Analyze this quote

[Yahweh]

"Sean Penn said to me once, on a night out when I was a bit depressed about PopMart in America, "You know, they just didn't like the movie." And I realised it's not that they don't like you, they just didn't like this movie!"

-- Bono, 2001


I am looking for Americans who either liked the movie or disliked the movie and why you feel the way you do

Canadians do not count as Popmart did very well up here in Canada.

 

[Utoo]

Are you asking for why Americans didn't like PopMart (quite a generalization!), or for us to actually analyze the quote. I think the like/dislike PopMart argument has been presented here quite a bit. As for the quote, it essentially says that Bono realized that just because people may not have liked PopMart, it doesn't mean that they dislike U2.

 

[vaz02]

I quite love that quote

 

[Yahweh]

Being the 10 year aniversary has anybodies opinion changed over the years regarding it. If you could turn back time would some of the US that skipped over going to the tour go to it now?

 

[corianderstem]

I don't think there needs to be any analysis. It seems pretty straightforward to me: he's saying that America still liked U2, they just didn't like PopMart.

To which I say: DUH.

 

[U2Man]

meh

 

[FullonEdge2]

"America didn't like Popmart"

--This is an awfully simple statement and one that is not entirely true. Lots of factors come into play as to why Popmart wasn't as well received in America as elsewhere in the world; and even still, Popmart did pretty well for itself in America.

 

[U2Man]

it could be interesting to discuss WHY popmart didnt do well in america as opposed to other places. maybe it reminded americans too much of something they had seen before?

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I liked Popmart a lot more than I like Sean Penn.

Popmart is to the 90s what Lovetown was to the 80s--it was clear that it was the end of an era for U2, and that they were going to come back with something radically different next time around.

U2 in the 90s was all about exces--"too much is not enough." It seems fitting to me that Popmart was their last tour of the 90s. Where do you go from a giant lemon? Back to basics--which is what I think they did in a lot of ways with ATYCLB.

 

[redhotswami]

"America didn't like Popmart"
Lots of factors come into play as to why Popmart wasn't as well received in America as elsewhere in the world/B]

What were some of those factors?

I somehow completely missed PopMart. Those years of my life are a blur to me now...so I missed out on a lot of things. I experienced it for the first time in the 2000s. And I love it. I don't know how I missed it!

 

[FullonEdge2]

it could be interesting to discuss WHY popmart didnt do well in america as opposed to other places. maybe it reminded americans too much of something they had seen before?

I almost wonder if it all started with Pop. I love Pop, but perhaps Americans felt U2 had gone so far astray they would never come back to the U2 that they loved. I still think people gave up on Pop far too quickly. Beneath all the glitz and glamour is still the same old U2, just in a different state.

 

[corianderstem]

I blame the K-Mart press conferences. Everyone hip enough to dig U2 hates K-Mart.

 

[FullonEdge2]

Yeah, the K-Mart conference didn't do U2 any favors.

The Las Vegas gig received negative press.

Unlike Europe, the U.S. was not ready, nor will it really ever be ready to embrace the supposed dance/techno revolution.

Due to the limited success of anything U2 had done since Achtung Baby, many people were already thinking U2 was a band on the downside of its career.

And yes, maybe people weren't in the mood to see U2 being dwarfed by their stage set.



With that said, I love Popmart

 

[rihannsu]

I blame the K-Mart press conferences. Everyone hip enough to dig U2 hates K-Mart.

Because America didn't get the joke. Partly because the stupid media didn't get it either. You could tell by the questions that were being asked at the press conference that they weren't getting it. Even though it was clearly stated that K-Mart was not sponsering the tour a lot of people thought they were because the media wasn't clear on that. There was a lot of misconception either caused by or exacerbated by the media. The shaky start combined with reports of cancelled shows which were not actually cancelled because they hadn't been officially announced in the first place basically got the media started on the Flopmart thing and even though the band got it together and the shows got better the media was still stuck on repeating stuff that was being said at the beginning of the tour. The negative press in my opinion then actually caused the later shows to sell less quickly which in turn generated more negative press, etc. Kind of like a snowball. You'd think after ZooTV that people would have been able to figure out what the band was on about but I guess it went over the heads of the media and since they didn't get the humor they didn't report it right. My problem with the Popmart thing was that I just didn't care for the persona Bono used because it was the aggressive fighter strut kind of thing which is a turn off for me. But I do a least understand that it is a character and not the real Bono. I think a lot of people missed that point.

Another factor was that the record industry was pissing and moaning because they seemed to expect one U2 release to make up for dismal sales across the board and it didn't sell as much as their overinflated expectations. From all accounts it would have had to outsell JT and AB combined to met up with those expectations.

Dana

 

[redhotswami]

lol flopmart

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

Oh gawd, not another American's hate Pop/Popmart discussion...:makemotiontoshoothead:

 

[Utoo]

Oh gawd, not another American's hate Pop/Popmart discussion...:makemotiontoshoothead:

ditto

 

[MrPryck2U]

Hey, let's get back to the Penn quote. He's trying to soothe Bono's ego by saying that just because they didn't like your album doesn't mean they don't like you. Penn would know, right? He went from doing the crappy Shanghai Surprise in 1986 to Mystic River in 2004.
Since POP! came out ten years ago, it has evoked passionate responses from U2 fans. Some folks love it. Some folks hate it and others simply shrug their shoulders at it.
POP! was a great lesson for U2. You can't rush things. All of the band members state that if they had a little more time, POP! would've been completed to their satisfaction. But, Paul foolishly booked the tour, so now U2 had to rush to complete the album and rehearse it at practically the same time. Sounds kind of insane, right?
One thing that does tick me off though is the thought that US fans kind of have their heads up their asses when it comes to music. That we're not a hip as our European counterparts. You know, we just didn't get POP!? Well, the US is a pretty big country. A lot of us "got" POP!. I was one of them. I never thought for one moment that McDonald's or K-mart were proud sponsers of POP! But, apparently all of those dumb Americans thought so. LOL! Like I said, POP! was a good lesson for U2 on what NOT to do when you record, promote and tour your album.
From last I heard, Bono has made some good "movies" since then.

 

[redhotswami]

.

 

[Yahweh]

Well has anybody that didnt like Popmart back then now a fan of the tour after reflecting on it?

 

[may]

What's so odd about the Pop thing is that I never even knew it was out until years later. I worked at K-mart at the time too; you think there would've been a buzz around the stores that a big rock band like U2 were "using" K-mart to promote their album. Then again, I am from a small city, and we're about two years behing everyone else anyway.