What if we had the Internet in the 80's?

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partygirl43

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Hello Cleveland!
Ok so maybe I'm showing my age, but remember back in the day when all we had was Propaganda? Star Hits magazine (USA) Smash Hits and pen-pals to 'talk' about our favorite band(s)?

Has the internet made you a better fan of U2 or music in general?

Me? I can only imagine the time suckage this would be if I we're 17/18 and had the internet at the time. I probably would not have graduated :lol:
 
Ok so maybe I'm showing my age, but remember back in the day when all we had was Propaganda? Star Hits magazine (USA) Smash Hits and pen-pals to 'talk' about our favorite band(s)?

Has the internet made you a better fan of U2 or music in general?

Me? I can only imagine the time suckage this would be if I we're 17/18 and had the internet at the time. I probably would not have graduated :lol:

I'm 15 now... I don't know how I maintain decent grades with the time I spend on here.
 
we technically did, at least. though websites and such weren't around till the 90s. i remember someone making a thread recently linking to what usenet members thought of the fly when it came out. i lolled. (especially since even back then, i loved it. no really.)
 
Has the internet made you a better fan of U2 or music in general?

It has and it has not. Thanks to the internet and through fan sites like this, I have been exposed to bands that I would not have been if I just had the radio to rely on. When I first joined this website, I was all about getting my hands on every single thing about U2. I think my obsessiveness and the ease of obtaining music and information about bands such as U2 may have killed my desire to know everything about U2. I no longer have the same interest that I did when I joined this site back in 2001. I have know idea when the new U2 album will be released. :applaud:
 
I'd probably not have played sports, spent all my time indoors, never met girls, and been a social recluse.

Thank God I saved that for when I was married and in my 30's.


:down::love::|
 
I would say the internet has killed the magic that used to surround a new u2 release back in the day. There used to be a lot more excitement surrounding the release of the likes of JT, R&H and AB on radio. Used to get u2 day when they released stuff....and would have mega competitions etc. And was exciting tuning in to hear the first plays of the new songs. Used to have to wait most of the day to hear them all, as the stations would play maybe 2-3 song on each DJs shows. The internet has taken the shine away.
 
In the 80s, I didn't even have a computer, I was typing on an old typewriter and I was actually reading a lot of books, something I hardly find time to do today. And there were actually music videos played on MTV. Oh the good old times :drool:
 
Definitely agree with the last 2 comments that internet has killed the magic.

Back in the 80s I used to get Rolling Stone, Smash Hits, NME, Juke, Melody Maker etc every week/month hoping for a sniff of U2 information and get SO excited if there was a snippet mentioning U2 (and other bands I liked) recording new material, touring etc.

And music would often just turn up on the radio or at record stores without notice and without beach clips months/years earlier.

Pre internet the best way to get release dates early was ICE magazine but that only gave 3 months notice and was sometimes wrong. We'd have to beg our local record stores for release info. There was mystery and excitement about it.

On the other hand, a big upside of the internet it the ability to trial albums & bands before handing over your hard earned cash. I still buy around 5 albums per month, just like I did 20 years ago. But now I never buy duds.
 
I think my resort to the internet for U2 stuff coincided with my declining excitement with U2, which was around 1999, but didn't really kick in until 2004, when Bono really got my hopes up and I realized they'd been dashed about a month of listening to HTDAAB and I realized I'd been duped by lies.

In a way, though, I'm very glad about the internet because it has allowed me to find out stuff about releases and such. I remember in high school, I'd be waiting on the next U2 or Cure record and have absolutely no sense of when they were coming out. I'd see some news that it was planned for a certain date and constantly go to the store. The web was around; I just didn't know how to use it. I remember hearing the new Cure album was coming out October 1995, so I'd keep popping by every few weeks. Finally, I heard a friend mock the new video; that was 6 months later. The not knowing was grueling, but my expectations were lower for news.

I'd record everything I could find.

In a way, it's the failure of traditional music media like Much Music/MTV and print media (Rolling Stone being more focussed on Britney Spears and gossip) that pushed me and I suspect a lot of fans onto the web. If they hadn't abrogated their responsibility, we wouldn't have turned to alternative media and youtube and stuff.

You can't even find VJs who are reasonably smart at interviewing anymore. It's tragic.

Europe still has great music interviewers though.
 
I wish I grew up in the 80's...

I love my cell phone/itouch/internets/youtube



BUT I HATE IT AT THE SAME TIME!
 
It wouldn't matter cause I was born in the 90's :wink:
 
I think the internet has changed things. it's not necessarily worse or better.

It was great to be able to watch U2's first webcam in the early days of U2.com and feel the excitement if you spotted something / someone moving in the studio.

Now I can talk to people who share the same interest with me, in a way I never could before.

But it would be shame if interent downloads totally replaced hard copies of albums. To me, that's part of what it's all about.
 
If we had the internet in the 80ies? Then here 'BOY', 'OCTOBER', 'WAR' fans would have bashed the "new U2 direction", U2 took with 'THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE' and 'THE JOSHUA TREE' and vice versa. Of course both groups would have slagged off 'RATTLE AND HUM' and would have blamed them of "sell-out" and "betraying their fans" :wink:
 
If we had the internet in the 80ies? Then here 'BOY', 'OCTOBER', 'WAR' fans would have bashed the "new U2 direction", U2 took with 'THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE' and 'THE JOSHUA TREE' and vice versa. Of course both groups would have slagged off 'RATTLE AND HUM' and would have blamed them of "sell-out" and "betraying their fans" :wink:

You're absolutely right. Internet Judas.
 
In 1989 or so, Bono talked about "killing the myth of U2" in a SPIN magazine article.

This "myth" was of U2's image that was created in the 80's. Bono preached - as did many other artists - but some how it was U2 that became "messianic". Perhaps it was U2's songs combined with Bono's long late 80's hair and U2's image of "only being about the music" that gave people this view. U2 could be political. U2 could be religious. U2 could save music.

Of course, some people hated U2 for those very reasons.

But had there been easy access to the 'net, like there is today, I don't think there would have been the "myth" at all. U2 fans would have known all there is about U2 and, given the nature of this website, most likely complained about all of it. LOL!

I'm positive that after "War", some fans would have hated TUF. It would be analogous to arguments we have now about "Pop" vs. ATYCLB. There would have been a surge of new fans due to JT, which I'm sure would have also caused problems. Some might have at first appreciated U2 having a bit hit, but then would have hated that U2 were now too popular.

Come R&H, I'm sure we would have heard fans complain either about not enough change or too much change. I recall hearing two comments about R&H from people - that U2 "changed" and that R&H was "too dark". How dominant would these thoughts have been on the 'net? Would fans agree with the critics about R&H or would they tear apart the critics (as they have done before)?

By AB, this place would have lit up regarding "The Fly". If fans thought "Desire" was a change, what would they think of "The Fly"? And what would the old school "Boy" through "War" era fans think? I'm sure some would have lashed out as "One" being a WOWY copy and MW and "Even Better Than..." as being throw-away pop tunes. Some would have complained about Bono's scratchy voice on "One" and how he's lost his vocal prowess.

The last album before the big internet boom was "Zooropa". Some JT era fans that tolerated and eventually enjoyed AB abhorred "Zooropa". I'm sure "Pop" was completely lost on those fans (who most likely returned with ATYCLB). But with songs like "Numb" and "Lemon", even I had to wonder if the U2 I loved in the 80's was gone. While I grew to really enjoy the album, I know many who did not.

In other words, all the adoration and vitriol for every release that we see now would have been the same back then. Fans would have torn apart songs based on Bono's lyrics and vocals, Edge's guitar work and Larry and Adam's beat. Some would love it, some hate it. Some would complain about the pudgy Bono of 1985. Some would have loved the thin Bono of 1987. But the mystique that U2 had back then would have been gone.

The upshot is that fans could have shared music far earlier. We could have seen and heard far more shows. We could have had access to rare tracks and rare performances. We could hear about release dates for upcoming projects. We would have had more photos. And by sharing, we create our own "myth" of U2, just as we've done now. It's just a different "myth". :)
 
I'm glad there wasn't internet in the 80s. Records were released, there were no leaks, you waited until a certain date to hear the new single on the radio then you waited till a certain day till the record was in the shop. The only discussion about the new song/record was with your friends, or maybe reading the letters pages in the NME/Melody Maker/Smash Hits/Juke/Hot Press. And all those overseas papers were always 3 months old by the time they got to Australia. No endless paparazzi pictures of Bono in France.

There was certainly no endless discussion about the minutae of Bono's use of the word "kneel" for 20 pages by Joe Bloggs in Minnesota. :love:
 
If we had the internet in the 80ies? Then here 'BOY', 'OCTOBER', 'WAR' fans would have bashed the "new U2 direction", U2 took with 'THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE' and 'THE JOSHUA TREE' and vice versa. Of course both groups would have slagged off 'RATTLE AND HUM' and would have blamed them of "sell-out" and "betraying their fans" :wink:

Very very true. JT might be remembered very differently if the mullet fans would've had an outlet to scream bloody murder at the blatant commercial aspirations of that album. I still meet people who think the last great U2 song was Sunday Bloody Sunday.
 
I remember the gap between Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby. I was pretty young -- between 12 and 15 -- and by the time Achtung came out, I had lost interest in U2 completely and considered them old and past their prime (I may have judged them a bit too soon). That's why I can't believe there are 15-year-olds on here. Weren't you, like, in diapers the last time U2 put an album out?

As far as the Internet goes, I first used in early 1995, but didn't really use it until 1997, and didn't use it regularly until about 1998-99. I didn't even own my own computer with Net access until 2000 or 2001. so I guess all the albums up to Pop were kind of Internet-free (certainly to the ZooTV period anyway).

I dunno, I think I got more things done before the Internet, even though the kind of work I do now (editing and test-writing) requires my using the Internet a lot (which makes me wonder how people did it before).

Well, if we had it (and him) back in the 80s, I'm sure Axver would have been on websites like this and saying that The Joshua Tree was crap and that nothing they'd done since 1982 was worthwhile!

Oh, and Live Aid would have been no big deal because the technology wouldn't have impressed people and we could have watched it on YouTube later.
 
I'm glad there wasn't internet in the 80s. Records were released, there were no leaks, you waited until a certain date to hear the new single on the radio then you waited till a certain day till the record was in the shop. The only discussion about the new song/record was with your friends, or maybe reading the letters pages in the NME/Melody Maker/Smash Hits/Juke/Hot Press. And all those overseas papers were always 3 months old by the time they got to Australia. No endless paparazzi pictures of Bono in France.

There was certainly no endless discussion about the minutae of Bono's use of the word "kneel" for 20 pages by Joe Bloggs in Minnesota. :love:

Fully agree there! The ONLY opinion that counted was your own :lol: (I still maintain that outlook now, we are not ALL going to like the same thing, so WHY force on someone else your opinions, healthy discussion is fine, but not some of the nastiness you see here sometimes :ohmy: )

There was none of this "I am the greatest fan because of X Y or Z or "I have every single/Album ever released from every country in the world so that makes me wonderful" mentality, everyone was on an equal footing, even if it was your first ever U2 concert you were going to or your 103rd :sexywink:

I think personally there are pros and cons each way. Back then you wouldn't get all the nitpickyness and the record would come out on the day and not before. But then look what we may have missed in the past! we would not have had any leaks of anything :huh: Nobody would have heared of Mercy, Native Son etc etc :sad:

Because of the medium of pooters, some of us have forged freindships and shared the love of U2 all over the world, which sure would not have happened in the 80's. U2 fans deffinately share the wealth when it comes to leaks etc, not another community like it that I know of :hug:
 
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