financeguy said:
Talking of pretentious I think Radiohead fans are a lot worse than REM fans!
It's a sickness really.
I mean, I wouldnt say Radiohead wants to be the biggest band in the world, but I would say that their music comes from the same conviction that U2's does.
So what is the difference? Well it's that pretentious idealism, it comes from the fans, mostly, but not always.
It's the pretending that (insert band name here) have more integrity because they don't try to sell as many records as (insert other band here).
There is an argument there, but they never make the right one.
The argument is changing the music to sell more records to make more MONEY. Therefore it's COMPROMISING the music. CHanging your music for any other reason is no different than ANY other reason. It's at the descretion of the musician. So U2 making a soul rrecord with ATYCLB is no different than Radiohead making Kid A. It;s changing the artistic direction, and the motives are just THAT.
U2 need no more money or fame, they have as much as anyone in today's music scene. So why would they change their music?
Artistic direction? WHat are the motives, those are the questions to be asked. I think, after Pop, U2 wanted to prove it could write Beatles-type songs, not to make more money, but to say "yeah we are that good". So there is no compromising of the artistic direction, it's just that when one sells more than the other, it becomes overexposed and the pretentious little indie crowd gets all 'holier=than=thou'.
I think it's funny and it's somehting to be expected from 15-20 year olds, but not adults.