Mixtape
A mixtape is a compilation of music from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist; the songs are either ordered sequentially or made into a continuous program by beatmatching the songs and creating seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits. Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien described this definition of the mixtape as "perhaps the most practiced American art form". In hip hop and R&B culture, a mixtape describes a self-produced or independently released album issued free of charge to gain publicity or avoid possible copyright infringement. However, the term has been applied to a number of releases published for profit in the 2010s. Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s. Although the compact audio cassette by Philips appeared at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, the sound quality of cassettes was not good enough to be considered for music recording until further advances in tape formulations, including the advent of chrome and metal tape.
Before the introduction of the audio cassette, the creation of a pop music compilation required specialized or cumbersome equipment, such as a reel-to-reel or 8 track recorder, inaccessible to the casual music fan. As cassette tapes and recorders grew in popularity and portability, these technological hurdles were lowered to the point where the only resources required to create a mix were a handful of cassettes and a cassette recorder connected to a source of pre-recorded music, such as a radio or LP player; the 8-track tape cartridge was more popular for music recording during much of the 1960s, as the cassette was only mono and intended for vocal recordings only, such as in office dictation machines. But improvements in fidelity allowed the cassette to become a major player; the ready availability of the cassette and higher quality home recording decks to serve the casual home user allowed the cassette to become the dominant tape format, to the point that the 8 track tape nearly disappeared shortly after the turn of the 1980s.
The growth of the mixtape was encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio cassette players in car entertainment systems, by the introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979. A distinction should be drawn between a private mixtape, intended for a specific listener or private social event, a public mixtape, or "party tape" consisting of a recording of a club performance by a DJ and intended to be sold to multiple individuals. In the 1970s, such DJs as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Kool Herc and the Herculoids, DJ Hollywood would distribute recordings of their club performances via audio cassette, as well as customized recordings for individual tape purchasers; these recordings tended to be of higher technical ability than home-made mixtapes and incorporated techniques such as beatmatching and scratching. One 12 October 1974 article in Billboard Magazine reported, "Tapes were dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have disco turntables to hand.
The tapes represent each jockey's concept of programming and sequencing of record sides. The music is heard without interruption. One- to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape reel-to-reel, but on cartridge and cassette." Club proprietors, as well as DJs, would prepare such tapes for sale. Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a visible element of youth culture. However, the increased availability of CD burners and MP3 players and the gradual disappearance of cassette players in cars and households have led to a decline in the popularity of the compact audio cassette as a medium for homemade mixes; the high point of traditional mixtape culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity in 1995. Since mixtapes have been replaced by mix CDs and shared MP3 playlists, which are more durable, can hold more songs, require minutes to prepare, MP3 players take only seconds compared to CD-Rs. While some mixtape enthusiasts bemoan the obsolescence of the cassette tape, others concede that the greater convenience offered by the mix CD has expanded the possibilities and accessibility of the medium, as indicated by the recent resurgence of mix-swapping clubs that trade mix CDs by regular mail.
Some mix enthusiasts appreciate the potential of the mix CD for extended, continuous mixes and creative album art. MP3 players have further enhanced track accessibility, though ones without a screen defeat that purpose. Today, websites concerned with electronic music provide; these consist of recorded DJ sets of live, beat-matched mixes of songs, which are used by DJs seeking to demonstrate their mixing skills to an online audience. Some radio shows worldwide specialize in mix series, including The Breezeblock on BBC Radio 1, The Solid Steel Show, Eddy Temple-Morris/The Remix on Xfm. Additionally, DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ QBert, DJ Spooky, DJ Z-Trip or DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, Rjd2 have gained fame for creating new songs by combining fragments of existing songs; the resulting remix or mash-up can be seen as an evolution of the mixtape, in that it appropriates existing songs to give them new meanings through their juxtaposition, but does so in a quicker, more integrated style. This practice is derived from the use of s
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage; the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Fran Unsworth has been Director of News and Current Affairs since January 2018; the department's annual budget is in excess of £350 million. BBC News' domestic and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland and Wales. All nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes.
The BBC is a quasi-autonomous corporation authorised by Royal Charter, making it operationally independent of the government, who have no power to appoint or dismiss its director-general, required to report impartially. As with all major media outlets it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum, both within the UK and abroad; the British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station.2LO In 14 November 1922. Wishing to avoid competition, newspaper publishers persuaded the government to ban the BBC from broadcasting news before 7:00 pm, to force it to use wire service copy instead of reporting on its own. On Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report after saying There is no news today. Piano music was played instead; the BBC gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, created its own news operation. However, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II.
Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, with the BBC producing its own equivalent Television Newsreel programme from January 1948. A weekly Children's Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers; the network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, with a still picture of Big Ben. Televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London; the public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time; those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event. That year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, four and a half million by 1955.
Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still under radio news' control – correspondents provided reports for both outlets–and that first bulletin, shown on 5 July 1954 on the BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown. This was followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a recorded commentary by John Snagge, it was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were introduced a year in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, Richard Baker–three weeks before ITN's launch on 21 September 1955. Mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it, it was from here that the first Panorama, a new documentary programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953, with Richard Dimbleby becoming anchor in 1955.
On 18 February 1957, the topical early-evening programme Tonight, hosted by Cliff Michelmore and designed to fill the airtime provided by the abolition of the Toddlers' Truce, was broadcast from Marconi's Viking Studio in St Mary Abbott's Place, Kensington – with the programme moving into a Lime Grove studio in 1960, where it maintained its production office. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a morning radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of Current Affairs, he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole. The report proposed that the head of television news should take control, that the television service should have a proper newsroom of its own, with an editor-of-the-day. On 1 January 1960, Greene became Director-General and brought about big changes at BBC Television and BBC Television News. BBC Television News had been created in 1955, in response to the founding of ITN.
The changes made by Greene were aimed at making BBC reporting more similar to ITN, rated by study groups held by Greene. A newsroom was created at Alexandra Palace, television reporters were recruited and given the opportunity to write and voice their own scripts–without the "impossible burden" of having to cover stories for radio too. In 1987 thirty years John B
Usain Bolt
Usain St Leo Bolt is a Jamaican retired sprinter. He is a world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay, his reign as Olympic Games champion in all of these events spans three Olympics. Owing to his achievements and dominance in sprint competition, he is considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. A nine-time Olympic gold medalist, Bolt won the 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 m relay at three consecutive Olympic Games, although he lost the 2008 relay gold medal about nine years after due to a teammate's doping disqualification, he gained worldwide fame for his double sprint victory in world record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the first person to hold both records since automatic time became mandatory. Bolt is the only sprinter to win 200 m titles at three consecutive Olympics. An eleven-time World Champion, he won consecutive World Championship 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 metres relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015, with the exception of a 100 m false start in 2011.
He is the most successful athlete of the World Championships, was the first athlete to win four World Championship titles in the 200 m and is the joint-most successful in the 100 m with three titles. Bolt improved upon his second 100 m world record of 9.69 with 9.58 seconds in 2009 – the biggest improvement since the start of electronic timing. He has twice broken the 200 metres world record, setting 19.30 in 2008 and 19.19 in 2009. He has helped Jamaica to three 4 × 100 metres relay world records, with the current record being 36.84 seconds set in 2012. Bolt's most successful event is the 200 m, with four World titles; the 2008 Olympics was his international debut over 100 m. His achievements as a sprinter have earned him the media nickname "Lightning Bolt", his awards include the IAAF World Athlete of the Year, Track & Field Athlete of the Year, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year and Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. Bolt retired after the 2017 World Championships, when he finished third in his last solo 100 m race, opted out of the 200m, pulled up in the 4×100m relay final.
Stating that it was his "dream" to play professional association football, in August 2018 Bolt began training with Australian football A-League club the Central Coast Mariners as a left-winger. On 12 October 2018, Bolt scored twice for the team in a friendly match. Bolt was born on 21 August 1986 to parents Wellesley and Jennifer Bolt in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica, he has a brother, a sister, Sherine. His parents ran the local grocery store in the rural area, Bolt spent his time playing cricket and football in the street with his brother saying, "When I was young, I didn't think about anything other than sports." As a child, Bolt attended Waldensia Primary, where he began showing his sprint potential when he ran in his parish's annual national primary school meet. By the age of twelve, Bolt had become the school's fastest runner over the 100 metres distance. Upon his entry to William Knibb Memorial High School, Bolt continued to focus on other sports, but his cricket coach noticed Bolt's speed on the pitch and urged him to try track and field events.
Pablo McNeil, a former Olympic sprint athlete, Dwayne Jarrett coached Bolt, encouraging him to focus his energy on improving his athletic abilities. The school had a history of success in athletics with past students, including sprinter Michael Green. Bolt won his first annual high school championships medal in 2001. McNeil soon became his primary coach, the two enjoyed a positive partnership, although McNeil was frustrated by Bolt's lack of dedication to his training and his penchant for practical jokes; when Bolt was a boy, he attended Sherwood Content Seventh-day Adventist Church in Trelawny, with his mother. His mother didn't serve pork to him in accordance with Adventist beliefs. Performing for Jamaica in his first Caribbean regional event, Bolt clocked a personal best time of 48.28 s in the 400 metres in the 2001 CARIFTA Games, winning a silver medal. The 200 m yielded a silver, as Bolt finished in 21.81 s. He made his first appearance on the world stage at the 2001 IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.
Running in the 200 m event, he failed to qualify for the finals, but he still set a new personal best of 21.73 s. Bolt still did not take athletics or himself too however, he took his mischievousness to new heights by hiding in the back of a van when he was supposed to be preparing for the 200 m finals at the CARIFTA Trials, he was detained by the police for his practical joke, there was an outcry from the local community, which blamed coach McNeil for the incident. However, the controversy subsided, both McNeil and Bolt went to the CARIFTA Games, where Bolt set championship records in the 200 m and 400 m with times of 21.12 s and 47.33 s, respectively. He continued to set records with 20.61 s and 47.12 s finishes at the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. Bolt is one of only nine athletes to win world championships at the youth and senior level of an athletic event. Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson recognised Bolt's talent and arranged for him to move to Kingston, along with Jermaine Gonzales, so he could train with the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association at the University of Technology, Jam
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and known as Beijing 2008, was an international multi-sport event, held from 8 to 24 August 2008 in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events; this was the first time that China had hosted the Summer Olympics, but the third time that the Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were the third Olympic Games staged in a socialist country, after the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union, the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, having won a majority of votes from members of the International Olympic Committee after two rounds of voting; the Government of the People's Republic of China promoted the Games and invested in new facilities and transportation systems. A total of 37 venues were used to host the events, including twelve constructed for use at the Games.
The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong, making this the third Olympics for which the events were held under the jurisdiction of two different NOCs. The sailing events were contested in Qingdao, while the football events took place in several different cities; the official logo for the 2008 Games, titled "Dancing Beijing", featured a stylized calligraphic character jīng in reference to the host city. Beijing Olympics was watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide. Longest distance for an Olympic torch relay The event sets numerous world and Olympics records in the history of Sports, is the most expensive Summer Olympics of all time and second most expensive overall, after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi; the opening ceremony was lauded by spectators and numerous international presses as spectacular and spellbinding, by many accounts "the greatest in the history of Olympics". An unprecedented 87 countries won at least one medal during the Games. China won the most gold medals, with 48, became only the seventh different team to top an overall Olympic medal tally, winning a total of 100 medals overall.
The United States placed second in the gold medal tally but won the highest number of medals overall, with a total of 112. The third place in the gold medal tally was achieved by Russia. Beijing has been selected to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing was elected as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics on 13 July 2001, during the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, defeating bids from Toronto, Paris and Osaka. Prior to the session, five other cities had submitted bids to the IOC, but failed to make the short list chosen by the IOC Executive Committee in 2000. After the first round of voting, Beijing held a significant lead over the other four candidates. Osaka was eliminated. In the second round, Beijing was supported by a majority of voters, eliminating the need for subsequent rounds. Toronto's bid was their 5th failure since 1960. Members of the IOC did not disclose their votes, but news reports speculated that broad international support led to China's selection from developing nations who had received assistance from China in the construction of stadiums.
The size of China, its increased enforcement of doping controls, sympathy concerning its loss of the 2000 Summer Olympics to Sydney were all factors in the decision. Eight years earlier, Beijing had led every round of voting for the 2000 Summer Olympics before losing to Sydney by two votes in the final round. Human rights concerns expressed by Amnesty International and politicians in both Europe and the United States were considered by the delegates, according to IOC Executive Director François Carrard. Carrard and others suggested. In addition, a number of IOC delegates, athletes expressed concern about heat and air quality during the Games, considering the high levels of air pollution in Beijing. China outlined plans to address these environmental concerns in its bid application; the Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimates the outturn cost of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics at US$6.8 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 2% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g. expenditures for technology, workforce, security, catering and medical services, direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, media and press center, which are required to host the Games.
Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The Beijing Olympics' cost of US$6.8 billion compares with costs of US$4.6 billion for Rio 2016 and US$15 billion for London 2012. Average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$5.2 billion. On 6 March 2009, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games reported that total spending on the games was "generally as much as that of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games", equivalen
Caribana
The Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival and still called Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Canada. It is a Caribbean Carnival event, billed as North America's largest street festival, frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade and an overall attendance of 2 million. The entire event, one of the first Caribbean Carnivals along with those in New York City, Notting Hill and Boston to be held outside of the Caribbean region, brings in over one million people to Toronto and over $400 million into Ontario's economy, annually; the festival was introduced to Canada by immigrants from the Caribbean. It follows a Carnival format following the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, but influenced by the street dancing and masquerading in costume found on every Caribbean island such as John Canoe in Jamaica, Crop Over in Barbados, other similar festivals in Cuba and the Dominican Republic; the Carnival participants say that this event is important for preserving and expressing their Caribbean identity.
A commonality between these cultural events is a cultural legacy, born out of slavery. Caribana taps into the legacy of the Canadian Negro Women's Organization's pre-Lenten Calypso Carnival celebrations and the centuries-long Black Canadian tradition of Emancipation Day parades. Celebrations such as Calypso Carnivals and the Emancipation parades made a lot of room for Caribbean to exist as such a large observance of black Canadian pride. Canada’s Carnival traditions owe a lot to Canadian Negro Women’s Association, or CANEWA, who were one of the first groups to make space for the commemoration of black history within Ontario. Although a majority of the members did not have Caribbean roots, from 1952-1964 CANEWA produced and hosted annual one-day celebrations of Caribbean culture through food and music called the Calypso Carnivals; these carnivals began as fundraisers for scholarships in order for black students to attend desegregated schools in southern Ontario. Emancipation Day Parades began to celebrate the liberation of slaves throughout the Americas and were observed around the same time as the Calypso Carnivals.
The founders of this parade were decadents of fugitive slaves and other black American immigrants. The parades were marked as a black victory over the British and operated as a military-style event, displaying military regalia, marching bands, drum corps. Emancipation Day Parades became the most notable displays by and for Black Canadians prior to Caribana. Beginning in July, the multi-week festivities lead up to the parade which occurs over the long weekend in August, known as Emancipation Day, August 1, 1834, in Toronto and Simcoe Day in Ontario, in honour of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, credited with signing "An Act to Prevent the Further Introduction of Slaves, to Limit the Terms of Contracts for Servitude Within This Province". Puff Daddy's performance in the festival in 1997 sparked a wave of criticism and protest, as "opinions lamenting the presence and dominance of urban music in general and rap in particular flooded talk radio programs and newspapers in the black community."
Longtime Carnival purists mocked Puff Daddy’s performance as "culturally weak, a'flash in the pan.'” Many observers raised concerns regarding cultural retention and festival organizers' moral cultural responsibility. Several events occur over the course of the festivities celebrating Caribbean culture; the main stakeholders of the events are the Toronto Mas' Bands Association, the Organization of Calypso Performing Artists, the Ontario Steelpan Association. While the Parade of Bands is the most-well known festivities, events include tastes of Caribbean life including exhibits, such as the first Caribana which displayed every book published by a Caribbean writer, including Austin Clarke, the centrepiece of the exhibition. Parade of Bands While the Caribbean Festival holds events over several weeks, the culmination of the Caribana event is the final weekend, punctuated by the street Parade of Bands; this weekend traditionally coincides with the civic holiday in August. The street Parade of Bands consists of costumed dancers along with live Caribbean music being played from large speakers on the flat-bed of 18 wheeler trucks.
Much of the music associated with the event, such as steel pan and calypso, but you can find floats which play chutney and reggae. Band leaders start preparation for the following year, the day; as of 2017, Whitfield Belasco has led a band since his brother recruited him from the Trinidad Carnival to help organize the first Caribana in 1967. The bands are the most important part of the main Carnival parade; the bands are in competition with one another during the parade. They must pass a judging spot which will rate each band section for its costume design, the energy of masqueraders, the creativity of presentation and so on. Work on the costumes begin soon after the previous year's celebration and takes one full year to complete all of the costumes. Bands dances to calypso, reggae and dancehall. A King and Queen of the Band is judged, winning is considered claiming the biggest prize of the festival. In the 1970s, the parade route followed Bloor and Yonge Streets ending at Toronto City Hall concluding with a concert at Nathan Phillips Square.
In
We Are the World
"We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup United Support of Artists for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World. With sales in excess of 20 million copies, it is one of fewer than 30 retail singles to have sold at least 10 million copies worldwide. Following Band Aid's 1984 "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Project in the United Kingdom, an idea for the creation of an American benefit single for African famine relief came from activist Harry Belafonte, along with fundraiser Ken Kragen, was instrumental in bringing the vision to reality. Several musicians were contacted by the pair, before Jackson and Richie were assigned the task of writing the song; the duo completed the writing of "We Are the World" seven weeks after the release of "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one night before the song's first recording session, on January 21, 1985. The historic event brought together some of the most famous artists in the music industry at the time.
The song was released on March 1985, as the first single from the album. A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history; the first single to be certified multi-platinum, "We Are the World" received a Quadruple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Awarded numerous honors—including three Grammy Awards, one American Music Award, a People's Choice Award—the song was promoted with a critically received music video, a home video, a special edition magazine, a simulcast, several books and shirts; the promotion and merchandise aided the success of "We Are the World" and raised over $63 million for humanitarian aid in Africa and the US. Following the devastation caused by the magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, a remake of the song by another all-star cast of singers was recorded on February 1, 2010. Entitled "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", it was released as a single on February 12, 2010, proceeds from the record aided survivors in the impoverished country.
Before the writing of "We Are the World", American entertainer and social activist Harry Belafonte had thought for some time to have a song recorded by the most famous artists in the music industry at the time. He planned to have the proceeds donated to a new organization called United Support of Artists for Africa; the non-profit foundation would feed and relieve starving people in Africa Ethiopia, where around one million people died during the country's 1983–1985 famine. The idea followed Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Project in the UK, which Belafonte had heard about. He planned money to be set aside to help eliminate hunger in the United States of America. Entertainment manager and fellow fundraiser Ken Kragen was contacted by Belafonte, who asked for singers Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers—Kragen's clients—to participate in Belafonte's musical endeavor. Kragen and the two musicians agreed to help with Belafonte's mission, in turn, enlisted the cooperation of Stevie Wonder, to add more "name value" to their project.
Quincy Jones was drafted taking time out from his work on The Color Purple. Jones telephoned Michael Jackson, who had just released the commercially successful Thriller album and had concluded a tour with his brothers. Jackson revealed to Richie that he not only wanted to sing the song, but to participate in its writing as well. To begin with, "We Are the World" was to be written by Jackson and Wonder; as Wonder had limited time to work on the project and Richie proceeded to write "We Are the World" themselves. They began creating the song at the Jackson family home in Encino. For a week, the two spent every night working on melodies in Jackson's bedroom, they knew that they wanted a song that would be memorable. The pair wanted to create an anthem. Jackson's older sister La Toya watched the two work on the song, contended that Richie only wrote a few lines for the track, she stated that her younger brother wrote 99 percent of the lyrics, "but he's never felt it necessary to say that". La Toya further commented on the song's creation in an interview with the American celebrity news magazine People.
"I'd go into the room while they were writing and it would be quiet, odd, since Michael's very cheery when he works. It was emotional for them." Richie had recorded two melodies for "We Are the World", which Jackson took, adding music and words to the song in the same day. Jackson stated, "I love working quickly. I went ahead without Lionel knowing, I couldn't wait. I went in and came out the same night with the song completed—drums, piano and words to the chorus." Jackson presented his demo to Richie and Jones, who were both shocked. The next meetings between Jackson and Richie were unfruitful, it was not until the night of January 21, 1985, that Richie and Jackson completed the lyrics and melody of "We Are the World" within two and a half hours, one night before the song's first recording session. The first night of recording, January 22, 1985, had tight security on hand, as Richie, Jackson and Jones started work on "We Are the World" at Kenny Rogers' Lion Share Recording Studio; the studio, on Beverly Boulevard in California, was filled with musicians, video crews, retinues and organizers as the four musicians entered.
To begin the night, a "vocal guide"
