Jump to content

No More U2 Bashing


ReRushed
 Share

Recommended Posts

I posted this in that other U2 thread......

 

I've been a fan of the band from the very beginning. It all happened accidentally 1981 when a friend said ive got tickets to a show to see the U2, I thought he said B52s so I said yes! Not a huge B52 fan just wanted to see something different. I went with this being like bday gift it being in early march and then this Irish band comes out. After being properly influence with earthly herbs this band comes out and it ain't the B52s. Well as it goes U2 stole the show and me too. I said at the time this band will go somewhere that lead singer is something else live. I had no clue that was their 5th or 6th show in the US I believe at the time.

 

I followed them since but hit a lull starting with JT when so many fans jump aboard and my little secret underground band was gone. Disliked seeing them on the cover of Time mag. Then hit a huge lull after AB/ZTV album/tour their last masterpiece AB (Ive hit a lull with Rush too) till the recent 360 Tour. Even though I only missed the Pop Mart tour I followed then just not as huge till after TUF.

 

That said the band is or will be instrumental in the world of rock music. Their innovative methods in the charity work some their tour money is used for, their stadium concert staging is probably the best in the world and this deal with iTunes I think is brilliant in Many ways said in this thread already. As for the new album after listening to it many times now after MY LULL lull, this album is one of their best the more one listens.

 

Keep in mind I've history with the band I really like the album as to me it appears an attempt was made to go back to their beginning. Which is fine I do wish The Edge used more punch/edgy guitar playing on some of the songs like they did on their first 3 albums. My favorite so far "this Is Where You Can Reach Me Now" the last song "Troubles". Looking forward to the tour next year, I just hope they don't try to top the 360 tour because I don't think it can be. The album songs will really resonate in the live form with Bono's magical ways of presentation. Not bad for my second favorite rock band behind you know who.

 

Peace

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard the new album for the second time yesterday and it still has nothing to offer for me. It's boring, not entertaining, has no balls and not one single song stands out. Sorry, still Muzak to me.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sunday Bloody Sunday...

 

Sunday Bloody Sunday. What a great song. It really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday, doesn't it? You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you just think 'Sunday, bloody Sunday!'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe you had to be there back when they were first around. In my area, they were big.

 

What band has kept the momentum going for decades with music as good as when they began?

 

I agree...U2 were HUGE when they first came out. I remember my friend playing "October" for me when the album first came out...and seeing Gloria on MTV ? Whoa. Lot's of MTV exposure going forward.

 

"Boy" sold me on the band.

 

 

The Joshua Tree tour concert was amazing.

 

I think they've been stale for many years now but in the 80's and early 90's, they were a great band.

 

http://youtu.be/he1TQGrBR8w

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe you had to be there back when they were first around. In my area, they were big.

 

What band has kept the momentum going for decades with music as good as when they began?

 

I agree...U2 were HUGE when they first came out. I remember my friend playing "October" for me when the album first came out...and seeing Gloria on MTV ? Whoa. Lot's of MTV exposure going forward.

 

"Boy" sold me on the band.

 

 

The Joshua Tree tour concert was amazing.

 

I think they've been stale for many years now but in the 80's and early 90's, they were a great band.

 

http://youtu.be/he1TQGrBR8w

 

You and I grew up in the same area. I'm sure ReGor would confirm what we are saying too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone else have a pair of those groovy elf boots back in the day? I got mine in Germany on a Christmas trip. :D

 

Fairies wear boots, ya you gotta believe me. I saw it, I saw it with my own two eyes.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Numb, with The Edge taking the vocals.

 

*preparing for a :bitchslap: *

 

The video for that was great. Imagine trying to keep the same facial expression throughout all of that torture... wait, wasn't he always doing that anyway? :LOL:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Numb, with The Edge taking the vocals.

 

*preparing for a :bitchslap: *

 

The video for that was great. Imagine trying to keep the same facial exp<b></b>ression throughout all of that torture... wait, wasn't he always doing that anyway? :LOL:

 

Apparently, the belly-dancing chick gyrating in front of him is his wife! :P

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bono's full of himself and The Edge is just about as bad. Mullen likes 16th notes and Clayton is just lucky to be there.

 

But back in the day, oh yeah they were awesome.

 

The concert at Red Rocks is well worth checking out if you haven't seen that yet (WAR tour).

Edited by Del_Duio
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Numb, with The Edge taking the vocals.

 

*preparing for a :bitchslap: *

 

The video for that was great. Imagine trying to keep the same facial expression throughout all of that torture... wait, wasn't he always doing that anyway? :LOL:

 

Ack, the FEET TO THE FACE VIDEO. Who could forget?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm totally underwhelmed by the new U2 album. But, with all the hype I started to re-explore the band I loved as a teenager. I loved them so much, they were basically my Beatles.

 

U2 songs I love:

 

A Day Without Me

Another Time, Another Place

An Cat Dubh

Like a Song...

Drowning Man

A Sort of Homecoming

The Unforgettable Fire

Exit

One

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Beautiful Day

 

More to come...

 

40!

Surrender!

Two Hearts!

 

All of WAR at least is awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HOW U2 BECAME THE NEW NICKELBACK

 

Last week, U2 broke the Internet, but not really in a good way. The Bono-led band’s Songs of Innocence, which U2 has hinted may be its last record, was released as part ofApple’s keynote event, dished out to iTunes subscribers for free. The album reportedly cost Apple $100 million, a figure the company is likely to eat. Rather than generating the kind of hype Apple is accustomed to, Songs of Innocence generated a huge Twitter backlash, with the company posting a guide on how to remove the album from your library on its support page. Most damningly,Wired’s Vijith Assar called the “devious giveaway” no better than “spam.”

 

This is quite a comedown for a band who, just over a decade ago, could still call itself the biggest band in the world. Their 2000 record, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, not only sold a staggering 12 million copies, but it gave the band a renewed relevance in the wake of 9/11, when songs like “Walk On” came to symbolize an Americafiguring out how to pick up the pieces. Songs like the anthemic “One” had always found a universal relevance, but this was a reminder of exactly why U2 was so popular: It united the types of people who would normally never agree on liking anything.

 

But in 2014, they seem to be disliked with the same intensity that they used to be patriotically beloved (despite their overt Irish heritage). The reason why depends on your perspective. According to a webpage helpfully titled “Why U2 Sucks,” the litany of reasons runs the gamut of “they are pretentious” to “they are derivative” and “they just plain suck.” The Guardian theorizes, however, that we hate U2 because we hate Bono, while the New York Observer thinks they’re the Guy Fieri of music, which one assumes means selling bombastic, tacky crap to as wide an audience as possible.

 

Hating U2 is something of a modern Rorschach test, and more than anything, it’s the same brand management issue that befalls just about any band that aspires to be the biggest in the world. The moment a group aims to be the one act everyone likes, they become the one “no one likes,” or at least the one the Internet most likes to dogpile on. In a roundup of songs that broke their respective bands, CBCrounds up all the usual suspects of wildly popular bands a bunch of people now hate for their own ink-blob reasons:Coldplay, Mumford and Sons, Dave Matthews Band, andWeezer.

 

Each of these groups started their careers either well-liked or beloved (especially in the case of Weezer), only to find themselves a punchline among the kinds of folks who want to differentiate their music taste from the rest of the pack. Coldplay is, even among its most fervent detractors, far from the worst by any measure, but there’s a performative aspect to disliking them, one that says more about you as a consumer than the band itself. Most people who hateNickelback, widely considered the most hated band in music, can’t even name a single Nickelback song.

 

Although CBC cites “Discotheque” (from Pop, U2’s much-derided experiment in excess) as the moment the public turned on them, it was most likely Apple that did U2 in. The wide success of 1991’s Achtung Baby launched a decade-long experiment by the band into art rock, as Bono attempted to bring the avant garde into the mainstream. Although 1993’s Zooropa won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, Bono never wanted U2 to be an "alternative" (read: niche) group, your vinyl-hoarding friend’s favorite band. They wanted to be everyone’s favorite band, which is one of the many reasons Pop was such a disaster; the band was so busy putting together the tour for the record, a comment on their global influence as much as it was its intended statement on the state of capitalism, that they were rushed into completing a record they didn’t like. It was an artist statement in search of an album.

 

Pop was, indeed, an album of excess, but it least had ambition. Their aforementioned follow-up record, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, settled for a more radio-friendly, mainstream sound, teaching the band the wrong lessons: The secret to success is to force everyone to like you. They mistook ubiquity for acclaim. When How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb came out, it featured more of the mom rock that made its predecessor a success, along with an iPod commercial that put Bono singing “Vertigo” on every screen in America. For a band who was so keen to bite corporate America’s hand just seven years prior, it looked suspiciously like selling out.

 

As someone who likes many U2 records and dislikes many others, their recent output isn’t so much an issue of selling your soul to the man as much as deciding to be a certain type of band, one that might not please the Achtung Babyfaithful. If you liked the kind of music they were making with “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” you might like No Line on the Horizon, a 2009 album filled with middle-brow jams. This was a time when even their politics seemed repackaged to fit their new global mindset. Instead of their signature songs about Irish pride, Bono wrote hippy-dippy lyrics about world peace that could play while you browse the aisles at Hobby Lobby.

 

That shift particularly affected the public perception of Bono. As the Guardian notes, the singer often comes off as “holier than thou” to his detractors, “rich beyond his wildest dreams and hanging out with princes, presidentsand preachers [but one who] nonetheless won’t shut up about poor people.” For some, he’s less the musical poet who wrote “One” than a celebrity blowhard who wants to browbeat them into caring, like Susan Sarandon or Sean Penn. There’s a general mistrust around celebrity activism, and when you throw in Bono’s penchant for religious imagery, it reeks of Kanye West.

 

However, the band’s over-the-top tendencies aren’t a new criticism. According to Yahoo’s Chris Willman, the bandnearly jumped the shark back in 1988 with the release ofRattle and Hum, a blues-infused record that paid tribute to many of the band’s influences, from Elvis Presley to B.B. King, a tribute to their influences that represented a seemingly “back to roots move.” “But there seemed to be more hubris than humility in the footage of their arena shows,” Willman argues. “And the massive roll-out for both album and film didn't shout ‘back to basics.’ With that mixed a message being sent out, was it any wonder that the reaction was also all over the place?”

 

Oddly enough, the band’s brand image had already been carved out by this point; Anton Corbijn’s “stony-faced” black-and-white imagery for The Joshua Tree became iconically associated with everything fans both loved and hated about the group. The difference is, though, that in 1988, their careers had time to recover through albums that did the necessary damage control; Achtung Baby is so undeniably, earth-shatteringly great that even the biggest Bono haters had to admit that the man knew what he was doing onstage. After a decade of releasing middling commercial jingles, it’s hard to make the same rationalization, or even what made U2 good to begin with.

 

This is a struggle that all aging bands face, where what was once cool starts to lose its luster as those who used to play your favorite songs start to wither before you, as in the case of Aerosmith or REO Speedwagon, the latter relegated to state fairs. You might be seeing The Rolling Stones at your local stadium, but you’re not going for the thrill of watching Mick Jagger in 2014. You’re going for a reminder of the performer he was in 1965, when “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” brought together people who might not even call themselves rock music fans.

 

U2 might have thought they were getting in on the surprise album bandwagon, as everyone from Beyoncé to Skrillex is doing it, but the biggest surprise is how little it mattered. Bono has spent the last three and a half decades trying to get everyone to like him, but the greatest PR coup he could ever pull is to finally stop caring.

Edited by Rushman14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a struggle that all aging bands face, where what was once cool starts to lose its luster as those who used to play your favorite songs start to wither before you, as in the case of Aerosmith or REO Speedwagon, the latter relegated to state fairs. You might be seeing The Rolling Stones at your local stadium, but you’re not going for the thrill of watching Mick Jagger in 2014. You’re going for a reminder of the performer he was in 1965, when “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” brought together people who might not even call themselves rock music fans.

 

Oh God, save Rush from the same fate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Their first 5 albums are great.

 

It's easy to bash them now with all their success and exposure, but they more or less jump started the college alternative rock scene. They were an underground band in the early 80s.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Truth be told, I was never really a U2 fan until The Joshua Tree. I think that album and Achtung Baby are amazing. I also enjoy All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb quite a bit. My wife is a huge U2 fan, and has traveled to Ireland to see them. I agree with 'dood that it's fashionable now to beat up on them, because they're the biggest active band on the planet, which I think is a completely dumb reason to dislike any artist. We're back to the whole, "Moving Pictures sucks, Caress of Steel is a masterpiece" mindset. Just because something's popular doesn't mean it sucks.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bono's full of himself and The Edge is just about as bad. Mullen likes 16th notes and Clayton is just lucky to be there.

 

I definitely have to agree about Clayton!

 

 

But back in the day, oh yeah they were awesome.

 

Fk yeah!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...