Mike has been busy dissecting the recent Band Aid single. I won’t spoil the outcome, but he does make a good argument for the winner (the question is how much you agree with his musical tastes).
However, as I commented, you can’t really compare them. Sure you can dissect the musical aspects of each but ultimately the people who bought the original 1984 version will still remember Martin Buerk’s news report from Ethiopia, and probably still be able to recall the horror and revulsion of what they saw on screen. It was a shock back then, to see things like that.
These days, we have 24 hour news, so don’t tune in at 6pm. We read headlines of famine, war, and genocide, and scan past the pictures portraying these horrible horrible things. It’s all there, constantly streamed at us, and we are becoming numbed to it. Back in 1984 it was a new experience, sadly today it is all too common.
UPDATE: Having re-read this I’d like to point out that I’m not knocking Mike’s post – it’s very good, go read it. It was just the prompt for this post, hence the link.
EDIT: Corrected from Michael Bell to Michael Buerk. Cheers graybo, I always get those two mixed up.