Week 7 - Can Popular Music be a genuine force for political change?

There have been many times when Pop stars and Celebrities have tried to use Popular music as a force for political change. Examples of this include live aid, which raise over £40m for famine relief in Africa. Followed by live 8 in 2005, which aimed to raise awareness amongst the G8 countries and put pressure on political leaders to tackle world poverty. It raised over 400 times more than live aid, due to the debt deal which was agreed by the leaders at the G8 summit. I think this proves that popular music can be a force for political change. However it is only one of a number of factors which combine to produce genuine change. At the end of the day it is the politicians who have the power and as Daltrey said about Live Earth, a concert to raise environmental awareness, “ The last thing the planet needs is a rock concert, the questions and the answers are so huge I don’t know what a rock concert’s ever going to do to help.” Bob Geldof, the organiser of live aid/8, also stated that he would only have organized a concert like live earth if he could “go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, congress, or major corporations."