Alternative Universe: No Live Aid

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May have been done before, I don't know, but I can't help wondering whether there would have been quite drastic effects (and not by any means all bad ones) had Live Aid not happened, not in terms of charitable events and how they are held etc but in terms of the music of the late 80s and which bands were successful. The fact that it happened in 1985 always makes me feel that it was pivotal and that the musical history latter half of the 80s was shaped by it.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

it almost certainly increased the success of U2 and Simple Minds, for example.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and Phil Collins ...

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

U2, definitely--I remember that Island subsequently rushed out the _Wide Awake in America_ EP to capitalize on everybody's jaws dropping at that incredible endless version of "Bad" they played.

― Douglas, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tracy. Chapman.

― DavidM, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate myself for knowing this, but Chapman became successful as a result of her appearance at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday concert in 1988. The same one where Jim Kerr and Annie Lennox made pro- Mandela and anti-apartheid statements, which inspired Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn to claim that the concert had been "hijacked by extremists", lest we forget.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Anyway thought it better to revive this than start a new thread.

As someone who is too young to remember Live Aid and the aftermath in the pop/rock landscape, I thought i'd ask ILM what was so bad about Live Aid?
Everyone seems to say this was when music was at its worst and the record industry men realised that music could be 'marketed' at the older generation where previously they thought the 35+ bracket weren't interested in music. But surely Tina Turner,Phil Collins etc had already had huge sales in the 2 years procedding this and it was infact 'new(ish)' bands like U2 and Simple Minds who benefitted most? After all it didnt raise the profile of Queen in America much did it?

And was it at this point people started updating their vinyl albums to CD and thats why the older bands did better? Or do both go together?

― Andy Jay, Saturday, 1 May 2004 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

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