What if....

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indra

indra

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
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The singer in a band I like (ok, adore) once had a job programming computers to compile agricultural data. He didn't last too long though -- got fired for writing a program to generate poetry instead of what he was supposed to be doing. :uhoh: :) I don't think he's held a "real" job since -- which is good news to me as a fan of his music -- but every once in a while I wonder what I'd be listening to if he'd decided that job could make him a nice comfortable living and he could just play music at home or maybe in the local bar occasionally.

Do you ever wonder about what you'd be listening to now if members of U2 never formed a band, and just got normal jobs? Do you think music in general (perhap in certain genres) would sound different now?
 
It's hard to say really... I mean, without U2 would we have any of the bands that say they have been influenced by U2?
Would they sound the same?

I think a lot of them would be around, but they wouldn't sound exactly the same. Maybe without U2 some other band would have stepped up to the plate and taken music somewhere else entirely. Maybe REM would be huge.

I'm not sure how much I'd even like music without U2. Before I got into them, I didn't really notice music, apart from a couple of crap cd's and one pretty awesome one. Most of the artists (besides U2) that I really love are ones I listened to because I heard U2 raving about them.

But I don't know, maybe I'd like music even more without U2. It's impossible to say.

All I can say for sure, is that that song that goes:
Since Bruce springstein, Madonna
way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
their music's still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she's uncool
Cuz she's still pre-occupied
With 19...19...1985

Would have at least one line changed. Maybe that would be the only difference in the world without U2. :shrug:
 
Alot of the current music scene would sound different I think (radiohead, the killers, coldplay...)

and there'd be less emphasis on spirituality in music for mainstream artists
 
(1) Some of the other bands that started off at the same time as U2 - like Echo and the Bunnymen for example - would probably be bigger today.

(2) Rather than there being one massively successful band from Dublin there would be about four or five moderately succesful ones.

Funnily enough I think that U2's success wasn't really good for the Irish rock scene (through no fault of their own - Bono did his level best to bring forward Irish talent in the 1980's and early 1990's. I would always credit him for that).

What I mean to say is that with any young band starting off in Dublin (or Ireland) sooner or later they have to face up to the fact that even if they achieve moderate success they will always be compared to U2. And that expectation, I'm sure, can be really demotivating and dispiriting. It can become a kind of albatross.

Barring U2, what genuinely interesting new music has come out of Ireland in the past 15 years or so and achieved some level of international success? Really, there isn't much, and what little there is most of you won't have heard of. (And if anyone mentions the Corrs or Ronan Keating or Westlife I'm afraid I'll have to shoot them :wink: )
 
indra said:
The singer in a band I like (ok, adore) once had a job programming computers to compile agricultural data. He didn't last too long though -- got fired for writing a program to generate poetry instead of what he was supposed to be doing. :uhoh: :) I don't think he's held a "real" job since
Click to expand...

who is that?
 
Meghan said:


All I can say for sure, is that that song that goes:
Since Bruce springstein, Madonna
way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
their music's still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she's uncool
Cuz she's still pre-occupied
With 19...19...1985

Would have at least one line changed. Maybe that would be the only difference in the world without U2. :shrug:
Click to expand...


Hahahaha!!!! :laugh:
 
Well, at least I know that one of my other favourite bands (that I was nearly as obsessed with as i am with U2) wouldn't exist. Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes wanted to become a singer partly because of Bono...
 
Bono would be president of Ireland.

Edge would have invented a time travel device and have adventures ala Doc Brown in Back to the Future.

Adam would be living in Monte Carlo, being cool.

Larry would own a chain of women's beauty salons.
 
PopFly said:
Bono would be president of Ireland.

Edge would have invented a time travel device and have adventures ala Doc Brown in Back to the Future.

Adam would be living in Monte Carlo, being cool.

Larry would own a chain of women's beauty salons.
Click to expand...


The president in Ireland is merely a figure head. My husband is related to the last one, Mary Robinson.

The right job for Bono would be the taoiseach!

The Taoiseach (plural: Taoisigh) or, more formally, An Taoiseach, is the head of government of the Republic of Ireland and the leader of the Irish cabinet. [1] The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), and must, while he or she remains in office, enjoy the confidence of the Dáil. The current Taoiseach is Bertie Ahern, TD of the Fianna Fáil party.
 
longingforBono said:



The president in Ireland is merely a figure head. My husband is related to the last one, Mary Robinson.

The right job for Bono would be the taoiseach!
Click to expand...

Either that or the big mouth at the local pub. :wink:

(I kid, I kid! :) )


Originally posted by david

who is that?
Click to expand...

Steve Kilbey, of (let's all say it together now! :wink: ) The Church.

Apparently he had this job when he was about 20. The really amazing thing is you would think he'd be some kind of computer whiz, but he's able to do basic email, get into the Church chatroom, and blog (once someone else set up his blogger account). He's clueless about everything else. Can't even open attachments in email. :huh: Hilarious.

He also had aspirations to be a surfer too, but that was pretty much quashed by his lack of surfing skills. So music it is. :)
 
I'd probably have become obsessed with Jethro Tull instead, since that was my favourite band before U2. But discovering U2 at an early age (9) had a huge impact on the kind of music I listen to. Also, I went through a pop music phase (after a year of listening to nothing but Pop, I started listening to actual pop music, like Nsync and Brittney Spears and what not - I was in 4th grade, mind you) that the release of ATYCLB ultimately brought me out of. It was ATYCLB that made me turn to rock music as the main thing I wanted to listen to, and it made me want to listen to music that mattered, music that would be around for awhile and wasn't just flavour of the week.

Maybe something else would have come along and grabbed me instead of U2 - discovering The Beatles in middle school, for example - but I'm thinking if U2 wasn't around I'd have shitty taste in music.

Which leads me to wonder - what exactly decides one's taste in music? Is it what you listen to what you're young? But if that's the case, if you're exposed to many things at a young age, what decides which music you lean toward? Is it just in your genes, or what?
 
I'd probably listen to a much wider variety of music. Sad to say, if it ain't U2, I'm probably not listening to it these days....
 
financeguy said:
Barring U2, what genuinely interesting new music has come out of Ireland in the past 15 years or so and achieved some level of international success? Really, there isn't much, and what little there is most of you won't have heard of. (And if anyone mentions the Corrs or Ronan Keating or Westlife I'm afraid I'll have to shoot them :wink: )
Click to expand...

I agree with your thoughts here but can offer up one suggestion (which will only prove your point). I like The Frames, and they have had a bit of success in the Boston area, not sure elsewhere.
 
"What if... there was no light, nothing wrong, nothing right..."

....................

:reject:
 
Azor said:
"What if... there was no light, nothing wrong, nothing right..."

....................

:reject:
Click to expand...

You're banned from this thread! ;)

banana-computer.gif
 
Re: Re: What if....

AcrobatMan said:


Are you talking about Steven Wilson :love:

"Steven Wilson is known to be a former computer programmer"

at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree
Click to expand...

Nope. My Steve (the Church guy ;) ). And he not only didn't like it he apparently sucked at it too. We (his fans) can't help but laugh about it, because he is like the person least likely to have been a computer programmer. :) :shrug:
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: What if....

AcrobatMan said:


i am a computer programmer :reject: , it has been my occupation for the last 6 year :huh:
Click to expand...

Oh I wasn't meaning it as a swipe at computer programmers at all. What I meant is that Steve K. is absolutely clueless about computers -- this is a guy who can't figure out how to open attachments in email. So although the reason he got fired makes perfect sense, most of his fans are still trying to figure out how he ever got hired in the first place.

:)
 
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