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.
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.
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.
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.
Which inherently suggests that that music is valueless, which is a load of shit.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.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.
I get that you do, and I think that's great. I honestly do, and I respect it.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.
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.
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..