Some of you aren't listening. I'm not saying the compilation was a waste of time just for dedicated fans. Obviously it was; anyone with more than half a brain knows that. But what I've been arguing is that it ALSO fails completely as an introduction for new fans. It was a complete waste of time for them too. Its poor chart performance worldwide in comparison to most U2 studio albums and the previous Best Ofs shows it just wasn't generating the same level of interest amongst ... well, anyone.
rihannsu said:
I believe the quote from Adam was in the Julie Saprong Interview done right before the start of the final leg of Vertigo, but I'm not positive.
Alright. I haven't even heard of that interview. That said, U2 all have a habit of talking out of their arses and having less of a clue about their own music than those of us here do. Sure, Adam's generally seen as more accurate than a persistently wrong character like Bono, but I don't uncritically take any of them at their word any more.
One more time I will state that I was talking about global airplay and you were quoting back info about what was big in one country which is apples and oranges. And again in this post you respond with more info about one or two individual countries but no mention of global figures. How can you extrapolate global airplay from the info from only a couple of countries? I welcome any response that contains info on global airplay otherwise it is a meaningless response.
Oh goodness you're painful. Global airplay stats don't fucking exist. Stop pretending they do. Many countries don't even have charts, or have wildly inaccurate charts due to the black market. In any case, I doubt U2 are all over the radio in Senegal or Bhutan. The main parts of the world to consider with airplay are the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America. We've got accurate charts for them, and the persistent pattern is that Walk On performed like shit compared to some glaring omissions. I provided some personal anecdotal evidence, and something like how Walk On fared can be easily found on Wikipedia. To get global data, you're going to have to look at individual country data and try to put it together to get a broader picture.
I don't know where you'd find statistics on how much Walk On and EBTTRT were played in 2005-06 as neither were on the charts then, but I'm willing to bet EBTTRT easily outdid Walk On. That's pretty damn obvious. One's an enduring U2 classic; the other, whatever its merits might be, made little impact on the public at large.
I don't know why you think I act like I am always right. I usually only post things I've come across and often say right out that I don't remember where I came across the info and if someone corrects me that fine. I apologize if I came across any other way. I don't claim to be any kind of expert and I'm not very good at remembering where I saw or heard things and am more than happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. If I can't track my own source down than I can't very well argue the point.
You just don't seem to listen to anybody else, you just keep going on about how what you're posting is right and whoever you're responding to is wrong. Just look at this thread. You didn't even correctly comprehend what I posted. I was just automatically wrong to you.
The band has stated many times that the collection was geared mostly toward new fans but no one seems to want to accept that because heaven forbid U2 do something that's not directed towards the hardcore fan. Like it's somehow illegal to want to appeal to people that aren't already listening to you.
This is proof of my point. Please actually read my posts and those by others with whom you disagree before you try to restate our arguments. To repeat what I said above,
I know that U218 wasn't for the diehards, I'm not stupid; I'm shitting on U218 because I think it completely fails in its intended purpose.