Pharrell, Santogold and Julian Casablanca for Converse

Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 @ 06:21 in Culture by Joshua Glazer

Artists used to get together to help out a cause—USA for Africa, Band Aid, Artists Against Apartheid. Now it mostly seems like artists get together to sell shoes—like Kanye West, Nas, KRS-One and Rakim making a track for Air Force 1, or now Pharrell, Santogold and Julian Casablanca of the Strokes getting together for Converse—although according to Santigold, "get together" nowadays doesn't mean much...

"We didn't do it together so it ends up being just this weird long song with sort of everybody with lots of their own personalities separate," she told Gigwise when revealing the track.

Maybe it's the lack of interaction between artists that keeps them from ever even talking about important issues, let alone record songs in an attempt (however vain) to make the world a better place. Or maybe it's just that with the record industry on it's ass, musicians have to learn to make due with the money they can earn when they can earn it, leaving less time for charity. Maybe it's just easier to sellout when facing a ProTools file, rather than your actual peers in a recording studio.

Listen—we love Pharrell, Santogold, The Strokes AND Converse.But if Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oats and two dozen other A-listers could get into an actual recording studio together to make "We Are the World," couldn't today's rockers try just a little bit harder.

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