That is your opinion and I respect your opinion of no appreciating them working with a pop songwriter. Since U2 haven't really used pop songwriters, the concept of having pop songwriters aid the album production duties is very alien to many U2 fans -- so I can't blame for not quite understanding or appreciating the role of pop songwriters. Meanwhile, U2's POP album wasn't a pop album ..but it was supposed to be - that is why they named it Pop. Their original name for the album was even POP FOR MEN, because they thought it was a mature version of the Pop music that dominates the radiowaves today, and that U2 targeted POP for the "men" segment of the market.
I don't think U2 were really taking "risks" - but U2 have studied the market well and discovered what music the market really needs and what innovative music they can handle. If U2 were such a risk-takers, don't you think 25 years after they have formed, the law of averages would have caught up and they would have a risk that failed and doomed their career? Even the POP album wasn't a risk - U2 studied the market and realized the musical tastes during that era was Beck, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, etc., so U2 got a DJ to help them come up with a similar sound in POP. Like Bono once said, the hardest thing to do is to make it look spontaneous when it's not, I think the second hardest thing to do is to make a well-calculated market study look like a risk.
U2 are such geniuses in studying the market, that is why they don't need pop songwriters like the one Bon Jovi employs. These pop songwriters are the ones who study the target market of Bon Jovi and help the band work on their songs. U2 just do things themselves. Bon Jovi on the other hand has only expertise in playing music and not making market studies. So they let other people do the work. The end result is the same. The success of Bon Jovi and U2 are almost identical - record sales, longevity, and sales of most recent album.
I am confused why you say there is no basis for comparing U2 to Bon Jovi. Everyone who has contributed to this thread have all discussed the similarities of both bands and have endlessly compared them. When I started this thread, I thought it would just go away. But as more people post replies like you, more similarities about both bands emerge. My first post underlining some similarities was only the tip of the iceberg after all!
Cheers,
J
The King Of POP