There is no songwriting formula that ensures global acceptance. Trying to please everyone is just a ridiculously dumb idea. At the risk of sounding obnoxious, I point to Mr. Bob Dylan, who was pretty much excommunicated from his beloved folk community, the community which made him famous, when he followed his muse and went all surreal and electric. To this day, Like A Rolling Stone is the top 5 song, if not the #1 best, on almost every "top 100 songs of all time" list. What would Like A Rolling Stone have sounded like if he tried to appease everyone? It wouldn't have had the same impact. The sound just had an "it" factor that worked. I don't ever remember reading anywhere that Dylan set out to make that song the greatest song of all time. It wasn't until it was recorded and upon listening back everyone, including Dylan, realized what they had. These things happen almost by accident. A hit is just a hit because it has something you can't put your finger on. I look also to one of my fave bands Depeche Mode. The song Enjoy the Silence was originally a slow ballad sung by Martin Gore, not Dave Gahan the lead singer. They fucked around with it in the studio, because someone (Alan Wilder) had a crazy idea it would sound good with a "disco" beat. And Eureka, it worked, to the amazement of everyone. They knew it was a hit, and it was. Why? Because it just had something unspoken to it that everyone dug. These are how the best hit songs get made. Most of the time, they just happen. If U2 wants to wait around for decades for that hit song to come around, then maybe they should. If they're not inspired, I'd rather they stop recording and go off and read some books and try their hands at something other than music. When the muse strikes again, that's when they'll get a huge hit. Of course they will be 90 years old by that point. But hey, it will probably beat any piece of crap of they're desperately trying to shine these days.
Awesome.
