it was a look into a future i really wanted a part of -- multi-media, the message is the medium, etc.
basically, i found the fragments of words and phrases in The Fly when juxtaposed with the dirty-yet-enthralling music and ironic-yet-sincere poses of U2 at the time to be nothing short of sublime, it was as if in the midst of that song they had opened a vortex into another dimension that i, amidst the trappings of comfortable American suburbia, could maybe, one day, slide into and wind up on the other side of a world where meaning and significance -- sacred and profane -- were found in the most unusual of places, in the most unlikeliest of circumstance, because those are the only places where you'd ever hope to find authenticity.
what i think U2 did so well was really use all the window dressing at their disposal -- from costumes to video screens to sunglasses to dry ice during RTSS -- as a means of accessing something intangible, but permanent. that it was a very thoroughly constructed, fully imagined world they created during Zoo TV that could almost be explored by the audience outside of the concert experience.
it was also a critical moment when we had the oversaturation of media that we have today, but crucially pre-internet. Zoo TV occupied a space firmly between the 20th and the 21st century, and reflected what had just happened while predicting what was going to happen.
i know that's all kind of vague, but it made sense to me at the time, and more sense in retrospect. even Bono's referencing of different characters who were themselves pastiche -- The Fly, McPhisto -- was calling up the history of rock 'n roll, turning it into cabaret
and destroying it ... all so it could save what made rock great in the first place, by using artifice to destroy that artifice, and to create meaning by revealing original meaning and casting it into the new light of the approaching millennium. Bono and his characters were
highly informed, and genuinely post modern.
in all seriousness, Zoo TV
was profound. it did reinvent stadium rock (by ending it). and every stadium show that aspires to be more than just a really big concert that has come after -- from U2 to the Stones to whomever can still play a stadium -- is trying to measure up to Zoo TV.
Many of the B-sides are great for slower dancing with kids. AYTCLB is also a great choice for young kids because of the sweet, simplistic music. Once you cross into preteen and early teen years, bring on Achtung. Whip out Pop and Zooropa when they're old enough to start truly getting it, and perhaps encourage a revisit to the lyrics and poetry of ATYCLB. Bomb can be scattered wherever. NLOTH as a whole probably not until they're a true fan and would care---it's kind of a mature album, IMO. 
never did me any harm 
