Unapologetically Positive Thread

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Dalton

Blue Crack Addict
Joined
Aug 26, 2002
Messages
15,151
Location
Little hand says it's time to rock and roll.
I am assuming that most of you are on this forum because for one reason or another you love U2. I would like to propose a thread in which each of us take the opportunity to share what we love about the band.

Here are a couple of ground rules I would request you follow in this thread:

1. Don't compare. If you like something - great tell us why but explain it on its own merits, not by saying it is better than this or that.

2. No sarcasm or irony. We left that in the 90's remember? :wink:


Ok, I love the U2 because they are the only band I have ever heard that I would describe as mythic. Not their reputations, but their music. It transcends the everyday ins and outs of life. I put it up there with Homer and Shakespeare. When I hear Streets, I want to tear my chest open and give my heart free reign. When I hear Miracle Drug, I want to let go of all my worries and change the world. When I hear Beautiful Day, I want to love completely.

To me U2 are the only band that moves past the visceral and into ..... "hope"?
 
I just haven't ever experience the same emotion, love and inspiration from any other group/band as I have with U2. I've never had any other band "turn me on, and then inspire me to contribute to certain (specific) charities and really feel good about what I'm doing.
They are the only band I have almost everything they have put out - studio wise - cds, dvd's etc. (not including all the boots- no way to have all that) and also save and or order magazines I have missed. As much as I love music, I haven't done this with any other group/band.
U2 is a strange phenonmen to me, this rock group is so influential and has had such an impact on my life and alot of other lives, it's hard for me to fathom, much less live. I don't worship or idolize them, but I truly respect and admire Bono & U2. In my opinion they are still fullfilling the reason they were put here on this earth.
Not to mention I completely LOVE their music. :heart:
 
I love U2 b/c I consistently love their songs and never grow tired of them as a whole.
 
My love for U2 is all because of ZooTV - it was just so different and so unique. A two-year tour riding on two mindblowing albums. Awesome stage design, setlist, and "characters" performed by Bono. I thought the band was SO cool. Nevermind the fact that I didn't follow them much in the 80's and missed the whole "irony" thing. To me, ZooTV was cool, whether or not U2 was mocking anything was irrelevant.

Since that time I have fallen in love with all that they have done - the 80's and the current stuff. And as I learned their back-catalog, I appreciated even more how amazing their "reinvention" was for ZooTV. But ultimately why I love U2 is because no one had ever done anything even remotely close to ZooTV. It was the pinnacle of anything by any band ever. I will forever love U2 simply for the years 1991 - 1993.
 
Last edited:
Because of I Will Follow, October, Like a Song, Bad, Running to Stand Still, Heartland, One, Dirty Day, Gone, Kite, and SYCMIOYO! Just to name a few.:wink:
 
It's nice to read positive things about U2 at a U2 fansite. :wink:

It's getting harder and harder to find. (unfortunately)

Thanks, Dalton, for this thread. Let's have more like them.

ALL BECAUSE OF YOU....:adam: :larry: :edge: :hug: :bono: :love:
 
Listening to U2 makes me feel like I am "home" again, no matter where I am!
 
I love U2 for being different during the 80's, being ironic in the 90's and being themselves in the 00's!

You know this is a great thread, because I'm sick of the "Crumbs Sucks" and "HTDAAB Is Not Rock" and most of all the "ATYCLB Sucks, And No One Ever Liked It" threads.

Those of us who have been around for the ride from the early 80's on, have come to appreciate the different stages of U2. I'm not saying that makes us any better because is doesn't. But even though we may favor a particular era I think we can also appreciate the others that came before or after. I know I do.

I just wish some of those who have been on since Zooropa or Pop realize that U2 is not all about those albums. Those albums are exciting and new, but U2 was about wanting something more. About striving to be the best and ultimately the biggest band in the world. As much as that sounds like a sellout it's the truth. It's a challenge they take very seriously, and work to achieve. I'm glad I chose to follow most of my adult life isn't just checking into the resort and trying to figure out a way to stay without paying.
 
Reggie Thee Dog said:




Those of us who have been around for the ride from the early 80's on, have come to appreciate the different stages of U2. I'm not saying that makes us any better because is doesn't. But even though we may favor a particular era I think we can also appreciate the others that came before or after. I know I do.

I just wish some of those who have been on since Zooropa or Pop realize that U2 is not all about those albums. Those albums are exciting and new, but U2 was about wanting something more. About striving to be the best and ultimately the biggest band in the world. As much as that sounds like a sellout it's the truth. It's a challenge they take very seriously, and work to achieve. I'm glad I chose to follow most of my adult life isn't just checking into the resort and trying to figure out a way to stay without paying.



DELETE DELETE DELETE


Dammit why won't the negativity delete??????
 
People say that you love not 'because of' but 'despite of' something.

I don't have any special reason why i like U2 so much.
They just appeared in my life in a perfect moment and stayed.
Since then im completely and irreversibly captivated by their music :D
 
I love their music, I also like that they're friends first before anything else.

I like how they portray women in their songs/videos, and admire that they are all married or long-time relationship and that they avoided the usual traps of fame. I like how they use their celebrity to support charity causes and how they're nice to fans and they, considering their fame, seem down to earth, normal guys.

I love that after 24 years, when most rock bands are either dead, split up or in definite obscurity/oblivion, they're still here, with great popularity and critics appeal. Same line up from day one.

I like how they seem to break the rules of music career over and over again throughout their career.
 
Last edited:
In 1983, Bono's impassioned singing and Edge's echoing guitars captured my ear. My friends had mocked me for not having heard of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", so I promptly bought the "War" album. I fell in love with "New Year's Day" not realizing it was one of their biggest songs at that point.

It wasn't until 1984's "The Unforgettable Fire", though, that I transitioned from very interested listener of U2 to a fan(atic). But why this fanaticism? What has kept me interested for 20 years?

Perhaps it's because the members of U2 and I are close in age. And perhaps it's for this reason, I can relate to them so well. But it seems that wherever I am in my life, U2 create just the album I need.

For example, while JT isn't my favorite U2 album, in 1987 it really was a wonderful rush to see U2 at the top while creating an album that was so opposite the "me generation". After listening to big hair bands and pop music for so long, U2 created exactly what I needed - something that caused reflection. The album was preachy, but we needed that preaching.

While JT was grand, come the early 90's, I wanted a different U2. I wanted songs that were fun and rocking. U2 seemed SO serious that when it came to music in a bar or party, they weren't exactly a featured artist. And, as if an answer to my prayers, along came AB. Here's an album that has as much depth as JT, but now is far more rocking. It's an album one can crank up in a car.

In 1997, I wanted more experimental U2 - and along comes "Pop". Granted, there's tons of "normal" U2 on that album, but it was fantastic seeing U2 dip into areas they've never touched.

Come 2000 though, I was tired of the ironic, tongue-in-cheek U2. I wanted some return to the U2 I knew - something more personal. And U2 scores again with ATYCLB.

Of course, one of my complaints about ATYCLB is that it's too "soft". So U2 took things up a notch with HTDAAB. HTDAAB is the perfect album for me now - it's rocking, yet personal. Has impassioned vocals, yet sets imaginations flowing with the music. Never have Larry, Adam and Edge sounded more alive and unified.the

In other words, it seems that U2 are almost creating albums that match my desires at a given time in my life. They shift and change and each time, match me brilliantly. No other band can do or has done this (in the era I've been enjoying music). Only U2 has constantly delighting my ears and challenging me with ideas.

There will come a day when U2 might not sell even the "low" levels of "Pop". But most assuredly, they will still intrigue me. And as long as they produce music that has some depth, I will remain interested.
 
One big reason I got into U2's music is because it was great to find a band out there that put into words exactly the kinds of thoughts I had about things, like religion, war, love, and so on and so forth. I can relate so well to what they say in their songs. The religion factor was particularly big, because it was nice to not be preached at, I could be of any faith, or no faith, and find a song that would relate to me. It's great to know they have the same questions I do. And the more spiritual songs...I'm not one who's been in a church for quite some time, but when I hear these songs, I get that same feeling that a lot of people who do go to church feel, so that's nice, too. It's just really funny to me that guys who are 23, 24 years older than me can write about things that I can relate to so well, and guys who are much closer to my age that are in some of the bands out today can't. I think that says something. It's also great to have their reassuring songs out there, too, 'cause there's days when I just feel like crap and am in a bad mood and everything, and I hear these songs and immediately feel better. I've always said it's like their version of a comforting hug, it's like they're sitting right next to me telling me everything'll be fine. They just know how to make you feel better, they're very inspiring, optimistic people (and refuse to let go of that optimism, just like me, so...:)). I like that.

Another reason I love this band is because they've helped me figure out what I'd like to do with my life. I'd like to combine my two loves-writing and music, and not necessarily be in a band (although should that opportunity present itself to me someday, I might give it a shot), but have a job where I can tell the stories of musicians and whatnot.

I'm also into this band because I'm amazed at the sheer creativity they've expressed before, like the whole ZooTV concept and the crazy things that happened within that tour-it takes quite an imaginative mind to come up with some of the things they did, and being someone who loves to use her imagination and likes to be creative, that's inspiring to me. I was even inspired to use the whole ZooTV screen bit in a creative writing story I did in school once.

As someone else pointed out, they're one of the few bands out there in which I have tons of stuff from, a band that I will collect anything possible from and tape anything possible from and whatnot. I'm fascinated by these four guys, and I want to learn more about them. There's not many celebrities out there I can say that with, so these guys obviously have something special about them that endears me to them and makes me so curious about them.

I also love the fact that they don't act like your typical rock band. You won't see them on some "Behind The Music" show talking about groupies and humongous drug/drinking problems (yes, the guys like to drink, but it's not to the point other rock stars have gotten to, and Adam dabbled in drugs, but he took it upon himself to get it taken care of quickly, he didn't make a big fuss about it, didn't go to a zillion rehab centers for years on end and all that. He owned up to his mistakes, and got over it himself. My respect for him increased significantly when I read about that) and breaking up over something dumb. They seem like generally nice guys, they managed to get to the point where they're at now without all the baggage that comes with other bands, they've been close-knit with a lot of the same people from their childhoods-their wives/girlfriends, their manager (seriously, Paul McGuinness is a true gem-I have yet to hear a horror story about him screwing people over, unlike a lot of other band managers. I think that's pretty damn cool :up:.), their families, their friends, each other. It's just amazing, and refreshing.

And I also love that they're smart people. It's incredible, the knowledge of various things they have, from history to music to business to all sorts of other things. Intelligence is a major plus with me for anyone, so to see these four extremely smart men running around out there is a great thing. I've learned a thing or two from them myself :).

So yeah, it's been over two years since I became the big fan I am now, and those are some of the big reasons that I got into them and have stuck with them these past couple of years. And they'll always mean something to me, they'll always hold an important place in my life.

Oooookay, so yeah, long-winded post over, Angela's gonna shut her yap now and let someone else talk :p.

Angela
 
GREAT JOB, Angela - :bow:

And I didn't think you were long-winded. I thought your words were accurate and wonderful.

Thanks for this thread. :wink:
 
First of all, I love the name of this thread! That phrase could very well sum up the reason I love U2. They don't apologize for being positive and trying to get a message across in the music while still keeping it fun. They are a spiritual rock'n'roll band and I love that!:heart: :bono: :edge: :adam: :larry: :heart:
 
U2girl said:
I love their music, I also like that they're friends first before anything else.

I like how they portray women in their songs/videos, and admire that they are all married or long-time relationship and that they avoided the usual traps of fame. I like how they use their celebrity to support charity causes and how they're nice to fans and they, considering their fame, seem down to earth, normal guys.

I love that after 24 years, when most rock bands are either dead, split up or in definite obscurity/oblivion, they're still here, with great popularity and critics appeal. Same line up from day one.

I like how they seem to break the rules of music career over and over again throughout their career.

Great post! :up:
 
Through all of their songs, I have found a connection. Musically, lyrically, or other wise.
Through Bono's work I see someone with power who cares, no matter how odd he may be.
They care about what they do, you can tell. and every note to come from them has some meaning behind it, whether they meant to put it there or not.
U2 can capture emotion and turn it into a chord sequence, bass & drum line, lyric and song.

That is why.
 
Reggie Thee Dog said:
I love U2 for being different during the 80's, being ironic in the 90's and being themselves in the 00's!

I agree - I love the fact that they are not afraid to reinvent music for their fans - whether a fan likes it or not. I admit some cd's I had to let them soak in - others I loved as soon as I bought them.

They are the only band that I seriously cannot wait to buy their CD on the first day it is released.

Thanks for the great thread.
 
Back
Top Bottom