If U2 are 'uncool'...
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
Jethro Tull? 
It's really hard to say. But I really do think U2 is a very specific case of jubilant music and whether or not it speaks to certain types of youths. It really does speak to some, while it doesn't at all appeal to others.
It's really hard to say. But I really do think U2 is a very specific case of jubilant music and whether or not it speaks to certain types of youths. It really does speak to some, while it doesn't at all appeal to others.1stepcloser
Rock n' Roll Doggie
coldplay.
The Darkness.
The Darkness.
No band has been trashed and loved at the same time as much as U2 has by all ages....just look at the amazon.com reviews there is really no in between either somebody loves them or hates them...the ones that hate them are always very loud about it...but then again so are the ones that love them 
Catman
Rock n' Roll Doggie
A lot of bands from the 80's that are still making music and receive a decent amount of rotation whenever VH1 decides to play videos are considered "uncool." Bands like INXS (recently brought back from the dead due to the new lead singer), Bon Jovi, REM, and yes, U2, would belong in this category.
indra
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 12,689
I think most bands people dislike are considered uncool by those people. For instance I see nothing cool in the vast majority of the current batch of popular (supposedly cool) bands. What I see is a bunch of young kids trying waaaaay too hard to be cool. And failing. Miserably.
But to the people who like them, they are the ultimate in cool.
But to the people who like them, they are the ultimate in cool.
1stepcloser
Rock n' Roll Doggie
The Strokes are fucking cool. and they know it.
LMP
Blue Crack Supplier
Any band who's successful, because they're "sellouts"
Indie bands and rap artists are the cool ones
Indie bands and rap artists are the cool ones
Meghan
Refugee
They're considered cool where I am.1stepcloser said:
1stepcloser
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Meghan said:
well they're not cool where i am
VertigoGal
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
coldplay and the killers to some extent.
probably others...
probably others...
Lemonfix
Refugee
My sister is a teenager and she informs me that at her school U2 isn't really cool or uncool. U2 is an "old" band and kids respect them like they would any classic rock band. Then again, I think it may have to do with what kind of high school you go to. Affluent suburban high schoolers have been known to be a little less into the cool groups and more into tried and true bands that their parents liked, for better or for worse. Or that's been my experience anyway.
vervex
The Fly
Teenagers are weird They don't really know what they like and they don't like. Less than 5 years ago, bands like Guns n' Roses and ACDC for example were concidered like "uncool" and look now... A lot of teens seem to re-discover their old music, wear shirts with the name of the bands on them, play their songs again...
The same thing will probably happen to U2 when they'll be too old to play anymore (and I hope that day won't come too soon - I love them all alive and active ahah).
But yeah... I'm still a teen and to me, U2 is the best band ever (with Queen eheh.)
They don't really know what they like and they don't like. Less than 5 years ago, bands like Guns n' Roses and ACDC for example were concidered like "uncool" and look now... A lot of teens seem to re-discover their old music, wear shirts with the name of the bands on them, play their songs again...The same thing will probably happen to U2 when they'll be too old to play anymore (and I hope that day won't come too soon - I love them all alive and active ahah).
But yeah... I'm still a teen and to me, U2 is the best band ever
(with Queen eheh.)
amerrydeath
War Child
As soon as U2 retires or one of the band members dies of a drug overdose they will be "cool." To teenagers, at least (a group I am unfortunately part of).
Bruce Springsteen isn't cool, but not as uncool as U2.
Um... 
Can't think of any others at the moment.
To teenagers, at least (a group I am unfortunately part of). Bruce Springsteen isn't cool, but not as uncool as U2.
Um... Can't think of any others at the moment.
Lemonfix
Refugee
So what do teenagers think of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, REM, Aerosmith, Metallica, the Pixies, GNR, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, etc.? Are these bands considered uncool too?
TheBrazilianFly
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
U2 is not uncool with teenagers. I got into them as a teenager and I was a really cool teenager.
No I wasn't.
No I wasn't.
Bono's shades
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Lemonfix said:
I see teen-agers wearing Beatles T-shirts sometimes.
Honestly, it depends on the kid. They are all into different things. What might be cool to one kid would be extremely uncool to another.
youtooellen
New Yorker
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2005
- Messages
- 2,580
at my school, it's basically considered/classified like this: if you wear a classic rock/old bands shirts (ex. AC/DC, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Doors, Led Zep, Nirvana, GnR, etc.) then you're a 'stoner'
if you wear anything slutty.. well you're a slut.
that's a given.
and well the categories go on and on.
but those who wear the shirts are considered 'cool' which is strange. or if one wears extremely revealing clothing.. then you're considered 'cool' too
.
I've yet to see anyone wear a U2 shirt (openly), besides me at my school.
but back to topic I suppose, U2 are considered uncool with the kids at my school.. which I don't really get. cause they've been just as successful as many of the 'cool' bands.
maybe it's because all four members are still alive to this day and aren't heroin addicts or suicidal/killed
ugh kids these days, when will they learn
if you wear anything slutty.. well you're a slut.
that's a given.and well the categories go on and on.
but those who wear the shirts are considered 'cool' which is strange. or if one wears extremely revealing clothing.. then you're considered 'cool' too
.I've yet to see anyone wear a U2 shirt (openly), besides me at my school.
but back to topic I suppose, U2 are considered uncool with the kids at my school.. which I don't really get. cause they've been just as successful as many of the 'cool' bands.
maybe it's because all four members are still alive to this day and aren't heroin addicts or suicidal/killed
ugh kids these days, when will they learn
Lemonfix
Refugee
When we talk about "cool" in the context of this thread do we really mean to say "popular"? I mean, the music associated with teenagers has not really been considered "cool" in the music-snob or Regular Joe Music Lover sense for a long while. I doubt U2 is generally being snubbed in favor of The Doves or Bloc Party or old Pavement records. Teenagers were the ones who made Britney Spears and Limp Bizkit popular, but no one ever thought those performers were cool.
Irishteen
Blue Crack Addict
In my school off the top of my head
Cool bands: Coldplay, Guns 'n' Roses, Linkin Park, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles
Uncool Bands: U2, Oasis, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana
Cool bands: Coldplay, Guns 'n' Roses, Linkin Park, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles
Uncool Bands: U2, Oasis, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
What is 'cool'? Cool is a myth. You shouldn't care what's cool or not. The following is something that I posted back in the summer, and I'm posting it again now because I think it's relevant:
Cool is a myth. The idea that you can somehow achieve cool by wearing the 'right' clothes, talking in the 'right' way, listening to the 'right' music, watching the 'right' TV shows, and being friends with the 'right' people, is a myth. It's absolute rubbish.
The inherent irony with cool is that cool is unique by definition, yet most kids in middle school or high school view cool as being what you have to do to fit in with everyone else - the opposite of being unique.
It is my view that anything that is ever cool starts out in the underground, uncool. But then maybe a buzz about this thing starts going around and a few kids in school start doing/wearing/watching/listening to it. There are people in marketing divisions of many companies whose job it is to look around middle schools and high schools, and other places where kids that age would hang out, and try to spot not what's already the fad, but what is about to explode from the underground to the mainstream. They go back to their companies and report back to them so that they can manufacture/produce what they think will be the mainstream in six months. I believe that that is more common than a company JUST producing whatever the fad is right now. And in six months they'll do it again. In a year, again.
The point of that previous paragraph is to illustrate that what kids percieve as cool is a fleeting thing, it's liquid. It's never solid and it never stays the same. It's an image that changes every six months to a year. Like an illusion. It's not real. You can't put so much importance on achieving this fake coolness now when in six months it will render you a has-been. So you have to destroy that mindset. It's the only way you can ever hope to find what you're looking for in 'cool', at all.
Wanting to be 'cool' is simply wanting to be accepted. The more you want to be cool, the more insecure you probably are about yourself, and the more you want to feel less insecure about yourself. That's all cool is, really. It's feeling comfortable in your own skin. And the only way you can really be 'cool', is by not caring whether you're cool or not. That's the irony. As soon as you start caring whether or not you're cool, you've moved further away from 'cool'. You have to just be yourself, regardless of whether that's accepted as cool in a school or not, and regardless of whether or not that meets the criteria to be any clique a school might have. Cliques are crap. They are a way of letting one or two out of god-knows-how-many personality traits, define who you are and who your friends are. Your friends aren't neccessarily the people that dress like you, your friends aren't neccessarily the people that make fun of other cliques with you, and your friends aren't neccessarily the people who sit at the same lunchtable in the cafeteria as you. Your friends are the people that would want to be trapped in an elevator with you. Take that to the bank.
So, what I'm saying is, if you're in middle school or high school - you need to stop caring what people think of you, and do it as fast as you can. You won't see 99% of your miiddle-school and high-school mates ever again after you graduate, so impressing them or being accepted by them is of little consequence in the long run. The important thing is that the 1% - the person or two that want to be trapped in the elevator with you - might last for a long, long time.
Cool is a myth. Be yourself. That's all.
Cool is a myth. The idea that you can somehow achieve cool by wearing the 'right' clothes, talking in the 'right' way, listening to the 'right' music, watching the 'right' TV shows, and being friends with the 'right' people, is a myth. It's absolute rubbish.
The inherent irony with cool is that cool is unique by definition, yet most kids in middle school or high school view cool as being what you have to do to fit in with everyone else - the opposite of being unique.
It is my view that anything that is ever cool starts out in the underground, uncool. But then maybe a buzz about this thing starts going around and a few kids in school start doing/wearing/watching/listening to it. There are people in marketing divisions of many companies whose job it is to look around middle schools and high schools, and other places where kids that age would hang out, and try to spot not what's already the fad, but what is about to explode from the underground to the mainstream. They go back to their companies and report back to them so that they can manufacture/produce what they think will be the mainstream in six months. I believe that that is more common than a company JUST producing whatever the fad is right now. And in six months they'll do it again. In a year, again.
The point of that previous paragraph is to illustrate that what kids percieve as cool is a fleeting thing, it's liquid. It's never solid and it never stays the same. It's an image that changes every six months to a year. Like an illusion. It's not real. You can't put so much importance on achieving this fake coolness now when in six months it will render you a has-been. So you have to destroy that mindset. It's the only way you can ever hope to find what you're looking for in 'cool', at all.
Wanting to be 'cool' is simply wanting to be accepted. The more you want to be cool, the more insecure you probably are about yourself, and the more you want to feel less insecure about yourself. That's all cool is, really. It's feeling comfortable in your own skin. And the only way you can really be 'cool', is by not caring whether you're cool or not. That's the irony. As soon as you start caring whether or not you're cool, you've moved further away from 'cool'. You have to just be yourself, regardless of whether that's accepted as cool in a school or not, and regardless of whether or not that meets the criteria to be any clique a school might have. Cliques are crap. They are a way of letting one or two out of god-knows-how-many personality traits, define who you are and who your friends are. Your friends aren't neccessarily the people that dress like you, your friends aren't neccessarily the people that make fun of other cliques with you, and your friends aren't neccessarily the people who sit at the same lunchtable in the cafeteria as you. Your friends are the people that would want to be trapped in an elevator with you. Take that to the bank.
So, what I'm saying is, if you're in middle school or high school - you need to stop caring what people think of you, and do it as fast as you can. You won't see 99% of your miiddle-school and high-school mates ever again after you graduate, so impressing them or being accepted by them is of little consequence in the long run. The important thing is that the 1% - the person or two that want to be trapped in the elevator with you - might last for a long, long time.
Cool is a myth. Be yourself. That's all.
Pero
Refugee
Pink Floyd
Rage against the machine
The Boss(Bruce)
Rage against the machine
The Boss(Bruce)
bedouin fire
Refugee
as bono usually says, u2 never wanted to be cool, they wanted to be hot
irishdove
The Fly
The thing that I think is ironic is how many teenagers and people in their twenties who dislike U2 love certain new bands like the Killers and have no idea the bands they love LOVE U2!
yertle-the-turtle
ONE love, blood, life
Miles Davis is cool.
I think he even gave birth to it.
I think he even gave birth to it.
Heh, heh...
This thread reminds me of a magazine article I read where various celebrities listed favorite movies, books, etc.
A young actress(whose name I can't recall) said her favorite CD was 'Zooropa'...and she was happy when she turned 21 because it was finally "cool" to admit she liked U2!
This thread reminds me of a magazine article I read where various celebrities listed favorite movies, books, etc.
A young actress(whose name I can't recall) said her favorite CD was 'Zooropa'...and she was happy when she turned 21 because it was finally "cool" to admit she liked U2!
underscore
The Fly
U2 are uncool, if/when they copy rolling stones behaviour when they are over 60, so we have at least 15 years left of cool U2, hopefully and probably more.
Underscore
Underscore
MumblingBono
War Child
I think Bono has said something like "we threatened to actually become cool in the early 90s, but I killed that".
Meghan
Refugee
In my school, there were the Nirvana kids, and they were like, the epitomy of cool. They weren't the most popular kids, but they were intimidating even to the popular kids.
They used to wear Nirvana shirts most days, and on the days they didn't, they would be wearing ACDC or Black Sabbath shirts. So those bands were considered cool.
For a really long time, rap artists and hiphop artists were only popular with the wog groups (sorry if that offends anyone, but they called themselves that way before we did, and I'm a wog anyway, I'm just not in the wog group) and the stoners. But lately, all these artists became popular with the popular kids, replacing Britany Spears and all those sort of people.
And then there's the Green Day/Simple Plan people, which are the popular kids who say they are real hard core rockers, when they wouldn't know the first thing about rock music apart from that they look cool when they wear the t-shirts. I really can't stand most of these people, because they don't care at all about the music or the artists, and just wear the tour shirts and stuff so that they look cool. If they did genuinely like the music, then that would be okay, because I do understand that people don't always have my taste in everything, but it just makes me so mad that they dress that way just because all their friends are dressing that way.
Because U2 don't fit into any of these categories, they're kind of the "other" music that no one cares to look into. They were crazy for Vertigo at the start of this year, but I don't think many people actually knew who sung it.
They used to wear Nirvana shirts most days, and on the days they didn't, they would be wearing ACDC or Black Sabbath shirts. So those bands were considered cool.
For a really long time, rap artists and hiphop artists were only popular with the wog groups (sorry if that offends anyone, but they called themselves that way before we did, and I'm a wog anyway, I'm just not in the wog group) and the stoners. But lately, all these artists became popular with the popular kids, replacing Britany Spears and all those sort of people.
And then there's the Green Day/Simple Plan people, which are the popular kids who say they are real hard core rockers, when they wouldn't know the first thing about rock music apart from that they look cool when they wear the t-shirts. I really can't stand most of these people, because they don't care at all about the music or the artists, and just wear the tour shirts and stuff so that they look cool. If they did genuinely like the music, then that would be okay, because I do understand that people don't always have my taste in everything, but it just makes me so mad that they dress that way just because all their friends are dressing that way.
Because U2 don't fit into any of these categories, they're kind of the "other" music that no one cares to look into. They were crazy for Vertigo at the start of this year, but I don't think many people actually knew who sung it.
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