The term charity has changed over the years to be synonymous with live music events. Although protest songs date back as far as the origins of language, the first relief show Concert For Bangladesh in 1971, was the wunderkind of ex-Beatle George Harrison who came up with the idea after being approached by Ravi Shankar. An initial total of $2 million was raised by ticket sales, as well as the ensuing live album. The rest was held up by legal wrangling and an IRS audit of Apple Records, which resulted in an additional $8.8 million being donated to UNICEF a decade later.

Since then musicians have used music as a moniker for reactions against political unease; tapping into the social climate. Live music events have been intrinsic in emphasising other countries poverties, although the raison d'être behind these events has become slightly jaded since the ultimate fundraising upshot Live Aid. Live Aid was a seminal moment in the history of media, which infiltrated 1.5 billion people's homes. Charity work was shifting from the churches and charity shops and becoming a music monopoly.

With every Live Aid defining its epoch, there is a Live 8 misnomer. The Live 8 concerts endeavoured to highlight the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in Scotland last year, where Make Poverty History protestors were hoping to sway the eight leaders present to end economic supremacy over Africa's exportations and debt. The end result was a miasma of musicians failing to highlight the points the charity had put in place and the politicians were caught up in the whole celebrity circus. The event became a reunion of the 1980's like an untouchable Friends Reunited. Liberal Democrats leader Charles Kennedy argued at the time that the politicians were only "treading water" with meeting the demands. Mr Blair argued, "This is a partnership, not an act of charity. In the end, only Africans can lead and shape Africa", completely failing to recognise the West's involvement with Africa's debt.

The day itself was also criticised when Birhan Woldu came onstage, the young girl who had been pictured on the brink of death twenty years earlier was now a healthy student. Bob Geldof proclaimed, 'Don't let them tell us it doesn't work", which was an amazing achievement whether the success story was just that one case. It was the inclusion of Madonna singing 'Like A Prayer' and pushing Birhan to the side of the stage, which sought to undermine her story. It was also noted that no African music or musicians donned the main stages, but were included at the Eden Project in Cornwall. A further blow was that just a few days later the charts included nearly all of the top billing artists that played at Live 8. Pink Floyd enjoyed an increase of 1300% more sales. The contention lies with excessively rich musicians crassly singing for someone else's supper, when they could easily ease debt with their own royalty dividends. If they want to raise awareness over giving money then becoming continual advocates for a cause, such as Coldplay's Chris Martin with Make Trade Fair, is what is needed.

As music becomes more accessible through downloads and DIY club nights, the motive for free music over profit has also led promoters to raise money for good causes. Local club nights in London and around the country have taken on fusing music with fundraising. The Academy in Islington recently held their Gloom Aid night for National Depression week, which albeit a tongue in cheek reference to their popular night of 'miserabalist' music that they spin, the proceeds raised did go to the worthy cause. Mr Bongo's record store in Soho until last year was a successful venue for art and music where proceeds went to help the grassroots communities in Salvador. It ran for ten years and donations can still be made.

Since last year there has been a seismic shift in reaction to Live 8, where musicians are wary of being involved in pomp, rock operas that lose the point. Upcoming high profile and more focused events will be The Big Ask gigs. Radiohead amongst other bands are playing at Camden's Koko next month for a gig that sold out in 20 minutes. Tickets did appear on eBay for over £150 the next day, which led singer Thom Yorke to post a blog on his website and asked touts to contribute 30% of their profits to Friends Of The Earth. The singer has also been interviewed for the Friends of The Earth website, where issues are discussed. Thom's involvement is to "hassle the government to agree to a 3% reduction every year on Carbon Dioxide emissions so by 2050 there will be a cut of 60%". He admits to joining The Big Ask so he no longer feels "a sense of powerlessness" and FOTE have a good success rate at getting bills in. The Big Ask has cross party support and active lobby groups internally and since 1997 have had 20 green victories within the Labour government, such as the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.

Rock Against Racism began with The Clash in 1978 and grew into Love Music Hate Racism which gained profile with support from The Libertines and Billy Bragg and has recently been used to arrange tribute gigs for murdered schoolboy Anthony Walker, with acts as diverse as Belle and Sebastien and Lethal Bizzle. It is touring around the country over the next few months. Although both organisations are decades old, the continuous pledge to keep the issues within the publics mindset is what is their success. Live 8's intentions were to make the government and global leaders take notice and account for the poverty in Africa, what it actually highlighted was the state of celebrity in the noughties. Although creating a global concert will reach people in their homes worldwide, if it fails to be tactile and informative, it will fail to augment awareness and the funds raised will be swallowed up by the leaders of the free world.