NEW POLL: "Do They Know It's Xmas" vs. "We Are the World"

I'll give credit to both of these song: at least they're not "Earth." Seriously, say what you want about these two, they may be egotistical, poorly-informed and only address the surface issues of what they're trying to bring awareness to, but at least they don't flat-out make fun of the issues, and the people involved in the older songs all committed to the same recording session instead of tossing off their parts in a few minutes from their living rooms (there is no way they could've fit that many egos into one room anyway). You can call "Do They Know It's Christmas?" hypocritical or "We Are The World" ineffective, but I will never find either as offensive as "Earth." Fuck that song and fuck Lil Dicky.

Gabriel Schleifer

I can’t believe I’m just realizing this now, but...”We Are The World” isn’t even a Christmas song.

Rex Crum

As a British person "Do they know it's Christmas" is the only right answer though as someone who's family is originally from a former British colony, it doesn't feel great 😂

Exactly this

giascle

No one wins in this Geldoff-off

Paggy

I mean, both of these songs are awful but at least "We Are the World" has better star power.

StuTheShoe

We Are The World has worse lyrics, worse production, and worse music. Do They Know It's Christmastime is racist. We Are The World wins.

apocalypsethen

Do they know it’s Christmas? must be the most patronizing song to ever be written. They have calendars in Africa. Also, in some regions, snow.

my mother is and was absolutely obsessed with boy george, so i heard do they know it's xmas more often than any other christmas song growing up. i'm not sure it's GOOD, but it haunts my memories more than we are the world. memorability counts for something, right?

These are both terrible, but I have to go with Do They Know It's Christmas because it's worse. It's a parody of itself - there is no more offensively self-centered attempt at charity than Bono screaming "thank God it's them INSTEAD OF YOOOUUUUU".

My abiding memory of We Are The World is Spitting Image parodying it with "We're scared of Bob, we're scared of Geldof. We're scared that if we try to turn him down we'd all get telled off."

Paul McA

We Are the World is like a worse version of Promise (We Go On) that plays when you’re rushing through the crowds to leave Epcot Center

Raven Wolfe

I must second what some others have said about the considerable difference between "we" and "they" here. I despise both of these songs for their perpetuation of the Western Imperialist superiority complex, but I find it more egregious in "Do They Know It's Xmas." Both songs contribute to the popular Western perception that Africa is, in the words of author Chimamanda Adichie, "a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves, and waiting to be saved, by a kind, white foreigner." But while the "we" in "We Are the World" at least allows for the possibility of seeing people in need as more than that - as equals - the "they" in "Do They Know It's Xmas" is so much more dehumanizing in making that one-dimensional portrayal of a foreign people the entire point of the song. Layer on the song's smug tone, and it's the most stomach-turning double-decker superiority sandwich that you could shove down a person's throat.

Laura Paik