Bono Interview in Rolling Stone

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Well this is extraordinarily disappointing to hear Bono say. For someone who makes such a point of lauding feminism, this is an extremely shit thing to read. Pathetic.

How do you discover new music?
The band is always listening to music, and I have got my kids. Jordan is a music snob, an indie snob. Eve is hip-hop. Elijah is in a band, and he has got very strong feelings about music, but he doesn't make any distinction between, let's say, the Who and the Killers. Or, you know, Nirvana and Royal Blood. It is not generational for him. It is the sound and what he is experiencing. He believes that a rock & roll revolution is around the corner.

Do you believe it?
I think music has gotten very girly. And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that's not good. When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don't care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is fucking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it. Some great rock & roll tends to have that, which is why the Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage.
 
Yeah, that paragraph is a mess. Women are making some of the angriest, most emotive music out right now. Someone introduce Bono to Torres and Chelsea Wolfe.
 
Well this is extraordinarily disappointing to hear Bono say. For someone who makes such a point of lauding feminism, this is an extremely shit thing to read. Pathetic.



Disappointing? Yes. Pathetic? Well it’s another culturally engrained construct that needs to be removed. “Girly” is used in the Irish culture to describe something as soft, emotional, just like cultures that throw around “cunt” or “pussy”.

We’re all a little disappointing and need change.
 
Those might be among the dumbest, most tone-deaf comments Bono has ever made. For someone is supposed to count Patti Smith among his heroes, and championed artists like PJ Harvey in the past, I don’t know what he was thinking.

Of course, that comment is now getting picked up all over the place and is going to turn into a shitshow, as it should.
 
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Those might be among the dumbest, most time-deaf comments Bono has ever made. For someone is supposed to count Patti Smith among his heroes, and championed artists like PJ Harvey in the past, I don’t know what he was thinking.

Of course, that comment is now getting picked up all over the place and is going to turn into a shitshow, as it should.



I don’t believe he’s talking about Patti Smith or PJ Harvey kind of music, I guess he’s talking about the music that dominates pop charts these days.
Swift, Ariana Grande, Adele, etc.

I’m not excusing Bono, I’m just trying to understand what he thinks.
 
I don’t believe he’s talking about Patti Smith or PJ Harvey kind of music, I guess he’s talking about the music that dominates pop charts these days.
Swift, Ariana Grande, Adele, etc.

I’m not excusing Bono, I’m just trying to understand what he thinks.

Which inherently suggests that that music is valueless, which is a load of shit.

And besides all that, he seems to think two of the three worst tracks on the new album are going to be hugely popular songs in the vein of all their biggest hits. So he's clearly got no idea.
 
Those might be among the dumbest, most time-deaf comments Bono has ever made. For someone is supposed to count Patti Smith among his heroes, and championed artists like PJ Harvey in the past, I don’t know what he was thinking.

Of course, that comment is now getting picked up all over the place and is going to turn into a shitshow, as it should.

oh for heaven's sake - so many of you on this board are hysterical in the non-funny sense of that word. and it is tone-deaf, not time-deaf but I'll assume that's your auto-correct.

read the paragraph again, in context, with the overall question about the state of rock music today. girly doesn't refer to girls making rock music (ffs) it refers to rock music that is no longer guitar driven and powerful in its expression of young idealistic anger, or frustration, or passion on issues. Current rock music is girly compared to The Who, or Pearl Jam's 'Ten' or Rage Against The Machine or, yes, even Patti Smith. Bono thinks he hears that sort of passion in hip hop, but not in rock and is therefore looking for the next rock revolution. He most certainly isn't saying girl bands suck.

as for the shit-show you predict .. what? you mean on Twitter? spare me.
 
It seems like he wants more aggressive music in the pop charts, which I get. But like cobbler said, that doesn't make the current pop scene worthless. He should dig a little deeper and listen to artists like St. Vincent, Algiers, Ty Segall, Priests. There's plenty of anger and edgy music out there.

Also, I find it even more ridiculous and tone-deaf that Bono thinks this, but then U2 puts out Best Thing and Get Out Of Your Own Way as singles. The latter might be the most toothless single they've ever released. He's really giving off an "old man yells at cloud" vibe with those quotes.
 
oh for heaven's sake - so many of you on this board are hysterical in the non-funny sense of that word. and it is tone-deaf, not time-deaf but I'll assume that's your auto-correct.

read the paragraph again, in context, with the overall question about the state of rock music today. girly doesn't refer to girls making rock music (ffs) it refers to rock music that is no longer guitar driven and powerful in its expression of young idealistic anger, or frustration, or passion on issues. Current rock music is girly compared to The Who, or Pearl Jam's 'Ten' or Rage Against The Machine or, yes, even Patti Smith. Bono thinks he hears that sort of passion in hip hop, but not in rock and is therefore looking for the next rock revolution. He most certainly isn't saying girl bands suck.

as for the shit-show you predict .. what? you mean on Twitter? spare me.

I'm sure that is what he meant. But he worded it very poorly and it completely ignores the vital rock music that is being made today, by both men and women.

As for who is picking it up, Billboard Magazine, Jezebel, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, Esquire Magazine, NY Daily News, etc. have all posted about it. He definitely stuck his foot in his mouth big-time. Again, I severely doubt there was malice behind it. But it's not a good look on his part.
 
Which inherently suggests that that music is valueless, which is a load of shit.



I’m not sure how you got that from the quote. In fact he says it’s a good thing in many ways, but that it lacks “rage”. I have no idea where you got valueless from that?
 
It seems like he wants more aggressive music in the pop charts, which I get. But like cobbler said, that doesn't make the current pop scene worthless. He should dig a little deeper and listen to artists like St. Vincent, Algiers, Ty Segall, Priests. There's plenty of anger and edgy music out there.

Also, I find it even more ridiculous and tone-deaf that Bono thinks this, but then U2 puts out Best Thing and Get Out Of Your Own Way as singles. The latter might be the most toothless single they've ever released. He's really giving off an "old man yells at cloud" vibe with those quotes.



Do you really think he’s talking about Priests or St. Vincent? Honestly?
I’m sure he knows Algiers or Ty Segall.
He’’s talking about the charts, about radio, about hits... I know he used the wrong adjective for that music, but we can try to understand what he says an put in context, not only of the article, of his whole life.
 
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read the paragraph again, in context, with the overall question about the state of rock music today. girly doesn't refer to girls making rock music (ffs) it refers to rock music that is no longer guitar driven and powerful in its expression of young idealistic anger, or frustration, or passion on issues. Current rock music is girly compared to The Who, or Pearl Jam's 'Ten' or Rage Against The Machine or, yes, even Patti Smith. Bono thinks he hears that sort of passion in hip hop, but not in rock and is therefore looking for the next rock revolution. He most certainly isn't saying girl bands suck.

Way to completely and utterly miss the point. What you're saying is fucking obvious to anyone (it's still bullshit, maybe he should listen to Gang of Youths).

We're not talking about that, it's completely irrelevant.

It's the lazy sexism of his comment. When you say music is 'girly', it's offensive and blatantly sexist. He's using 'girly' when he means lacking passion or anger. He's saying girly because girls and females are historically associated with being soft, weak, lacking passion, lacking anger. Way to completely put down half the fucking world in one second.

I agree with Joey that there was no malice meant, but I'm very disappointed that a man who has so often championed women wouldn't pick himself up on that. It's really fucking lazy and he deserves to be roasted for it.

Also, I find it even more ridiculous and tone-deaf that Bono thinks this, but then U2 puts out Best Thing and Get Out Of Your Own Way as singles. The latter might be the most toothless single they've ever released. He's really giving off an "old man yells at cloud" vibe with those quotes.

A million times this.

I’m not sure how you got that from the quote. In fact he says it’s a good thing in many ways, but that it lacks “rage”. I have no idea where you got valueless from that?

He's using 'girly' as a pejorative. "Good thing in many ways" doesn't take away from that fact.
 
Well this is extraordinarily disappointing to hear Bono say. For someone who makes such a point of lauding feminism, this is an extremely shit thing to read. Pathetic.
I evaluate him, and any other man, in the complete context of their lives and their previous words and actions. Not some silly off the cuff quote in Rolling Stone.

There are plenty of people who never say the "wrong" thing politically, but are living lives that make their words in that regard complete bullshit. Don't think Bono is one of those people.

I agree that he used the word girly in a completely different context. It's a soundbite for clicks these days, to say omg Bono hates girly music by women. We have a President(unfortunately) who generates clicks with every tweet. So it goes.
 
Sadly, though, this might be one of the best things Bono's said in a while, because if you look at all the top comments on the news stories it's a stream of shitty fuckwit men being like "it's the bloody truth only Metallica are manly now it's pathetic" :rolleyes:
 
I evaluate him, and any other man, in the complete context of their lives and their previous words and actions. Not some silly off the cuff quote in Rolling Stone.

There are plenty of people who never say the "wrong" thing politically, but are living lives that make their words in that regard complete bullshit. Don't think Bono is one of those people.

I agree that he used the word girly in a completely different context. It's a soundbite for clicks these days, to say omg Bono hates girly music by women. We have a President(unfortunately) who generates clicks with every tweet. So it goes.

I am as sick of the outrage culture as anyone but I hold Bono to a higher standard than I do Josh Homme.
 
Way to completely and utterly miss the point. What you're saying is fucking obvious to anyone (it's still bullshit, maybe he should listen to Gang of Youths).



We're not talking about that, it's completely irrelevant.



It's the lazy sexism of his comment. When you say music is 'girly', it's offensive and blatantly sexist. He's using 'girly' when he means lacking passion or anger. He's saying girly because girls and females are historically associated with being soft, weak, lacking passion, lacking anger. Way to completely put down half the fucking world in one second.



I agree with Joey that there was no malice meant, but I'm very disappointed that a man who has so often championed women wouldn't pick himself up on that. It's really fucking lazy and he deserves to be roasted for it.







A million times this.







He's using 'girly' as a pejorative. "Good thing in many ways" doesn't take away from that fact.



I think you’re reading too far into this, he doesn’t say anything about lacking passion or being weak, just rage. Those are not interchangeable.
 
It's kind of a shame, because I thought, for the most part, it was a pretty interesting read. But I'd be lying if I said that one comment didn't stick out like a sore thumb. Not sure if it's a cultural or generational thing, but the remark definitely comes across a bit tone-deaf regardless.
 
I thought it was a good read as well, aside from that comment and his idiocy about their singles.

I think you’re reading too far into this, he doesn’t say anything about lacking passion or being weak, just rage. Those are not interchangeable.

You're missing the point too. It's the sexism of using the word 'girly'. It's not excusable, no matter what he's talking about.
 
I thought it was a good read as well, aside from that comment and his idiocy about their singles.







You're missing the point too. It's the sexism of using the word 'girly'. It's not excusable, no matter what he's talking about.



Go back to my original post. I’m not missing the point, it was a disappointing use of words. But I think many are reading far too much into it, he’s not speaking to value or passion but lack of rage. And as I said, it’s a cultural phrase, outdated and shows his age, but a common phrase nonetheless. We all have them, there was very heated debate about some of your culture’s sexist terms recently. So let’s take a look at our own glass houses before calling something inexcusable.
 
omg Bono isn't practically perfect in every way!


(I've been annoyed when he's said that in the past.)
 
It does bug me that he's used that girly term before. Annoying and girly. Maybe they were just annoying.

How many times technically constitute a pattern ? I don't know.
 
It's actually an important point that he's making, however poor his word choice. The charts are dominated by pop artists like Adele, Swift, Katy Perry, etc. -- and male artists like Beiber or Harry Styles or JT -- all sales of which are driven by teeny-bopper girls. That's a very specific demographic that responds to a very specific kind of music, and doesn't leave much in the way of diversity when it comes to the charts. Someone like Bono -- who grew up in the shadows of bands like Stiff Little Fingers, the 70s Stones, the Sex Pistols, etc. -- is going to wonder where the spirit -- if not the sound of punk -- goes as a traditional (and, one could argue, constructive) channel for male anger. Music provided solace for him and a thousand other singers who felt anger as young men and had nowhere to go with it -- and that same music provided millions of men with an outlet to experience catharsis.

He should have found a different choice of words perhaps, but the context is important -- as well as the character of the man saying it -- before we start going to our fainting couches and clutching our pearls.
 
Still bullshit. The music is literally everywhere bar the top 40. It's really not hard to find. An astute artist would be able to point that out. It's disappointing that he falls into those tropes.

The other point to make is this continued implication that Adele, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Beiber, Harry Styles et al are all garbage because they make pop music whose sales are driven by teeny-bopper girls.

Teeny-bopper girls are humans too, yknow. I don't much like that sort of music, hence why I haven't paid any attention to the charts in about a decade, but it's so elitist to say that this music is garbage, or without value, just because it's pop.

I have a huge, huge issue with this idea that music isn't as good as it used to be because a) it's not true and b) it completely shits down the throat of an entire subset of our population.

And what he and you and others in this thread are claiming just simply isn't true. There is anger and rage and emotion in music all over the fucking place, you just might not find it in the Billboard top 10 every week. This sort of music exists everywhere, and in this age, it's really not at all hard to find. So stop being lazy.
 
There is anger and rage and emotion in music all over the fucking place, you just might not find it in the Billboard top 10 every week..



And finally you are starting to get his point.

Once again; quit with the valueless and emotion narrative, that was never his point.

He was specifically talking about “rock” music and how it’s lost its rage, and where rock sits in the whole scheme of things.
 
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