Bono copying Britney - excerpt from WSJ

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TheU2

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Snippet from Wall Street Journal:

"In concert, U2 does not embellish the studio versions of its songs. "One," "New York" and "Staring at the Sun" all sounded in Madison Square Garden as they sound on the band's albums: tightly constructed works of concision and energy. The performance faltered only when the band forgot this principle. Why, for example, was Bono's voice amplified with an echo effect on almost every song? The synthesized voice has become increasingly common as a studio trick, but we don't expect the great rock acts to resort to Britney Spears-style cheating in a concert. Even worse, the sound-board jockeys were too busy juicing up the vocals to notice when Bono and The Edge, singing backup, were caught in an audio sludge, their voices lost."

Discuss!

CK


[This message has been edited by TheU2 (edited 10-30-2001).]
 
DId U2 REQUEST this for their vocals? As far as I know, their other concerts haven't had the mixing/electronica vocal styles. Maybe it was just the fault of some mixing designer on one night?

To me, U2 is all about the vocals, the lyrics. Bono's the frontman, his voice is the soul of U2. Weighing it down with Britney style tricks DOES cheapen it. It lowers the effect. In essence, it's all about the passion he exudes when singing. I just can't imagine someone taking that away to make it more 'hip' by adding another technological dimension...maybe that's what this is about. Making them more 'hip?'
 
I think what the writer actually heard was the crowd singing along to the song. Every song. NYCers are a wacky bunch.

And if you ever listen to a Britney song, you'll hear that she has effects or backing vocals on almost every word of every song because she lacks talent.

On a side note, I actually work for WSJ and would just like to say 1) thanks for subscribing to the site and paying my salary and 2) I hope this proves that the paper isn't that bad once you throw out the opinion page.

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"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980
 
Well i saw bits from Elevation tour (and heard MP3s of ATYCLB songs live), and i must say, i didn't hear effects on songs like I will follow, Streets, Until the end of the world (ok, bit of an echo effect at "love, love" part), Beautiful day, Elevation (except echo effect on "wooo hooo" part), Kite.
What bothered me in a way was the band using effects when it comes to music: synth on BD, Elevation, strings on Kite, synth on Stuck, piano on Walk on etc...why not bring additional musicians so they can play that stuff live too?

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"It's about finding your way into the music." - Edge

"Something inside said this could be everything in your life." - Bono

"U2 as a band does things no one else can do. I think that is a very powerful thing." - Larry

"Adam believed in the band before anyone did." - Bono

[This message has been edited by U2girl (edited 10-30-2001).]
 
Originally posted by sharky:


On a side note, I actually work for WSJ and would just like to say 1) thanks for subscribing to the site and paying my salary and 2) I hope this proves that the paper isn't that bad once you throw out the opinion page.


Actually, I didn't get the excerpt from wsj.com. It came from a-t-u-2.com.

CK
 
I am not entirely sure what the reviewer is talking about with regards to the amplifying effect on Bono's voice. In some songs there is some electronic enhacement of his voice, such as repeating a word or phrase, but it is done sparingly. In fact, on previous tours there was more enhancement of Bono's voice. On the Zootv tour, BTBS, Zoo Station,The Fly all synthezised Bono's voice and Popmart Discotheque was, too. I also think the reviewer was deceived by the fans singing all the words to the songs. During Thurs.' show at times I couldn't hear Bono, just the fans around me.

BTW, in this WSJ review, the reviewer really overstates the "failure" of U2 in the nineties. See excerpt below (WSJ 10/30).

"In returning to basics, the band has made a wise choice. During the 1990s, U2, R.E.M. and Madonna, three of the most popular artists of the previous decade, suffered crises of confidence. Hoping to keep up with the kids, they experimented with new sounds. Tying to stay on top of the latest musical trends, they made stabs at incorporating electronica and techno into their music. The results were failures -- not quite on the order of Pat Boone trying to pass himself off as Little Richard, or the Rolling Stones embracing disco, but still unsuccessful."

While Popmart may have been a mistep (although the extent of which it was has been greatly exagerrated) Achtung Baby is widely perceived as being U2's best and this album, more than Pop, characterizes U2's nineties metamorphisis. To say that this was a crisis in confidence is flat wrong. In fact, it marks the height of U2's confidence. For why else would the most succesful rock band in the world at the time decide to alter a very sucessful formula for something new and risky? Moreover, the Zootv tour is also widely believed to have been highly inventive and one of the best, most sucessful tours ever mounted. It has become something of a measuring stick for all subsequent tours. In this sense, Popmart had huge expectations which were not satisfied.

karl
 
Originally posted by TheU2:
Actually, I didn't get the excerpt from wsj.com. It came from a-t-u-2.com.

CK


Screw you!
[just kidding!
wink.gif
]


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"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980
 
Alright folks, anyone who says Staring At The Sun live is unembellished and souns as it sounds on the album is pretty boneheaded.

And what a shame it is that large spaces like arenas have echoes. yeeesh.
 
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