Forty years ago, Band Aid stirred my Gen X conscience. Who’s inspiring Gen Z?

I am driving my tween to school, and we are listening to his music.

“Yeah, you try to come wrong ’bout this shit, we poppin’ ya tires, hol’ up… fein’- fein’-fein’-fein …”

I am trying so hard not to sound like a Boomer right now. (I was born in 1971, so I’m classic Gen X, but you get my drift.) I hold my tongue. But I cannot help but compare this to what I was listening to at his age.

What was I listening to? Music that protested against poverty and injustice. Music that demanded change, demanded that we part with our cash because people were starving in Africa.

Forty years ago today: The assembled artists of Band Aid who collaborated on Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Today, November 25, marks the 40th anniversary of the moment that the biggest names in British and Irish pop music joined forces as Band Aid to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? The song went straight to No.1 in 14 countries, raising millions in aid in the first year of sales.

I recently reflected on the impact of this historic event on my 13-year-old self when I had the very great fortune to be part of a small audience with Band Aid’s instigator, Bob Geldof.

Seated comfortably in a venue overlooking the Harbour Bridge, I listened as the world-renowned activist and rocking global changemaker told us how he had rallied the stars of the music industry to raise awareness and funds for victims of an Ethiopian famine that had occurred between 1983 and 1985.

I sat on the edge of my seat, fangirling with tears in my eyes as he told us how the pop stars I loved as a teenager eagerly gave up their time for the cause; how his young mate, Bono, needed some persuasion as he didn’t feel like he was a star of the calibre of Elton John and Duran Duran. He told us how Wham’s now iconic Last Christmas single was due for release on the same day as Band Aid’s charity single, so George Michael not only agreed to delay the release, but also donated all the proceeds from his song to the Band Aid cause.

The day the song was released – December 7, 1984 – I took my paper-run money to Brashs record store and bought my first seven-inch vinyl single. At home, it spun on repeat on the turntable. It was a formative moment for me. All my idols were involved in this project. All the artists and musicians I admired joined in an act of selflessness that was the outward display of their social conscience.

Idols, role models, are important to young people. Their behaviour shapes the thinking of a young mind and helps construct a worldview.

At the risk of sounding like the Boomer I am not, I sometimes wonder whether Gen Z misses out here. I wonder why the same social conscience is no longer evident in popular music.

Perhaps it’s because those British and Irish pop icons who sang for Africa – now described as Boomers – were only one generation away from those who witnessed the horror of World War II. The despair and disgrace of the Vietnam War was in their living memory. At the same time, the Cold War gave us all fear of annihilation. Globalisation and mass media gave us knowledge of the deprivation of the Third World while the West enjoyed wealthy lives.

So of course, Sting was singing about disarmament of the two superpowers and U2 about violence, conflict and Ireland’s Troubles. And Midnight Oil sang about politics, consumerism, Indigenous disadvantage and the threat of nuclear war. I listened to music made by these bands and artists, and they knew how to “feed the world”, to shake things up.

Pretty sure when Taylor Swift suggests you Shake It Off, she’s not inviting you to disrupt. And Sabrina Carpenter isn’t demanding an end to child labour in coffee production in Espresso.

I’m not claiming that the desire for social upheaval isn’t expressed in indie rock, pop and rap. It’s just that the mainstream music doesn’t fly that flag any more.

Relationships, sexuality and the industry itself provide plenty of material, but songs about overthrowing the system do not get many plays on the streaming services.

So, my Gen Z child’s playlist is on rotation as we drive, and Kendrick Lamar is dissing Drake again: “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.”

Ouch. I can’t see those two making a charity record together any time soon. I guess if Gen Z are looking for warriors of social justice to model themselves on, they will have to look elsewhere.

Maree Badgery-Parker is a writer and a schoolteacher.