Are u2 really still THE biggest band in the world?

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I'm sure most people my age wouldn't know who Radiohead are, let alone like them, Coldplay yes, Radiohead no. This is coming from a person in this age bracket of young people.
This.:up: I don't know one person of my age (14, 15 years) who likes, sometimes even knows, Radiohead. Almost everybody (I know) likes Coldplay and most of them like a few U2 songs.
 
this is pretty much what i was thinking. i see alot of folks on this thread quoting "facts", record sales, tickets sales, etc, but the i like them or don't like them is whats shining thru as the real reasons behind people's opinions.

Yeah, why would I give a shit if other bands sell more albums? I can't stand Chris Martin's whiney voice so it still doesn't make me listen to Coldplay. :shrug:

I don't get the purpose of subjective threads like these. Nor why there's 11 pages already.
 
Excitement? How exactly do you measure "excitement"?
Most people I know are just as excited about the band now as they were 20 years ago.

Yes, of course fans are still excited about the music and the band, but U2's music hasn't broken out in over 15 years.




Again, define momentum, or excitement? How are you measuring this. How do you know it is "undeniable"?

U2 sellout the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to a record 96,000 people and that is not a sign of momentum or excitement?

Kings Of Leon struggle to fill one or two arena shows in the Los Angeles area and thats a sign of "excitement and momentum"?

U2 don't have momentum, they have staying power. They've hit a level (the highest), and incredibly, they have managed to stay there. Kings of Leon are doubling in size with each album, that's momentum. 2-3 yrs ago, they were still a new-ish band on their third album and everyone was playing it, despite it not feeling like a huge album in any tangible way. That was the groundswell. When Only by Night arrived, that was their 'Rocks Hottest Ticket' type of moment. Dull album by my estimation, but good lord those songs were everywhere. I don't know what their ticket sales are like in the US, but good luck getting a ticket for one of their arena shows here. If the next album from them is either good enough or commercial enough or both, they'll be able to do stadiums here (and the UK as well) with relative ease. They are the definition of a band with momentum at the moment. I don't think they're that shit hot personally, at all, but that's where they're at.

If that is the case, why are they unable to fill stadiums in most markets on the planet?

I didn't say they were MASSIVE, nor was I making an argument for either of these bands against U2. I was just saying that Coldplay are not a short term thing. They've got a great, very large, very loyal fanbase. In a sense, they have a great foundation for a long future. Kings of Leon are far more likely to be gone just as quickly if they deliver a dud album or do something else stupid. They don't have that foundation, they're just the popular thing of the moment and they'll need to work hard to convert that to loyalty. But hardcore Coldplay fans are more like hardcore U2 or Radiohead fans. Obsessed. Loyal. And no, nowhere near as big a fanbase as U2's, but still a very large following.

I think statistically, as you are purely interpreting it, you are right. U2 sell the most albums and the most tickets. They are the biggest. I'm not making an argument for KOL or Coldplay on those terms, just saying that I don't think it's all about the statistics. U2 outsell everyone, but they don't have the groundswell or momentum (yes, possibly because they've got nowhere else to go) and I'd argue that they do not have the excitement around their new music (sells great, but generates absolutely no buzz and hasn't for a long, long time).

The big thing for me is - do the fans really give a fuck? I'm surprised so many in here get quite passionate about the size of U2. How many of you would really care if they were, either by choice or the market, downsized? Would you care if U2 released small albums and played smaller venues? It seems some people here partly judge the band by their own ambitions of size.
 
All I can hope is that this thread gets locked and stickied so we never have to have this assinine discussion again.
 
I'm stunned that there is an 11-page thread on "is U2 the biggest band"? We could be talking about, say, music instead...
 
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