when/why did you discover U2?

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mickey

mickey

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curious here, I'm trying to ascertain when U2 would have picked up their fanbase. I assume it would be the JT, or AB periods, but I want to see how large the disparity is. Could people kindly fill in the below:

U2 period that lured you:

Pre Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree
Achtung Baby
All That You Can't Leave Behind
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

(if the period falls in between, or outside, then please specify)

Now for the challenging part. In a concise manner, could you provide a reason.

I'll rifle off, so that you've got an idea

Period: Achtung Baby
Song: One
Reason: strained relationship.


regards/adieu
 
Period: Actung Baby
Song:Zoo Station
Reason: Bought boyfriend CD for X-mas but then he broke up with me two weeks before. Kept CD for my own and rest is history!
 
Period: ATYCLB
Song: Beautiful Day
Reason: I was looking for a good band to get in to, and Beautiful Day was on the radio nonstop. I finally fell in love after hearing it a bunch of times, and I've never looked back!
 
Period: Joshua Tree

Song: Streets

Reason: I went to see the Joshua Tree Tour because U2 was the hottest band and all the other kids in my jr. high school were going... As soon as i heard the opening notes to Streets, along with an arena glowing in red, i got chills... At 13 years old, i had never felt like that before... like i was One with 20,000 other people and with these 4 men from Ireland... Bono was so passionate that night... I realized that night that music was important and could unite people... and as if i needed more convincing... the concert ended with '40'... after the boys went offstage, the crowd continued to sing "How long to sing this song"... they continued throughout the corridors of McNichols Arena... and all the way up the street to and inside the Dennys that we walked to, where my mom was picking me up... UNBELIEVABLE! i knew i was a part of something special that i was never going to let go of... a U2 family.. and it's never let me down!
 
Period: Joshua Tree
Song: with or without you
Reason: hearing this song covered really badly on a reality TV show a couple of years ago made me realise how good it was. it persuaded me to buy the 'best of' albums. the rest, they say is history!
 
Period: Pop
Album: Pop

I found the Pop Cd in my cousin's room in 98 or 99. I was only 10 then, but it left an impression on me. So I saw All That You Can't Leave Behind at the store a year or so later and bought it. Then I couldn't stop buying U2 Cd's. It became an addiction....
 
Period: R+H
Song: DESIRE
Reason: I was 12, growing up in a house full of great music,
all belonging to my parents....when i heared this...i thought
I'VE GOT MY OWN....
 
Period: How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Song: Vertigo
Reason: Ipod commercial.

I had heard some U2 before and liked them, but when I heard the vertigo commercial I was shocked and immidiately went on the internet to hear the whole song. I also saw the video on TV and thought it was awesome. Today it reamains my favorite song and I own 5 U2 CD's in 1 year of being a fan. U2 got me into music and are my favorite by far.
 
Period: Pop
Song: Staring at the sun
Reason: It was 1996 when I already discovered some of their older music. Then in 1997 (I was just 19), lying on the beach in the burning Italian song I listened to ´Staring At The Sun´on my discman....wow it blew me away! Amazing song, amazing lyrics..still belongs to my favourites...since then, I became addicted!
 
Period: Achtung Baby
Song: One
Reason: I was 17, and was getting my first CD player, for Xmas. About a week before, I was in the shops, and realized, hey, I can stop buying tapes now, so I'll get a CD for Xmas morning.

I picked up Achtung Baby, my first CD purchase ever. Listened to it a week later, on Christmas morning, and have been hooked ever since.
 
Period: Rattle and Hum around spring of 89.
Song: Helter Skelter
Reason: I was 11, my aunt left the cassette in my bedroom. I was young and attracted to the anthemetic sound of U2 back then. I didn't get addicted to U2 until 92 when Achtung Baby was popular though. But 89 was my first exposure to U2.
 
All that you cant leave behind

Beautiful day

I'd lost a lot that year and the year before, i heard those lyrics 'what you dont have you dont need it now' and the rest, as they say, is history
 
ATYCLB - ish

Mid 2002

Walk On

Before every norwichcity homegame there was this amazing song played, (Walk on) so i just had to find out about this band. got all that you can't... then worked back
 
Period: Post zooropa, pre-pop
Song: Hold me thrill me kiss me kill me
Reason: I heard it at a friend of mine, half a year after its release I think. The I heard some songs from JT and the first single I bought was discotheque followed quickly by Pop and AB.
 
I'll come up with a pie chart or something (don't hold me to it), but so far by my account, these would be the results of when U2 picked up some of us:

delivered from birth: 1
Joshua: 2
Rattle: 2
Pop: 3 (I've included pop-romancer in this category)
Achtung: 3 (including myself)
All that...: 3
Bomb: 1

That's incredibly diverse, I assumed that most people would have been picked up from either AB or JT periods (this is beginning to sound like paleontology), but the results are well spread out.

I guess I'm looking to figure out when all of us were picked up, if the above trend continues as more input filters in, then I for one am extremely happy to observe that U2 has consistently managed to appeal to newer audiences (and hold on to their existing ones). I sometimes wonder if I like their new stuff because of my overal bias towards them.
 
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Period: AATDAAB
Song: Stuck...
Reason: My father gave me the album for my birthday and I fell in love with it... In the next couple of years everytime that I had enough money I bought a new album or DVD.
 
I guess the period would be HTDAAB, but I didn't buy that until awhile after it came out.
Album: War
Reason: I had heard SBS and it was in the back of my head to buy whichever album had that song on it and I finally got around to it, loved it, and bought every album of theirs.
 
Period:- Post Joshua Tree and Pre Rattle and Hum

Song:- With or without You

Reason:- When I first saw the With or without You video I was just totally captivated by the song, music, the band and most of all the lead singer. I couldn't take my eyes of him. I just had to find out more about him and the band. And here I am 18 years on even more captivated and the memory of that first moment still fresh in my mind!:heart: :edge: :bono: :larry: :adam: :heart:
 
Period: ACHTUNG/ZOOROPA (late 1992, early 1993)
Album: Achtung
Song: Mysterious Ways

I remember seeing the video and being blown away (i was never a fan of that grunge sound, so this song really hit me hard) I quickly realized via MTV (back when they played videos) that this was the same group that did ONE, EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING, WHO'S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES, and THE FLY (all songs I had heard and recognized as good)

Then I was at the record store and i found out that all those songs WERE ON THE SAME ALBUM, and I bought it immediately.

Ironically, I brought it home, listened to it once and liked all the singles but thought all the other songs were "too depressing", and shelved the cassette for 6 months.

then one day by chance I picked it up, curious, and listened to the whole thing from the beginning, and ZOO STATION, SO CRUEL, ACROBAT, and ULTRAVIOLET slapped me in the face.

I soon heard "the new U2 song" on the radio (NUMB), and thought they played the wrong song, but loved it, and picked up Zooropa on Cassette the day it came out (got the last copy)

For a while, Achtung & Zooropa was all that I listened to (I fell in love with Zooropa and still consider it one of the best records i have ever heard)

After that I found out that this band also sang PRIDE, STREETS, WOWY, ISHFWILF, NEW YEARS DAY and DESIRE (all songs I remembered from being younger)

and the quest for all their albums began.

Now I am done with Cassettes, done with CDs, and onto the U2 iPod with The Digital Boxset.

I wonder how i will listen to them in 20 years?

Mindmusic-no headphones necessary!
 
It was probably the year "I Will Follow" came out. I heard it on a college radio station. So that was 1981-3 somewhere in there.
I was actually made fun of because I liked them. Especially in our pop culture class in high school...I remember watching the Red Rocks concert (on tape) with the class. My teacher was impressed with my taste but not the class!
 
Mine came later, unfortunately. It was towards the end of ’89. I was staying with my aunt and uncle up in Anchorage in the dead of winter. I remember being in my room in the dark, watching Friday Night Videos (bonus points if you actually recognized this show!) and they were counting down the best video for each year in the 80’s. You know, typical countdown as the decade’s about to end.

I caught the show as they were getting to the best video of 1987. This haunting video came on with this deep bass line, steady drum beat, and ethereal guitar. All parts were setting up for this big vocal entrance. Bono finally mutters…see the stone set in your eyes…. That was it – I was mesmerized hook, line, and sinker. Now, I’d heard WOWY before (as well as other U2 tracks) but seeing this video finally got the coin to drop for me.

I remember going to Musicland (now Sam Goody’s) the next day and purchasing the vinyl single for With or Without You (with In God’s Country as a b-side). After that came the rental of Rattle and Hum from our local video store, followed by a massive hunt for anything U2. The song Bad was next to feed my U2 obsession. I remember going crazy not being able to figure out that song’s title off of Rattle and Hum. Of course, I eventually found out and got The Unforgettable Fire and Wide Awake in America. The rest is history…
 
Jeez, so many of you guys are seriously long term U2 fans, I only really got into their music last year - I remember when Beautiful Day came out, and I liked it, but I was only 10 at the time and wasn't really into music.
 
Period: ATYCLB
Song: Beautiful Day
Reason: The song sounded cool, the video looked cool, and the message behind the lyrics really appealed to me. Funny, I can't stand to listen to the song these days. :lol:
 
I always liked the singles (WOWY, ISHF, Discotheque, etc) , but the one that really struck me was the Tomb Raider remix of Elevation back in May 2001. I just thought it was loud and just plain awesome! Little by little I really started getting into U2 over that summer, then I saw the Boston show on VH1 and that time it really...well, I lost my Grandpa who I was really close to and the songs helped me through that time period esp. Stuck, Kite and Walk On. (Plus this was senior year of HS so that carried its own set of craziness also...lol) I will forever be grateful to them for that. :) I bought ATYCLB for Christmas 2001 and got into fandom and I've never looked back since :)

Period: Post ATYCLB release,Mid-Elevation tour for them (spring-summer 2001)
Song: Elevation (Tomb Raider Mix)
Album: All That You Can't Leave Behind
 
2861U2 said:
Period: ATYCLB
Song: Beautiful Day
Reason: I was looking for a good band to get in to, and Beautiful Day was on the radio nonstop. I finally fell in love after hearing it a bunch of times, and I've never looked back!
Click to expand...

Pretty much the same story for me. One of my roommates was playing JT in our room all the time too. Wish I'd gotten to see them on Elevation, but oh well. :(
 
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