Re: Re: Re: What happened with HTDAAB - A different perspective perhaps?
Did you read all of my post? I explained the potential reasons why U2 is - relatively, albums did well - failing the "pop/single" struggle in America.
Also, seems to me the general public rather liked ATYCLB/Bomb, looking at the sales. (single fight aside)
Probably a bit of both - an ego thing as well as a creative impulse. I think ATYCLB already bought them their post 5-0 decade.
The question is, what happens if a Rattle and Hum/Pop type of backlash comes up? Would they go on making music or strongly re-consider? I mean, U2 doesn't want to be seen as washed up has-beens.
My hunch is U2 knows better than this and will move on with the third album of this decade, so IMO option A won't happen. The way they talk about going on and on (provided Bono's voice and Larry's wrists hold on, of course), I doubt C is happening, nor do I think they will make a perfect album - by which I mean topping or at least equalling JT and AB. My money is on B.
Inner El Guapo said:
So what does this truly tell us?
The listening public/buying public comparatively have a large amount of apathy for the 00's U2 music. You can debate the reasons, but there is little doubt that this is the case.
Yet the albums have sold rather well.
Basically singles and chart success don't mean anything, anything at all, yet Bono and the boys will go out of their way to tell you how much they covet it. They will even re-record an entire album to 'get it right'. They want hits, and they aren't getting them. You can debate the reasons why, but there is little doubt this is the case.
So if the general public is apathetic about them and they can't get the hits they covet, the questions are they failing to accomplish their goals or are they just chasing down the wrong path? Is this an artistic impulse to want to have hits? Or might it just be an ego thing?
Personally, I think they've been around so long and have hit the top of the mountain in popularity only to fall down the same mountain of popularity, and have explored different realms of music that they finally just wanted to make an album/or albums that was/were such a big success it could buy them an extra decade of doing whatever they wanted to do. They could do it financially either way, but what is the point? I think they wanted to make it worthwhile. The big question is, are they failing and what does it mean, creatively, commercially and in terms of the longevity of the group.
I say it goes one of three ways:
A-They pull a Rattle and Hum/POP and don't learn their lesson of treading on the same ground for too long with another album of 'whatever this is'.
B-They take the popularity they've earned in the last 5 years and use it to branch out musically and politically with a message and a sound that will either catapult them or doom them.
C-They decide that they are going to give it one last shot, creating the perfect album, take 5 years and go out with a bang, it's not a hit or miss proposition, it's a one shot finish.
I lean heavily towards A, in about 2008, another album down this path. B is the longest shot and C, I think if they look at the last 5 years as some kind of failure, they might just say 'one more go around'. They pay lip service to wanting to keep writing music for years and years, but that is wishful thinking.
If they could bang out an album every two years, they would have a lot more room to play with in terms of the creative/popularity bubble.
Did you read all of my post? I explained the potential reasons why U2 is - relatively, albums did well - failing the "pop/single" struggle in America.
Also, seems to me the general public rather liked ATYCLB/Bomb, looking at the sales. (single fight aside)
Probably a bit of both - an ego thing as well as a creative impulse. I think ATYCLB already bought them their post 5-0 decade.
The question is, what happens if a Rattle and Hum/Pop type of backlash comes up? Would they go on making music or strongly re-consider? I mean, U2 doesn't want to be seen as washed up has-beens.
My hunch is U2 knows better than this and will move on with the third album of this decade, so IMO option A won't happen. The way they talk about going on and on (provided Bono's voice and Larry's wrists hold on, of course), I doubt C is happening, nor do I think they will make a perfect album - by which I mean topping or at least equalling JT and AB. My money is on B.
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