WBpoplive was a planned music festival and political rally in support of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union ("Brexit"), supported by the pressure group Leave.EU and scheduled to be held on 19 June 2016 at Genting Arena, Birmingham. The proposed line-up for the event was changed several times, as artists pulled out complaining that they had not been told that it was a political event. The original plan was for three events to be held in the run-up to the EU membership referendum, but the concert, which was to be held on 8 May 2016, was cancelled when all of the line-up except Phats and Small pulled out.
WThe Concert for Bangladesh was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide. The concerts were followed by a bestselling live album, a boxed three-record set, and Apple Films' concert documentary, which opened in cinemas in the spring of 1972.
WConsolidated was an American radical activist music group, formed in 1988 and best known in the early 1990s as an alternative dance/industrial music band. Between 1989 and 1994, their instrumental style evolved from industrial, to hip-hop, to hard rock and funk with mixtures of live instruments and electronic instruments. They were distinguished by left-leaning political activism and politically radical lyrics, as well as their innovative sonic collages which blended industrial and hip-hop styles.
WFarm Aid is an annual benefit concert held for American farmers.
WHear 'n Aid was a charity record recorded by a large ensemble of 40 heavy metal musicians and released in 1986. The project was organized by Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Bain, and Vivian Campbell, all from the band Dio. Proceeds from the album were used to raise money for famine relief in Africa.
WLive Aid was a benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, UK, attended by about 72,000 people and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, US, attended by 89,484 people.
WLive Earth was an event developed to increase environmental awareness through entertainment.
WLove Music Hate Racism (LMHR) is a music-oriented antiracism campaign based in Britain. The campaign aims to bring people together and promote unity through the power of music. LMHR was born in the tradition of the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement of the late 1970s. The campaign held many successful festivals in the early 2000s such as a Victoria Park carnival and at Stoke Britannia Stadium, at which tens of thousands of people attended and international artists performed.
WMiracle on Broadway is an annual Christmas benefit concert by American recording artist Kelly Clarkson. Presented by Live Nation, the first of a planned annual series of benefit concerts was held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on December 20, 2014 and featured musicians Reba, Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Kacey Musgraves, Hayley Williams, Chad Gilbert, Charles Esten, Meghan Trainor, Martina McBride, Kix Brooks, and Deborah Allen performing renditions of various Christmas songs and tracks from Clarkson's Christmas album Wrapped in Red (2013). The concert raised over US$500,000 ticket sales and donations for four charities based in Nashville: Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Monroe Harding Children’s Home, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Thistle Farms. Clarkson had also announced plans to turn Miracle on Broadway into an annual benefit concert and planned to hold one in Bridgestone Arena on December 18, 2015. However, this concert was cancelled due to Clarkson's health complications during her second pregnancy. The 2016 concert was held on December 16, 2016.
WMusicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, is an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Harvey Wasserman and John Hall. The group advocates against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979. MUSE organized a series of five No Nukes concerts held at Madison Square Garden in New York in September 1979. On September 23, 1979, almost 200,000 people attended a large rally staged by MUSE on the then-empty north end of the Battery Park City landfill in New York.
W"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was one of a number of such supergroup singles recorded between December 1984 and April 1985, along with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the United Kingdom, USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in the United States, "Cantaré, cantarás" by a supergroup of Latin American and Spanish singers, Chanteurs sans Frontières's "Éthiopie" in France, and Fondation Québec-Afrique's "Les Yeux de la faim" in Quebec.
WThe Recording Academy is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Awards, which recognize achievements in the music industry of songs and music which are popular worldwide.
WRhythms of Resistance, sometimes abbreviated to RoR, is a network of percussion bands that play at demonstrations and direct actions that fall within the broad definition of 'anti-capitalist'. Since RoR London was formed in 2000, similar groups have arisen around the world; while not all such bands use the Rhythms of Resistance name, they generally share the same ideology, described on the RoR website: We are a transnational anti-hierarchical anticapitalist, antisexist and antiracist network fighting for social and ecological justice. We are activists using tactical frivolity as a form of political action to confront any system of domination. We also directly support everybody experiencing or struggling against exploitation, discrimination and oppression, without compromising our principles. Our tactics include drumming and dancing inspired by samba and carnival. We reject any false opposition between militancy and creative forms of resistance. Even if we are different bands operating in a decentralized fashion, we aim to maximise participation in our collective process. We are an open network to any people who share our principles. Come with us! We have everything to play for!
WRock Against Racism (RAR), a political and cultural movement, emerged in 1976 in reaction to a rise in racist attacks on the streets of the United Kingdom, and increasing support for the far-right National Front at the ballot box. Between 1976 and 1982 RAR activists organised national Carnivals and tours, as well as local gigs and clubs throughout the country. RAR brought together black and white fans in their common love of music, in order to discourage young people from embracing racism. The musicians came from all pop music genres, something reflected in one of RAR's slogans: "Reggae, soul, rock'n'roll, jazz, funk and punk". The movement was founded, in part, as a response to racist statements by well-known rock musicians such as Eric Clapton.
WSol y Lluvia is a Chilean musical ensemble, formed in the 1980s that became popular as a result not only of its music, but also because of its firm opposition to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The band is most famous for songs such as "En Un Largo Tour", "Voy a Hacer el Amor", and "Adios General!". The band's music blends modern musical instruments with traditional Andean or Chilean instruments, including the charango and zampona. The band continues to perform to this day.
WThee Faction are a British garage rock/garage punk band from Surrey, England, noted for their explicit socialist agenda. They refer to their music, which incorporates elements of garage rock, pop and rhythm and blues as "Socialist RnB". Their album Up The Workers! was rated one of the Daily Mirror's top twenty albums of 2011.
WTsunami Relief Cardiff was a charity music concert held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 22 January 2005, in aid of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which had occurred the month before. The concert raised £1,248,963.
WVenezuela Aid Live was a concert to benefit Venezuela in Cúcuta, Colombia, a city near the Venezuelan border, on 22 February 2019. The all-day concert, called Música por Venezuela: Ayuda y Libertad, was organized by Richard Branson and Bruno Ocampo, and featured over thirty of the best known Latin American artists from nine countries. The concert's slogan was, "Let the stars shine for all".
WThe Voice Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy group focused on promoting freedom of artistic expression as an agent of social change. The project was founded in 2009 as a response to the Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency in Northern Uganda, but has since expanded programs into Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Russia, China, Afghanistan, Cuba, and the United States.
WThe Vote for Change tour was a politically motivated American popular music concert tour that took place in October 2004. The tour was presented by MoveOn.org to benefit America Coming Together. The tour was held in swing states and was designed to encourage people to register and vote. Though the tour and the organization were officially non-partisan, many of the performers urged people to vote against then President George W. Bush and for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election campaign. Bush would defeat Kerry in November 2004.
WYU Rock Misija was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's contribution to Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign, which culminated with the Live Aid concert. It consisted of recording the "Za milion godina" single and staging a concert held at Red Star Stadium on 15 June 1985, both featuring top acts of the Yugoslav rock scene. The proceeds from both the single and the concert were given to Band Aid.