What's Going On???

A year and change ago an all star cover of Marvin Gaye's classic What's Going On was released. It featured the biggest names in American pop music, Britney Spears, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly, Christena Aguilera, etc, etc. Huge stars. Lots of them. All to benifit an AIDS charity. How often have you heard it on the radio?

Marvin's masterpiece happens to be one of the best antiwar songs ever made. "You see war is not the answer / For only love can conquer hate" (sung by the Backstreet Boys in the new version). Is that too risky of a message be played on the radio? The song peaked at #27 on the Billboard charts. Not awful, but at the same time completely out of line with where a record like that could go if marketed correctly and given proper airplay? Guess the music execs are just too busy whining about file sharing and avoiding thinking of new business models to stand up and properly market what they've got.