BANZAI said:
Are there any U2 songs the band should be ashamed they ever made them?!
I find it hard to name one song, but i think i would go for The Playboy Mansion. I just can't stand some lyrics ("Big Mac bigger than you think", "Michael Jackson is history")
Those lyrics are the heart and soul of the themes of the Pop album that make it so fantastic.
Pop, is esentially using popular culture, (music, movies, celebrities, advertising, etc) to critique popular culture. This is the Irony of the 90's!
Just as Zoo TV/Achtung used excess to critique the excess consumerist culture of society!
For example, Zoo TV, a whole bunch of TVs, 500 channel satelite aka channel abundance, excess smking/drinking and sex by The Fly character.
He was often smoking when came on stage during Zoo Station, see the Sydney video.
He showered people in champagne during Tryin to throw your arms around the World.
Belly dancer during and Mysterious Ways, and camera in the crotch during Until the end of the World, are examples of excess sexuality.
This pointed out and critiqued how rediculous consumer culture, excess, and celebrity is!
Micheal Jackson is history lyric refers to the deconstruction of pop icons, people love to see celebrities(pop icons) fail and fall from grace.
Also, the Big Mac, bigger than you think lyric refers to the Americanization of the world. There are Macdonalds in Italy, Iraq, and all over the world! Therefore, the big mac IS bigger than you think because it not only represents Macdonalds, it represents the Americanization and commodification of the entire world!!!!! That's Huge! Living in Canada, as I do, we are constantly under threat of becoming too much like America, we have to protect our popular culture or else we will cease to exist and might as well be another State in the USA!
I am a Popular Culture and Communications Major, finished my 3rd year in University and will graduate with honors upon completion of the next, and 4th year!
I have had a chance to study Popular culture, and U2's music as part of some of my courses because we are given the choice to research things that interest us!
So from all of this I hope yopu can see that there is much critical analysis and clever writing on Bono's part to understand and come up with this stuff in an interesting and unique way!
It's funny that you mentioned the most significant lyrics, I would argue, on the whole Pop Album as throw away lines, whereas they are arguably very significant!