doctorwho
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Do yourself a favour and look up "dramatic irony"
*races to dictionary.com
*stops for a sandwich
*takes nap
*sends some texts
*watches TV
*finally races to dictionary.com.
dramatic irony
irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.
I'm gonna take a wild and crazy guess and state that U2 knew exactly what they were doing on stage (i.e., they fully grasped their actions).
Now, let's get to irony:
irony
the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
Where was the irony in Zoo TV?
That U2 portrayed themselves as rich, uncaring, arrogant rock stars when in reality they cared quite a bit?
That U2 mocked the very items that they and their audience adored?
That the audience agreed with said mocking only to then go out and do (or purchase) the very items that were mocked?
These and perhaps other examples are, by definition, irony. I accept that.
But the performance is hardly "dripping with irony". It's more "irony 101" - very tongue-in-cheek, everyone's in on the joke type of mocking.
Was Zoo TV a great show? AND HOW! After I saw it, I told friends I could die a happy man now. But never did the words "ironic" escape my lips.
Was the music from the Zoo time frame brilliant? YES! If you've followed my posts for a while, you know that TUF and AB rank as my favorite U2 albums. To this day, I'm stunned AB didn't win the "Album of the Year" Grammy.
But was Zoo TV so really "dramatically ironic" or avant garde? Eh. U2's concept was a modern spin on ideas done by other artists, who arguably did it better. In fact, one of the biggest criticisms of Zoo TV is that it detracted from the absolutely brilliant music. And, to some extent, I agree.
Sorry DW, nothing personal...you've just touched on a pet-peeve of mine. About re-writing U2's history to make the present form of U2 more digestible.
"Revisionist history". Phewy. I contend that many here have allowed time to create fond memories of the past. That is, you forgot what was bad in favor of the good. There were quite a few complaints about that era in U2's career.
But am I using that to justify to praise U2's current work? There are numerous issues with current U2, just as there were with U2 of the 80's and 90's.
One of my biggest gripes about current U2 is this desire to be the "biggest band". What defines "biggest"? Album sales? Hit songs? Huge concert grosses? Awards? Critical praise? Gee... that all sounds so... superficial. And that is the true irony - a band that is known for their charitable work and Christian beliefs is wrapped up in something this materialistic.
I accepted ATYCLB as a nice change - at least on the first half of the CD. By the second half, I started losing interest. HTDAAB had some moments of brilliance, but felt kind of "rinse and repeat" to me.
Still, some of that brilliance continued on NLOTH. U2 did stumble with some tracks (GOYB, CT, etc.) but the brilliance of the title track, MOS, Breathe, etc. more than made up for it. And that's why I enjoy the album so much. This was the first time since "Pop" that I felt U2 really pushed themselves and made a strong album.
Back to irony. Perhaps it's a matter of taste. I saw Zoo TV and PopMart as a "ha ha - we're mocking you" type of performance. I got it and enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was all that ironic. I'll accept that's just my view.
I do enjoy the 360 tour because U2 openly admit it's huge and it's in your face. It also works. There's a charm to that sort of honesty. As a result, I feel this is one of their best tours. The shocking difference of Zoo TV still makes it my favorite tour. The brilliance of 360 has it as my second favorite. The intimacy of Elevation ranks third.
Now, what has all of this to do with Spider-Man? I don't know.
After years of Platinum albums, big hit songs, long successful tours, and enough awards to fill multiple cabinets, U2 decided to do something different. I applaud that. The project may ultimately flop, but why not go for it? At their ages, they've done as much as they can in their world. Because producing another album with another tour is getting "old".