gvox
Ghost of Love
Ps: Wings were never cool. Hell no.
New Album Discussion (Is Headache Going To The Superbowl?)
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
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Ps: Wings were never cool. Hell no.
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Uh, yeah, me too, as I work in a high school. And I would say that your cynicism in this regard about people only wearing band t-shirts to project a certain image is unwarranted.
mama cass
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
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Ps: Wings were never cool. Hell no.
ok so the cultural divide might not be as big as i thought
gvox
Ghost of Love
Ok well I didn't say every last one of them *only* wore them to project a certain image but its certainly not every person you see running around with these tees on that really is into these bands..and probably even fewer that would - or even could - plunk down hundreds to go see them live...which is the actual context here..
Anyways, all anyone here can do is speak anecdotally, and experience varies. Your comment seemed to indicate that you were using the tees you see on the street as a gauge to what kids might be listening to. I was saying that in my experience that would be a less than accurate way to determine a persons musical tastes. The end, pretty much.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
You can buy "vintage" looking Zeppelin, Beatles, and Floyd shirts at Target or your mall's version of journeys. Hell, they even make onesies and are very popular baby gifts right now. They buy the shirts because everyone knows the band. I know you don't think they exist but I know a lot of people who wear these shirts and couldn't tell you their favorite album.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
Being that I was a teenager just a few years ago, I can tell you Led Zeppelin is more popular than U2.
gvox
Ghost of Love
You're from the sticks tho man. 
(J/k)
(J/k)
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
It's not that I don't think they exist - rather I think they are few and far between.
In general I don't get why it's bloody anathema around here to suggest that any artist might conceivably be bigger or more influential than U2.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Hence why anecdotal discussions never go anywhere.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
I am the people's champion.How do you come to this conclusion? Did you canvass a large enough population?
Registered Dude
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Led Zep will always have the upper edge over in terms of cool factor, and thus youth-appeal.
U2 will never be cool with the under 18 crowd. we know that! They're four dorks making gauche, dorky music and we fucking love them for it.
U2 will never be cool with the under 18 crowd. we know that! They're four dorks making gauche, dorky music and we fucking love them for it.
Registered Dude
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
I mean, jesus, look at this band:
Irvine511
Blue Crack Supplier
i think more teenagers in the 1990s preferred LZ to U2, but i think that support was wide but not deep.
LZ kicks ass. they just do. they have two legitimate musical virtuosos, and they never sound wussie. they do, however, sound a bit dated, but that point in time (early/mid-70s) has been painted with enough nostalgia via film and television (think Dazed and Confused) that it feels like a rite of passage. and the music is great. i think part of being a deeper music fan when you are a teenager is to reach back into the past and discover what is now a huge inventory of music, and LZ is a big part of that. but they are very much hard rock, and while everyone's parents like The Beatles, LZ still has enough of an edge that it could upset your parents, there's enough danger and sex and drugs to make it feel like an authentic experience.
i'd put Floyd more along the lines of U2 and Springsteen, actually. certainly not when it comes to their actual sound, but in that Floyd is a band that some people get REALLY into, and some people never go near. me, i've seen The Wall, and i like Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb like everyone else, but that's it. but i have friends who knew every word, every lyric, had every poster -- it becomes a part of one's worldview, similar to how Springsteen and U2 seem to represent specific worldviews as well. these bands become much more a part of one's identity -- people identify as a Bruce or Floyd fan, but no one really identifies as a LZ fan. everyone IS a fan, and some people are bigger fans than others, but it really is about the music, whereas these three others (u2, Bruce, PF) seem to use music to explore other themes (god, social justice, reality itself).
so no one's really right or wrong here, but i do enjoy teasing out differences and similarities between these different bands.
and none of these bands will ever have the cultural influence of the Beatles and the Stones. those two are untouchable -- they are only comparable to Elvis and Dylan.
LZ kicks ass. they just do. they have two legitimate musical virtuosos, and they never sound wussie. they do, however, sound a bit dated, but that point in time (early/mid-70s) has been painted with enough nostalgia via film and television (think Dazed and Confused) that it feels like a rite of passage. and the music is great. i think part of being a deeper music fan when you are a teenager is to reach back into the past and discover what is now a huge inventory of music, and LZ is a big part of that. but they are very much hard rock, and while everyone's parents like The Beatles, LZ still has enough of an edge that it could upset your parents, there's enough danger and sex and drugs to make it feel like an authentic experience.
i'd put Floyd more along the lines of U2 and Springsteen, actually. certainly not when it comes to their actual sound, but in that Floyd is a band that some people get REALLY into, and some people never go near. me, i've seen The Wall, and i like Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb like everyone else, but that's it. but i have friends who knew every word, every lyric, had every poster -- it becomes a part of one's worldview, similar to how Springsteen and U2 seem to represent specific worldviews as well. these bands become much more a part of one's identity -- people identify as a Bruce or Floyd fan, but no one really identifies as a LZ fan. everyone IS a fan, and some people are bigger fans than others, but it really is about the music, whereas these three others (u2, Bruce, PF) seem to use music to explore other themes (god, social justice, reality itself).
so no one's really right or wrong here, but i do enjoy teasing out differences and similarities between these different bands.
and none of these bands will ever have the cultural influence of the Beatles and the Stones. those two are untouchable -- they are only comparable to Elvis and Dylan.
Galeongirl
Galeonbroad
Yeah, those shirts get worn because it's cool to do so. There's plenty of pictures on sites like tumbl or 9gag that show kids wearing a band tshirt having no clue what band is on there and what they're about. It's pretty sad, but it's some sort of fashion I guess.
Nick66
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
And Slim Whitman
standrums
War Child
My dad's stronger than your dad...na na na na na
gvox
Ghost of Love
I scoff every time I see anyone wearing a Slim Whitman cut-off and grill them as to whether Christmas Album was superior or inferior to Christmas With Slim Whitman. Every single time.
youarenotimmune
Refugee
I'm the same age as you and my teenage experience was pretty similar to yours. The sex drugs and rock 'n roll cliché was a huge turn off for me as well. The fact that U2 weren't riding that bandwagon, and that their music sounded so different from everything else at the time, really got me hooked.
It's 20 years later, I've listened to a lot of music since then, and this is still my favourite band. And I still listen to their music every single day.
Nick66
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I think this is probably true. I'd actually sort of put the Beatles even in a class of their own...they are more cultural icons, even apart from their music and status as a "rock/pop band". Elvis is the same.
There was a time that I'd have put the Stones in a separate category from Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, but I think that's kind of changing. I think there's been a perceptible increase in the stature of the latter two bands over the past decade. Led Zeppelin in particular has gained an incredible amount of mystique over the years, partially because, unlike the Stones and Floyd, they haven't toured. So yeah, personally I think of the Stones/Zep/Floyd occupying a similar "space" culturally right now. But that's just my perception.
Back to U2 though, I'd put them in another category, and I don't believe U2 aspire to be any of those bands. U2 is still a real, working band that at least aspires to put out new, fresh music and compete on the charts, for awards, etc. U2 wants to be a "contemporary" band in a way I think the Stones and Floyd have long given up on. In this way, I believe U2 are unique...they come close to the world-wide stature of the Stones, and Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, but unlike those bands U2 are still "in the arena". They aren't a legacy act like the former, at least not quite yet. Yet they can sell out a tour based on their back catalogue alone much like a legacy act. In that way, U2 is peerless because I can't think of another band that quite occupies this space. None of the usual suspects named...Arcade Fire, Radiohead, etc. are really where U2 is at. R.E.M., at one time, may have been close, but U2 passed them a long time ago.
gvox
Ghost of Love
mama cass
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my teens and their mates really like this French band 
Stupeflip - Stupeflip - YouTube
i tell you, it blows my mind - cannot get my head round it AT ALL - we were at a festival this summer with the kids and their mates and their parents (who are really good friends of ours too and also really into music) and the festival was awesome but then this band were headlining at the end and oh god us parents couldn't handle it and we were like what the hell?? and i said to them, you wait, i bet when we ask the kids (who had disappeared in the crush at the front of the crowd) which band they liked best it will be this one and it was lol!! i thought i'd got pretty wide-ranging tastes in music but that was a definite parent/teenager music divide there lol!
actually they're starting to grow on me
Stupeflip - Stupeflip - YouTube
i tell you, it blows my mind - cannot get my head round it AT ALL - we were at a festival this summer with the kids and their mates and their parents (who are really good friends of ours too and also really into music) and the festival was awesome but then this band were headlining at the end and oh god us parents couldn't handle it and we were like what the hell?? and i said to them, you wait, i bet when we ask the kids (who had disappeared in the crush at the front of the crowd) which band they liked best it will be this one and it was lol!! i thought i'd got pretty wide-ranging tastes in music but that was a definite parent/teenager music divide there lol!
actually they're starting to grow on me
Nick66
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
LMFAO. I forgot about this hit. I'll have to keep this in mind next time someone talks about how well Ordinary Love is doing on the Scandinavian charts.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
Not at all. I still mourn the death of Pelle Lindbergh and I blame whoever decided to put an elementary school there.
Also are you too young to remember Bernie Perant, Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz?
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
I agree that Pink Floyd is closer to U2 in this discussion. However, I think the difference between U2 and Floyd is that Floyd gets more respect for their work (because they're better technical musicians) whereas U2 gets more love for their work. Which is why I think Floyd is often put in with the others.
WOW! I had forgotten about him, definitely a tragedy.
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