A band with no real category, except special

[U2Kitten]

I was thinking today, how would you categorize U2? They are rock, yes, but they are not like anything else. They have done a lot of stuff, and they are still around, together, all these years later. There is no other category for U2 other than U2. And that's a great thing.

 

[U2girl]

Very hard, out of the major music genres they are closest to rock, however they're way more melodic and appeal to a wider fan base than most rock bands.
I think Edge said it well once "We're a guitar band with soul".

 

[AquariumDrinker]

You can't categorize them today. Tell someone they're rock, and the person'll wonder where's the screeching guitars and the screaming vocals. It's a shame, because rock can be so much more than that. It's more of a spirit and attitude.

Personally, U2 was the first band I ever got into, and from them I developed my definition of what rock can and should be: Guitar-oriented sound with a committment to explore ideas and feelings, no matter what avenues it goes down.

 

[Yahweh]

U2 is a Pop band the way pop should be played. Unfortunately nobody has ever come close to doing it the way U2 has done, except for The Beatles for a short period of time.

 

[mwheelonh]

I think I remember Bono referring to U2 as a "folk band with electrical guitars".

 

[HelloAngel]

I was thinking about this today when I saw that HTDAAB is still #2 on the Billboard charts and selling 280,000 copies a week. I mean, that's truly amazing for this point in their career. What other rock band on the planet unites so many people, elicits so many emotions from anyone? U2 - a band that defies convention and category!

 

[Axver]

They're the loudest folk band in the world.

 

[tennispunk]

According to AllMusic, they are rock, alternative pop/rock, post-punk, and college rock.

U2 are a rock band. Rock is such an expansive term now--I mean, how many bands play rocknroll in the style of Chuck Berry and the other bands for whom the term was initially used?

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

The are one of the first true "Alternative Rock" bands of our time.

 

[boystupidboy]

They should be in the 'bloody good' category

 

[U2RNO1]

Aren't they "the last of the rock stars, when hip-hop drove the big cars"?

 

[Jack In The Box]

they're some folk, yup, but... some rock, some blues, some punk and a little of gospel with electronica

 

[RickFly]

THE STYLE OF NO STYLE.

 

[AtomicBono]

Aren't they "the last of the rock stars, when hip-hop drove the big cars"?

They are. U2 is one of the few truly great rock bands left, and I fear that rap is going to take over rock completely (it already has in some respects). However, there are a lot of new good rock bands out there, like The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, so there may be hope yet...

U2 is indeed in a category of their own. My Chemistry teacher said so, so it must be true He was talking about classifying things like music, and giving examples, and he said "Rap, country, rock, U2..." and I said "because U2 is in their own genre of awesomeness" and he said "Yes, they sure are"

I actually was having an arguement with my friend about this... some dumb formulic pop song was on, and I said "Oh boy, whiney predictable pop shit" and she was all "Hey, I kinda like this song..." and I said "Well, that's fine, it's not in my tastes personally. It sounds exactly like every other pop song on the radio, which is crap." She got slightly miffed and was like "Whoa wait a minute, what do you think U2 is?" "...um, ROCK?" "My mom used to work at a music store, and you know what they categorized them as? Pop." I tried to explain that U2 was a pop group in the sense that they were popular, however they were leagues beyond the flavor of the week shit that's hot now... their songs have, y'know, REAL insturments, and they sound DIFFERENT from other songs and all that good stuff. She's heard me ramble about U2 enough so I don't think she really listened but to lump U2 in with all those sugar-coated pop "bands" that all have the exact same wannabe-catchy chord progression... ugh. U2 is rock at the least, though really their ultimate genre is "The Best Fookin' Band in the World."