Listening to Pop...

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gherman said:


This is what I put for my earlier post:

"The problem with POP was the marketing of the whole theme. POP is a bad name and Popmart is even worse. I like it because I get it and what U2 was trying to do... I get the joke. Problem is that the general public didn't get the joke. They were daring with this album and tour. They could have been safe and called it something else and the public probably would have perceived it diferently."

Sorry if I missed that, yes I agree, I think allot of this album will be forever associated with all the Kitsch that went on with PopMart and it's a shame.

Videos have an impact as well, it doesn't matter how many times I listen to Discotheque, all I can think about is the Village People. Now, I liked that part of the video, I thought it was funny and very fitting but how many people were turned off? And that was their lead single...

Zootlesque said:


So are you saying they should've been safe?

Looking back as someone who loves POP, hell no. But from a business end... That's a little tougher, at least in the US the whole POP thing seemed to turn allot of people off.
 
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Zootlesque said:


Are you saying that IGWSHA is too downtempo a song after Mofo? I thought that was intentional. After the chaos of Discotheque, DYFL and Mofo it seems like a "wait! stop and be introspective" kinda moment, with a distant bleak sounding "Nobody else here baby...." :drool:
No, no... I like the actual tracklist, I just said that after those first 3 tracks, I'm waiting for a gradual decreasing of intensity. And that doesn't happen. With IGWSHA it's abrupt.
I was just imagining a tracklist that was emotionally gradual, maybe something like elevated_u2_fan pointed.

Discotheque/DYFL/Mofo/Gone/LNOE/SATS/Miami/IGWSHA/Playboy Mansion/Velvet Dress/Please/WUDM

Not like this ^ , because this one is a bit strange, but something like that, you know what I mean?...
 
Aygo said:
something like that, you know what I mean?...

:hmm: I think I do.

I don't know. The tracklisting of Pop honestly doesn't bother me. Maybe Mofo would've been a better opener but then Discotheque's swirly intro won't fit anywhere.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
This raises an interesting question (I think):

if U2 had released POP under another title and had done a different tour without all the PopMart glitz and irony or costumes what would be the outcome?

Basically if the whole POP concept never happened and all that was left was just those 12 songs would it still be such a "failure" in the eyes of the public/media/band?

I don't think so, not as much. I think the Las Vegas opening was a huge blow to the band. if they had opened Popmart with the intensity and skill of a show like Mexico City, I really think that would have made a big difference.

releasing the album and waiting a few months to tour to give time for rehearsals would have been much, much better.

I do think the whole Popmart concept threw a lot of people though... perhaps if they had just had the giant screen, and maybe the mirrorball lemon (come on, that was pretty awesome), but not the costumes and arch...I don't know, I love Popmart, I thought it was brilliant.

Maybe they should have released different singles...Discotheque was the only one that did really well. Gone should have been a single, imo. I think If God was too slow-paced and Please was not at all a radio kind of song. Disco, SATS, Gone, LNOE...Mofo for the clubs...I don't know.
 
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