Why is Bono saying sorry??

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Rattle and Hum was a wildly successful album that spawned a couple of U2's best known singles, the film held a box office record for a documentary for 15 years - not what the perception is.

Outside the US, Pop was a global #1 album, top 10 for the year in many countries, Discotheque and Staring at the Sun were #1 singles, Popmart was a wildly successful and acclaimed tour - not what the perception is.

10's of millions have checked this album out. Possibly many love it. Possibly a song or two will take hold. As of now though, the story and perception is strongly in favour of fuck up, whether that's accurate or not. We'll see if they can shift that.
 
Earnie Shavers said:
Rattle and Hum was a wildly successful album that spawned a couple of U2's best known singles, the film held a box office record for a documentary for 15 years - not what the perception is.

Outside the US, Pop was a global #1 album, top 10 for the year in many countries, Discotheque and Staring at the Sun were #1 singles, Popmart was a wildly successful and acclaimed tour - not what the perception is.

10's of millions have checked this album out. Possibly many love it. Possibly a song or two will take hold. As of now though, the story and perception is strongly in favour of fuck up, whether that's accurate or not. We'll see if they can shift that.
Click to expand...

Agree completely.

But part of the problem is, U2's words and actions over the years have in no small part contributed to the negative, and in some ways as you say, inaccurate assessment of those records.

By going on record and admitting it was a mistake and apologising (whether it was a sincere apology or not) they've just added fuel the fire and given ammo to those who want to characterise this badly. It's a first draft of history, and now U2 has basically said the critics were right. So years from now they will have no one but themselves to blame when people (aside from die hards) just remember the whole thing as a fiasco and failure, correctly or not, Ala Pop and R&H.

IMO, fair or unfair, the narrative on this release is pretty much set now.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
If I went to my marketing director and told them that I had an idea that would give us great exposure, but 80% of the press coverage will be negative... I'd get fired.
Click to expand...


See, it depends on what you're selling. Negative press for, say, a healthcare organization? Bad news. Negative press for entertainment? Not entirely all bad.

I've had marketing directors that would have dug a stunt like this. Successful people who know marketing, not some hacks.
 
did anyone else lol when adam read that question tho

and bono's response of "oops" was obviously sarcastic. like oops i accidentally made a deal with one of the biggest companies in the world to distribute my album to 500 million people but i obv didn't mean to my bad
 
The only way they could've handled this properly would be to just say "wtf? it's free fucking music. you don't want it? delete the bloody thing."

But then that would seem callous next to the whole emotional "personal record" theme.
 
Afliktor said:
did anyone else lol when adam read that question tho

and bono's response of "oops" was obviously sarcastic. like oops i accidentally made a deal with one of the biggest companies in the world to distribute my album to 500 million people but i obv didn't mean to my bad
Click to expand...

Clearly but that won't stop many more pages of everyone arguing or freaking out over nothing.
 
ozeeko said:
The only way they could've handled this properly would be to just say "wtf? it's free fucking music. you don't want it? delete the bloody thing."

But then that would seem callous next to the whole emotional "personal record" theme.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I think they just should've owned it. They knew they would take backlash. The apology was sarcastic until he started getting sincere and said that they were afraid of the songs not being heard. That's obviously the honest truth.

But who cares? They should've just said, "Don't like it? too fucking bad -- delete it."
 
popacrobat said:
Yeah. I think they just should've owned it. They knew they would take backlash. The apology was sarcastic until he started getting sincere and said that they were afraid of the songs not being heard. That's obviously the honest truth.

But who cares? They should've just said, "Don't like it? too fucking bad -- delete it."
Click to expand...

Well that's my major issue with them in general.

They care way too much about making sure people hear the record... and in that effort they get perceived as a joke... when they didn't need to as this record could stand alone.
 
Yep, that´s right.

If you dont like the gift Santa Claus give you for Christmas, call the cops!
Beat the guy up. Kick him in the belly.
Some people just don´t believe in Santa Claus anymore.

That was part of Bono´s talking on that last French TV show, when answering a
question from a girl in the audience about the Free iTunes giveaway.

People who refuse a free gift (specially a brand new record) are ungrateful :censored:
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
Do you honestly believe this? If they had released it the standard way do you seriously think it would have made any larger an impression than NLOTH did on the general public?
Click to expand...

We definitely wouldn't have seen any tweets like this from teenagers:


"Never heard of U2 before but this album is pretty good"
 
What, people who haven't heard U2 before but think the album is good? Yeah, who wants new fans, anyway?
 
Get ready to see complaints on Ticketmaster reviews related to "U2 concerts starting very late for children who have to go to school the next day" :wink:
 
Manner and method of release directly linked in confidence level of band and their views of the album. They honestly thought most people would love the album and never anticipated level of backlash. I really don't think they are fully aware of hatred toward them simply because everybody around them showers them with praise. The hatred is exaggerated anyway and perpetuated by a small but powerful faction of indie music media scene.




Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
prbiker15 said:
Get ready to see complaints on Ticketmaster reviews related to "U2 concerts starting very late for children who have to go to school the next day" :wink:
Click to expand...

Or, U2 played an extra song last night. I'm so pissed that they invaded my privacy.
 
People dramatizing should look at the U2 Facebook replies video. It was said tongue in cheek. The backlash is nothing compared to ripping they got on Rattle and Hum. I don't think people will turn their back on SOI like they did on Pop.

People who already dislike the band won't make a difference either way. People already fans will at least check it out once. But there might be plenty of those that will listen to a free album and maybe decide to listen to more U2 music.

The music should stand on its own. Yeah, maybe with a better single and if they were about 10-15 years younger. Miracle is about as good as a single as Boots was.

Except they now have 500 million potential listeners.
 
Like it or not, the band did what they did- and thanks to that, several of their older releases saw the light of day on I-Tunes charts again. They got the exposure they were looking for, and then some. Sincere or snark, any quote by a celebrity these days can and will be molded into whatever context a poster or blogger want it to be, sadly. I personally think Bono should have let Sharon Osbourne have it, LOLOL
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Well that's my major issue with them in general.

They care way too much about making sure people hear the record... and in that effort they get perceived as a joke... when they didn't need to as this record could stand alone.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I mean, that's just how it is for them, and I don't think it's going to change.

I don't blame them for caring that people hear it. But I wouldn't come out and blatantly state it in an semi-sarcastic but oddly honest apology. Just own what you did and stand by the music. Say, "Hey, did you guys who hate it even listen to it? Maybe you should give it a whirl and enjoy your gift." Egotistical? Sure, but that's what they are.

Don't apologize, tell them to shut up and listen to it. They already went down this road, no need to half ass it now.
 
Since the general public feel free to download musical property for free I think U2 are allowed to send people music if they want to. There's a lot of people that want their cake and eat it too.
 
Dunno why it's gathering such huge press. Have barely heard a blimp here on the radio and in the paper, wasn't that big news. Sure in the first week the radio played Miracle a lot, amongst other songs, now I occasionally hear it bu nobody's bitching about anything. :wink: not much positive either, but that I can understand.
 
I don't think their insecurity is something to be admired. It's a severe personality defect that they need to rise above.

Also, I've forever been over this whole "we're cooler when we're not being cool" malarkey, because they really didn't hit it big until they started looking cool in all those sepia JT pics. :D Maybe the music was out of step, but they really had a cool, unique look, you cannot deny.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
The Little stranger chapter 1
Replies
0
Views
985
annj
A
A
The little stranger chapter 13
Replies
0
Views
572
annj
A
A
The Little Stranger chapter 14
Replies
0
Views
523
annj
A
A
The Little stranger chapter 16
Replies
0
Views
996
annj
A
A
The little stranger chapter 10
Replies
0
Views
681
annj
A

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom