I have come up with a solution to U2s dissatifaction with Pop and what shouldve been

[t8thgr8]

According to U2 by U2, they were going for an electronica dance scene record. The reason it didnt pan out is because they couldnt let go. If they wouldve surrendered completely to electronic music without any conventional bass guitars, drums or electric guitars it wouldve been exactly what i think they were trying to achieve. well maybe not larry but the other 3.

Adam shouldve been in charge of the bass bits, larry the percussion bits and edge/bono the melodies and vocal harmonies. All electronic, no instruments.

Wouldve been ahead of its time had it been released in 1996, it wouldve put U2 at the forefront of this genre of music that ended up happening a year or two later later anyway. It wouldve been prefect. They dropped the ball.

 

[LemonMelon]

An electronic version of Wake Up Dead Man? No.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

PoP is fine the way it is, save for one or two songs. Maybe three. No i take that back, only two songs were bad. Maybe even one. The album is timeless and gets better with age. The rest is great. They try to re-work the songs and end up totally fucking them up. Except for maybe Gone, but the rest of the album turned out fine. All they needed to do was practice the songs live before they decided to take them on the road. The early bad reviews of PoPmart combined with bad album sales in a soft market were a sign of the times. If you remember back to 1997, we had Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys ruling the airwaves. The music industry then was ruled by actual PoP and not groundbreaking music that was merely named PoP. Weasel gone.

 

[dr. zooeuss]

if you're trying to open a can of worms, i think you're about to succeed..

 

[Zoots]

An electronic version of Wake Up Dead Man? No.

Bono: Wake up...

*oonts oonts oonts oonts*

Euro lady screaming in the background: Waaaaake up!!!!

Bono: Wake up dead man

*oonts oonts oonts oonts*

 

[Joey788]

Bono: Wake up...

*oonts oonts oonts oonts*

Euro lady screaming in the background: Waaaaake up!!!!

Bono: Wake up dead man

*oonts oonts oonts oonts*

 

[The Disciple]

^

LOL...

 

[lazarus]

Arrghhhh! Gone (new version) is fucking AWFUL! The most important song on the album, performed not perfectly in the studio but wholeheartedly, and it should never have been touched. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Bono say he felt like someone had walked over his grave when he was laying down his vocal? You can't redo shit like that. Aside from that, I agree with Mrs. Garrison.

The other new versions were crap too, but Gone was the worst. The only updated ersion that actually improved upon the original was the 1997 single version of Please because of the funkified guitar breakdown, but even then they lost some of the good parts of the original.

And didn't they do this full-throttle electronic thing on Passengers anyway? There are only a couple tracks that have conventional "rock" elements in them, the only one I can think of offhand is Let's Go Native, which sounds like an outtake from the Salome bootlegs.

 

[t8thgr8]

if you're trying to open a can of worms, i think you're about to succeed..

 

[t8thgr8]

Arrghhhh! Gone (new version) is fucking AWFUL! The most important song on the album, performed not perfectly in the studio but wholeheartedly, and it should never have been touched. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Bono say he felt like someone had walked over his grave when he was laying down his vocal? You can't redo shit like that. Aside from that, I agree with Mrs. Garrison.

The other new versions were crap too, but Gone was the worst. The only updated ersion that actually improved upon the original was the 1997 single version of Please because of the funkified guitar breakdown, but even then they lost some of the good parts of the original.

And didn't they do this full-throttle electronic thing on Passengers anyway? There are only a couple tracks that have conventional "rock" elements in them, the only one I can think of offhand is Let's Go Native, which sounds like an outtake from the Salome bootlegs.

Im not sure what the pop new versions have to do with anything. As i stated previously, U2 DROPPED the ball. The past is the past and they have to live with that mistake on record. They had the vision, they were right there within reaching distance and they let it go because they couldnt liberate themselves from their instruments. Conventional instruments were the reason popped failed, they had no place on that album and they were slapped in the face with this epiphany when larry was out with his back and it went right over their heads. Try thinking about what coulve been instead of what wouldnt be. Some of you are under the impression electronic music = porno beats. yeah, thats fun. but real fun would be the same arrangements they have only instead of making them with guitars and drums blah blah. And wtf passengers rebuttal. The mindset and mood was completely different lol

 

[shart1780]

You guys should listen to more electronic if you think of it so poorly. Not all of it is euro dance club stuff. Try listening to bands like Orbital, BT, Massive Attack and Autechre. Granted, it's not all purely electronic, but a lot of it is amazing.

 

[Zoots]

You guys should listen to more electronic if you think of it so poorly. Not all of it is euro dance club stuff. Try listening to bands like Orbital, BT, Massive Attack and Autechre. Granted, it's not all purely electronic, but a lot of it is amazing.

I for one don't think of it poorly. I enjoy good electronic music as much as guilty pleasures like nostalgic eurodance.

 

[LemonMelon]

Massive Attack

I don't dislike electronic music at all. I just don't think that sound would properly cohere with the songs currently on Pop.

 

[mobvok]

Great, so how were U2 going to play these all-electronic songs live? Either they're sitting in front of synthesizers pushing buttons, or.....they use real instruments.

 

[shart1780]

Massive Attack

I don't dislike electronic music at all. I just don't think that sound would properly cohere with the songs currently on Pop.

I've been listening to Risingson, Inertia Creeps and Mezzanine nonstop for the past few days. I love 3D's rapping.

I also just ordered the other three Massive Attack albums. Does 3D rap in those too?

 

[cobl04]

I don't see what's wrong with the album.. apart from the quietness of Velvet Dress and Igwisha. Miami and PM have their average moments, but overall I think it's great.

 

[U2girl]

Easy, drop all the electronica in the guitar based, straightforward rock songs.

 

[t8thgr8]

Great, so how were U2 going to play these all-electronic songs live? Either they're sitting in front of synthesizers pushing buttons, or.....they use real instruments.

leave the tour the way it was, with instruments.

 

[t8thgr8]

I don't see what's wrong with the album.. apart from the quietness of Velvet Dress and Igwisha. Miami and PM have their average moments, but overall I think it's great.

whats wrong with it is that it cancels itself out. It goes from truly experimental rock to mish-mashed semi experimental rock leaving it mediocre instead of the innovation it couldve been.And im not talking about the tracklisting, im talking concept. Just think about how perfect and awesome it wouldve have been if U2 had made pop sound more like crystal method's vegas but with more rock songs or prodigy but less harsh. They wouldve come before vegas and maybe even fat of the land and they wouldve been the front runner in that genre. then when they go into elevation mode, in 1999 it wouldve made that much bigger an impact. Or maybe not considering the probable acceptance to electronic Pop.

 

[dr. zooeuss]

for me the whole genius of the electronica on Pop is that Edge went to great lengths to incorporate and replicate the sounds he was hearing // "studying" from techno and other electronic genres THROUGH his guitar- there are probably other guitarists that have done this, but i'm not aware of them- the closest thing i know of is Tom Morello putting the sounds of HipHop through his guitar.

Also Larry (and probably Adam too though i don't remember hearing about it) went to great lengths expanding the sounds of their drums (and bass) to this sound.

While the first three tracks of the album are awesome, they almost sound like straight techno... Gone alone stands out as a marriage of the two sounds- you can hear both rock and electronica//techno come through on that- maybe that's why it seems to have lasted better than the other songs on the setlists of subsequent tours...

Though Pop seemed a semi-catastrophe to many people at the time for various unfortunate and somewhat uncontrollable reasons, it stands as a great example of their courage and versatility as a band-

 

[babyman]

The new versions of Please and Gone (except the new recorded vocal parts, Bono ruined the song from his point of view) are incredible. Mostly Please, this is U2's most touching song under each and every aspect. Probably their best of all times. This said, I don't think U2 were looking after an electronica record, they wanted to mix dance and electronica elements to their usual style, and I think they've done it. POP is one of their best works, if they say they're not satisfied with it, then I start doubting about their music knowledge, because I can't believe that they brought out such a great album without knowing it!

 

[corianderstem]

*oonts oonts oonts oonts*

Bwa ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaa! That's EXACTLY the noise I make to imitate club/techno music! Spot on.