HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
By Maddy Fry
2005.06
It's the pivotal moment in every U2 fan's life, that moment when the sky rips open and heaven itself seems to descend upon you with choirs of angels singing in a collective voice that turns the whole world from black and white to color, the moment when you realize that this band has title to your soul.
Like a lot of people, that moment came to me at a young age. Unlike a lot of people, however, it happened to me in 2002.
There was no heart and soul in rock 'n' roll, the days when belief had been put before ability in music had been long over. People my age only really liked pretentious hip-hop, R&B and drivelling nu-metal punk-pop, anything else just wasn't cool. It had also been well over a year since U2 had released its last album so it wasn't a brilliant time to become a born-again convert to the U2 cause.
We all know that at times being a U2 fan isn't particularly easy. Wherever you go, there's no end to the jibes about the music—after all, The Edge's guitar playing isn't that good, and would it kill him to play a solo once in a while instead of just noodling about with his FX pedals, playing all that pretentious crap? And that's not to mention Bono, the epitome of self-absorbed, posturing, egotistical celebrity. Does he think he's God or something, having so many pictures taken with starving Africans and politicians, you realize it's all a show, and by the way, didn't he once pay a vast amount of money to have his hat flown to him personally at a charity gig? None of this would hurt so much if it were about any other band.
All of this is magnified about 10 times when you're a teenager. I am not yet 16 and even after the release of "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," the Vertigo Tour and the iPod ad, to be a teenage U2 follower is still associated with being some kind of political and emotional extremist.
Admittedly, the amount of band pictures I've pasted all over my school books and folders does border on the disturbing, but the derision I feel isn't down to any fan tendencies to worship the band members as gods but simply, "How could you like a band so old?"
U2 isn't just any supposedly "old" band, being a fan of the band is not the same as being a follower of, say, Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix. U2 has an aura of uniqueness that a lot of non-believers, particularly teenagers, seem to find intimidating.
This generally means that few young people can be found among the forums and fan communities on the internet. Listening to people in who are in their 30s and 40s talking about their first U2 show at Red Rocks in 1983 is inspiring but it does make someone born well after that feel slightly left out.
And getting concert tickets is harder for a teenage fan. As I'm not old enough to have a credit card, this year's tour announcement—my first tour—was followed by one of my long-suffering parents spending the whole day by the phone and the computer while I was at school, wondering where the money that I was going to pay them back with was going to materialize from.
There's also a lot of temptation when you are young. It's been said that every great rock band is like a religion and as youth culture has slid into jaded, apolitical apathy, U2 and its consciousness-raising have become more important than ever. U2's ideals of optimism and belief in the worthiness of life have kept me from getting caught up in the traditional teenage vices—binge-drinking, smoking, drugs. And in a sense, that's giving a lot up, the right to be reckless and bloody-minded is something that many of my generation hold dear.
And yet it could never compare to the kind of things you feel when those U2 moments arrive. Like when Bono talks about the crises of the world's retched and you realize that life is so much bigger than you'll ever be, and the importance and responsibility that the idea that one person can make a difference is loaded with.
And those who sneer at you for preferring the likes of "All I Want is You," "One," "Walk On" and "Miracle Drug" to anything by 50 Cent or Green Day, sometimes all you can do is pity them.
To have U2 take you into its arms when you're young is an amazing thing; you have an ideal for living, not just for adolescence, but also for life. At the very least it means being rescued from eternal pop culture damnation. But you also find yourself a better person in so many ways—humbled, yet uplifted, aware yet never cynical. Every great rock band is like a religion but U2 is salvation, sweet and pure.
It's not easy being a young U2 fan. You make a lot of sacrifices. At times it's a struggle. But that's the great thing about writing on a U2 fan site; I don't have to explain to you why I'm a fan. The struggle is worth it. You give yourself away, but in return, the band gives you something you can feel.
2005.06
It's the pivotal moment in every U2 fan's life, that moment when the sky rips open and heaven itself seems to descend upon you with choirs of angels singing in a collective voice that turns the whole world from black and white to color, the moment when you realize that this band has title to your soul.
Like a lot of people, that moment came to me at a young age. Unlike a lot of people, however, it happened to me in 2002.
There was no heart and soul in rock 'n' roll, the days when belief had been put before ability in music had been long over. People my age only really liked pretentious hip-hop, R&B and drivelling nu-metal punk-pop, anything else just wasn't cool. It had also been well over a year since U2 had released its last album so it wasn't a brilliant time to become a born-again convert to the U2 cause.
We all know that at times being a U2 fan isn't particularly easy. Wherever you go, there's no end to the jibes about the music—after all, The Edge's guitar playing isn't that good, and would it kill him to play a solo once in a while instead of just noodling about with his FX pedals, playing all that pretentious crap? And that's not to mention Bono, the epitome of self-absorbed, posturing, egotistical celebrity. Does he think he's God or something, having so many pictures taken with starving Africans and politicians, you realize it's all a show, and by the way, didn't he once pay a vast amount of money to have his hat flown to him personally at a charity gig? None of this would hurt so much if it were about any other band.
All of this is magnified about 10 times when you're a teenager. I am not yet 16 and even after the release of "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," the Vertigo Tour and the iPod ad, to be a teenage U2 follower is still associated with being some kind of political and emotional extremist.
Admittedly, the amount of band pictures I've pasted all over my school books and folders does border on the disturbing, but the derision I feel isn't down to any fan tendencies to worship the band members as gods but simply, "How could you like a band so old?"
U2 isn't just any supposedly "old" band, being a fan of the band is not the same as being a follower of, say, Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix. U2 has an aura of uniqueness that a lot of non-believers, particularly teenagers, seem to find intimidating.
This generally means that few young people can be found among the forums and fan communities on the internet. Listening to people in who are in their 30s and 40s talking about their first U2 show at Red Rocks in 1983 is inspiring but it does make someone born well after that feel slightly left out.
And getting concert tickets is harder for a teenage fan. As I'm not old enough to have a credit card, this year's tour announcement—my first tour—was followed by one of my long-suffering parents spending the whole day by the phone and the computer while I was at school, wondering where the money that I was going to pay them back with was going to materialize from.
There's also a lot of temptation when you are young. It's been said that every great rock band is like a religion and as youth culture has slid into jaded, apolitical apathy, U2 and its consciousness-raising have become more important than ever. U2's ideals of optimism and belief in the worthiness of life have kept me from getting caught up in the traditional teenage vices—binge-drinking, smoking, drugs. And in a sense, that's giving a lot up, the right to be reckless and bloody-minded is something that many of my generation hold dear.
And yet it could never compare to the kind of things you feel when those U2 moments arrive. Like when Bono talks about the crises of the world's retched and you realize that life is so much bigger than you'll ever be, and the importance and responsibility that the idea that one person can make a difference is loaded with.
And those who sneer at you for preferring the likes of "All I Want is You," "One," "Walk On" and "Miracle Drug" to anything by 50 Cent or Green Day, sometimes all you can do is pity them.
To have U2 take you into its arms when you're young is an amazing thing; you have an ideal for living, not just for adolescence, but also for life. At the very least it means being rescued from eternal pop culture damnation. But you also find yourself a better person in so many ways—humbled, yet uplifted, aware yet never cynical. Every great rock band is like a religion but U2 is salvation, sweet and pure.
It's not easy being a young U2 fan. You make a lot of sacrifices. At times it's a struggle. But that's the great thing about writing on a U2 fan site; I don't have to explain to you why I'm a fan. The struggle is worth it. You give yourself away, but in return, the band gives you something you can feel.
I can certainly relate...the consensus in my school (save a few people) seems to be that "U2 sucks." 
Even the people that have what I'd consider "good" tase in music seem to share this opinion. 
That's the price of being a U2 fan I guess...still doesn't stop me from drawing them for practically every art assignment over the last two years 
It's annoying that most people who say they hate U2 know little or nothing about them other than Vertigo and Beautiful day...someone even told me 'Bono thinks everyone should worship him'?...honestly i dont know where they get this from
) i can switch straight to Boy....
One Metallica fan can now be heard humming All I Want is You through the corridors....
)
I'm closer to 30 than 20 and I STILL get that.
