namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Earlier today I came across a one-star review of HTDAAB on Amazon.com, and part of the article, the part below, echoed complaints we've all heard countless times before. Oh, U2 has sold out. Oh, U2 cares more about selling records now.
This is the part of that one-star review I saw on Amazon:
"It will be difficult to miss the presence of U2 Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. There will be Bono singing the Beatles' "Across the Universe" with an all-star cast, and the band cranking out a presumably live version of its thrice-nominated single "Vertigo."
It wasn't always so. A decade ago, U2 couldn't be bothered with the Grammys, or any other kind of promotional event that smacked of salesmanship. In 1993, U2 turned down an offer to perform at the Grammys, and the Edge and Bono didn't even bother to show up for the ceremony when "Achtung Baby" was nominated for album of the year (eventually losing out to Eric Clapton's "Unplugged"). The band didn't appear on television talk shows or Super Bowl halftimes to hype their albums, and they steered clear of corporate tie-ins, refusing to license their music for television commercials.
Now, U2 appears on "Saturday Night Live," shows up at the opening of former President Bill Clinton's library and rolls through Manhattan in a flatbed truck blasting a song, all in the name of promoting its latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (Interscope).
Most incongruously, in the weeks before the album was released last November, U2 struck a deal with Apple to star in a commercial for the computer manufacturer's portable music player, the iPod. In addition, Apple released a special-edition iPod that enabled buyers to purchase (for $99.99, after cashing in a $50 coupon) the band's entire catalog, plus bonus tracks. The band, which once prided itself on creating an enigmatic visual presence, thanks primarily to the work of their collaborator Anton Corbijn, had suddenly become an advertising coup for one of the world's most visible corporations.
"Bono said for so long he wasn't going to let the corporate monster swallow him, but he's in the belly of the beast now," says one disappointed fan, Donna McClain, 34, a Los Angeles schoolteacher who has attended 83 U2 shows since 1983. "You watch the Super Bowl, and U2's music is playing. You turn on the TV, and they're an iPod ad. It wasn't what they stood for when they came out. It seemed like their music meant something, it had more heart behind it. Now it's just another product." "
I feel the need to address this. Take this statement from Bono quoted above: "Bono said for so long he wasn't going to let the corporate monster swallo him..."
The thing is, he said this years ago, most frequently in the late 80s and first half of the 90s. It is easy to say something like that when you already are the biggest band in the world and you've made it to that point without being 'swallowed'. But to think U2 weren't interesed in the bottom line at every point in their career is not only ridiculous, it is naive.
It was just much, much less visible in those days, because when they were releasing Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby and Zooropa, they were MTV darlings. They were still young enough to appeal TO the young. And most importantly they were making music that was still of popular taste. But a lot changed between 1993(when Zooropa was released) and 1997(when Pop was released). The GenX teens that had made up a large chunk of their fanbase were no longer teenagers, but now in their twenties, the next generation had entered teenage-hood. And this new generation wasn't interested in the same stuff. They were interested in the 'alternative' music spawned from the ashes of the Grunge era. They were also increasingly interested in hip-hop. The face of the music-listening young adult demographic was rapidly changing, and with it the face of popular music itself was rapidly changing.
After 'Pop', whatever you might think of it(I myself think it's brilliant), it was clear, at least, to U2, that they could no longer release records and have them sell big numbers without having to push them much. MTV had mutulated into further craphood, and the new generation's preference in music had proceeded even further down the shitter. And because U2 have ALWAYS been concerned with the bottom line(again, to think otherwise is niave), they HAD to start pushing their records more. That is what this whole new era of U2 is all about. They are no longer selling to the demographic that grew up with them, they are selling to the younger siblings of that demographic, and that is not the easiest thing in the world when those younger siblings are under the tragically flawed impression that Hoobastank is in fact good rock music. That is why they have been pushing their records so much more with ATYCLB and HTDAAB, and with the IPod commercials and so on and so forth.
As for the music itself, yes, U2 has consciously made less experimental music, but the 'it' so many fans think is lost...'it' is there, perhaps not as obviously and not as in the forefront as in the past, but in songs like 'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own', 'Love And Peace Or Else', and 'One Step Closer', I hear and feel 'it'. Unfortunately today's teen demographic is more concerned with a catchy chorus than with hearing or feeling 'it', and so they have to have it sold to them more. Sad as it is, that is what this is all about.
Just my two cents on U2 and new millenium.
This is the part of that one-star review I saw on Amazon:
"It will be difficult to miss the presence of U2 Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. There will be Bono singing the Beatles' "Across the Universe" with an all-star cast, and the band cranking out a presumably live version of its thrice-nominated single "Vertigo."
It wasn't always so. A decade ago, U2 couldn't be bothered with the Grammys, or any other kind of promotional event that smacked of salesmanship. In 1993, U2 turned down an offer to perform at the Grammys, and the Edge and Bono didn't even bother to show up for the ceremony when "Achtung Baby" was nominated for album of the year (eventually losing out to Eric Clapton's "Unplugged"). The band didn't appear on television talk shows or Super Bowl halftimes to hype their albums, and they steered clear of corporate tie-ins, refusing to license their music for television commercials.
Now, U2 appears on "Saturday Night Live," shows up at the opening of former President Bill Clinton's library and rolls through Manhattan in a flatbed truck blasting a song, all in the name of promoting its latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (Interscope).
Most incongruously, in the weeks before the album was released last November, U2 struck a deal with Apple to star in a commercial for the computer manufacturer's portable music player, the iPod. In addition, Apple released a special-edition iPod that enabled buyers to purchase (for $99.99, after cashing in a $50 coupon) the band's entire catalog, plus bonus tracks. The band, which once prided itself on creating an enigmatic visual presence, thanks primarily to the work of their collaborator Anton Corbijn, had suddenly become an advertising coup for one of the world's most visible corporations.
"Bono said for so long he wasn't going to let the corporate monster swallow him, but he's in the belly of the beast now," says one disappointed fan, Donna McClain, 34, a Los Angeles schoolteacher who has attended 83 U2 shows since 1983. "You watch the Super Bowl, and U2's music is playing. You turn on the TV, and they're an iPod ad. It wasn't what they stood for when they came out. It seemed like their music meant something, it had more heart behind it. Now it's just another product." "
I feel the need to address this. Take this statement from Bono quoted above: "Bono said for so long he wasn't going to let the corporate monster swallo him..."
The thing is, he said this years ago, most frequently in the late 80s and first half of the 90s. It is easy to say something like that when you already are the biggest band in the world and you've made it to that point without being 'swallowed'. But to think U2 weren't interesed in the bottom line at every point in their career is not only ridiculous, it is naive.
It was just much, much less visible in those days, because when they were releasing Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby and Zooropa, they were MTV darlings. They were still young enough to appeal TO the young. And most importantly they were making music that was still of popular taste. But a lot changed between 1993(when Zooropa was released) and 1997(when Pop was released). The GenX teens that had made up a large chunk of their fanbase were no longer teenagers, but now in their twenties, the next generation had entered teenage-hood. And this new generation wasn't interested in the same stuff. They were interested in the 'alternative' music spawned from the ashes of the Grunge era. They were also increasingly interested in hip-hop. The face of the music-listening young adult demographic was rapidly changing, and with it the face of popular music itself was rapidly changing.
After 'Pop', whatever you might think of it(I myself think it's brilliant), it was clear, at least, to U2, that they could no longer release records and have them sell big numbers without having to push them much. MTV had mutulated into further craphood, and the new generation's preference in music had proceeded even further down the shitter. And because U2 have ALWAYS been concerned with the bottom line(again, to think otherwise is niave), they HAD to start pushing their records more. That is what this whole new era of U2 is all about. They are no longer selling to the demographic that grew up with them, they are selling to the younger siblings of that demographic, and that is not the easiest thing in the world when those younger siblings are under the tragically flawed impression that Hoobastank is in fact good rock music. That is why they have been pushing their records so much more with ATYCLB and HTDAAB, and with the IPod commercials and so on and so forth.
As for the music itself, yes, U2 has consciously made less experimental music, but the 'it' so many fans think is lost...'it' is there, perhaps not as obviously and not as in the forefront as in the past, but in songs like 'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own', 'Love And Peace Or Else', and 'One Step Closer', I hear and feel 'it'. Unfortunately today's teen demographic is more concerned with a catchy chorus than with hearing or feeling 'it', and so they have to have it sold to them more. Sad as it is, that is what this is all about.
Just my two cents on U2 and new millenium.
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