Band Aid 30 - Do They Know It's Christmas

The third remake of the 1984 charity single Do They Know It's Christmas debuted on British television last night. Via the Guardian:

The more cynical might suggest that in the age of twitchforkings and twitterstorms, when it sometimes seems that no pop cultural event can pass without someone somewhere forensically examining it in the hope of find something they can take offence at, might account for the fact that the song’s lyrics have been rewritten, not merely to accommodate the Ebola epidemic but also to remove the kind of lyrics that people might describe as problematic: “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” is gone. The generalisation that nothing ever grows in Africa has likewise vanished. Meanwhile, anyone keen to sound the clanging chimes of doom for pop music – or at the very least, looking for evidence of its waning grip on teenagers’ imaginations – might note that three of the vocalists aren’t actually musicians. They are “internet personalities” Zoe “Zoella” Sugg, her brother Joe “Thatcherjoe” Sugg and Alfie Deyes, the last justly famous as joint holder of the world record for the most number of bangles put on by two people in 30 seconds.

The original version is one of the top twenty greatest selling singles in history. The 1989 version (produced by disco kingpins Stock, Aitken & Waterman) and the 2004 version both reached #1 on the British pop chart.

Bono Nails Bill Clinton Impression

The World's Highest Paid Musicians

Forbes has posted its annual ranking of the estimated 2012 incomes for the world's highest-paid musicians. Here's their top ten.

1. Dr Dre - $110M
2. Roger Waters - $88M
3. Elton John - $80M
4. U2 - $78M
5. Take That - $68M
6. Bon Jovi - $60M
7. Britney Spears - $58M
8. Paul McCartney - $57M
9. Taylor Swift - $57M
10. Justin Bieber - $55M

Forbes notes that the revenue comes from music sales, merchandising, touring, and (especially in Dr Dre's case) from businesses owned by the performers. (Via Andrew Sullivan)

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC's Indecency Rules On Potty Language

Saying it could have a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech, today a federal appeals court struck down the FCC's policies about language indecency. Interestingly, the ruling came not in a case involving Howard Stern or other radio shock jocks.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York arose from a case over Bono, frontman of the rock group U2, who used an expletive when he received an award during the live broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards. News Corp's Fox Television, CBS Corp's CBS Broadcasting and others sued the FCC, which regulates radio, television, wire, satellite and cable communications. An FCC representative could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling. The court heard the case again after the U.S. Supreme Court sent it back following a previous ruling that the FCC indecency policy was "arbitrary and capricious." "We now hold that the FCC's policy violates the First Amendment because it is unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here," the panel of appeals court judges said in a written ruling on Tuesday. The court granted the broadcaster's request for review of the policy. A Fox spokesman said the broadcaster was extremely pleased with the decision.

Stand by the Concerned Women to get all concernified!

(Tipped by JMG reader BK)

Haiti Telethon Highlights

Quote Of The Day - Bono

"Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files. The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of “24” in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free. A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business." - U2 frontman Bono, writing for the New York Times.

Bono blames ISPs for facilitating illegal file sharing and suggests that it's time to copy China's campaign to monitor internet content. This had made him very unpopular on Twitter and elsewhere today.

Bono Shills For Bloomberg

At last night's U2 concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, Bono praised Mayor Bloomberg and urged the crowd to "give it up" for him. Bloomberg's campaign rushed the clip onto their website, noting without irony that the next song was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.