was much easier to attempt a global solution than it would be in
other industries.
Rock music’s involvement in philanthropy is still a fledgling (or perhaps
overlooked) historiography in academia, with little notable scholarly research and
with a tendency to focus on existing knowledge in rock musie’s relations to politics
and society rather than serve new knowledge in rock musie’s relations to
humanitarianism. I hope that this historical overview will be useful to a great
diversity of scholars, and a variety of disciplines. Lauded for its humanitarian
concem and fundraising potential and lambasted for trivializing important issues, the
marriage of rock music and philanthropy may have been controversial and
questionable from the moment it began, but at the same time, charity rock opened up
spaces that were unthinkable in any other populär culture form, transcending time,
place, nationality, age, and race.
It is only natural to be cynical about benefit and charity concerts and
recordings. As a matter of fact, when there have been so many charity efforts by
rock musicians over the course of history, it is probably reasonable to be skeptical or