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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
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comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 19, 2007
Ok.. the year is 1980 (yes i can remember back that far) and the music scene is in a twilight zone. Disco (thankfully) had phased out and Punk had disappeared almost as quickly as it had exploded. Bands like The Specials and The Beat were trying to make Ska the next big thing, but even the addition of Madness couldnt move it in the direction they were looking for, and The New Romantic phase was still 18 months away. It was a bleak time. The great bands of old were now just churning out tripe and there was a real eclectic mish mash of sounds happening. Then one Saturday a song titled Gloria exploded onto my radio and opened up my ears and took me to a whole new world. The band singing this track were called U2. Their sound was raw, new and different and made me want to listen to music again. They were alive and powerful, and thankfully from that first single went on throughout the early 80's to produce some fantastic sounds. Boy and October were the stepping stones. They were different. They took you (or me at least) to a different place. They made music come alive. Then came War and The Unforgettable Fire. Great albums that made other people start to take notice at this point, and U2 became a global band. Still putting out cracking singles and even better albums. Then comes 1985 and The Joshua Tree. In my opinion not their best offering but the album that sent them stellar and i guess the one that started to bring the money in for them. It is also the one that saw them change. They went from this powerful, raw and fantastic band, to become the bland and boring one that they are today. How and why did this happen?? The Fly being released did give hope to Achtung Baby but even the rest of the tracks on there were bland and they have gone downhill ever since. What were Pop and Melon about.? I guess commercialism has a lot to do with it, but in my opinion they Sold themselves out for an extra buck or 2. It's stopped being about the music, and the energy, and to me they have just become another has been bland band churning out complete and utter rubbish that sad and boring people are buying just because it's sung by Bono and U2. Cant take away the fact that the man still has the best voice in rock history. (in my opinion) Is it just me or does anyone else understand what i'm trying to say? Their new single was on the radio as i drove to work. I couldnt even tell you what it's called. It just blended into the background like tacky elevator music or the awful stuff you have to listen to when a call centre operator puts you on hold.
Not sure if i feel better for getting this off my chest or not. Guess i just wanted to voice my disappointment at such a great rock band becoming boring and commercialised.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 2 |
comment by Republik of Mancunia
Jan 19, 2007
There music is just so bland these days. Personally, i dont get involved with bands personalities, its all about the music, and their music is poor, at best.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 3 |
comment by Syd
Jan 19, 2007
What would you rate as their best song/songs?
'Where the streets have no names' would have to be up there.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 4 |
comment by Medibot
Jan 20, 2007
They are complete corporate hos. Elevation, Beautiful Day, just substandard advert music. They have done nothing risky musically in over a decade.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 5 |
comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 20, 2007
their best song? now thats a tricky one.. i tend to like album tracks more than released singles.. couldnt stands where the streets, still havent found, and obviously the newer rubbish.. i guess singles wise would have to be The Fly... i just love that track.. album wise.. october, tomorrow (just because they are different and powerful songs)..
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 6 |
comment by bionic lucas
Jan 20, 2007
their greatest work by a mile was The Joshua Tree ...
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 7 |
comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 20, 2007
see i have to disagree with you on that one.. (i know me and you disagreeing).. i think that is the album that kick started their demise.. it went stellar and as a result is the one that turned them into the commercial rubbish that they are today
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 8 |
comment by bionic lucas
Jan 22, 2007
i do agree with you on that ... but 4 me it was where the band peaked . that album was an epic and so , have since failed to produce anything as good
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 9 |
comment by Spinky
Jan 22, 2007
I've always found them a bit boring - except for Achtung Baby, which is the only album of theirs I still own.
Although my favourite track is Stay (Faraway so Close) - I wish they'd kept all the techno-irony, they could have been where Gorillaz are now. All their singles from their last 3 albums have blurred together for me, they're all so similar.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 10 |
comment by theswampmonster
Jan 23, 2007
I thought that The Joshua Tree was overrated man and POP underrated. It's a pity they have changed into "save the planet" freaks and sucking up to politicans. They should keep that crap out of their careers.
Lately they have gone down the sucker route which has affected their music. I would like more of POP and less of the saving planet nonsense please.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 11 |
comment by bionic lucas
Jan 23, 2007
i do agree with all the politics\environment being kept out of their music .but would like to see more music like their older stuff(joshua tree, unforgettable fire) and less like the awful singles like lemon ,the fly ..etc
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 12 |
comment by Nickiboi
Jan 23, 2007
Im getting bored of U2 i mean ye the music the make is good and ye they seem pretty cool people but they have peaked i think it would be time for them to retire!
sorry for the bluntess!!
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 13 |
comment by bionic lucas
Jan 23, 2007
do you think they are gonna be the next rolling stones ?... (playing well into their 60's)
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 14 |
comment by theswampmonster
Jan 23, 2007
I think so if U2 stop the saving the planet nonsense, move on from Joshua and go back to their experimentation phase of the early & mid nineties. What had made U2 successful up to now was their ability to adapt to various music and were not afraid to explore new avenues. POP defined a U2 that were not just happy to churn out Joshua Tree music and this was soooo underrated.
Now that U2 have gone back to their 80's roots they've gone back to a certain extintion mode which if they don't do the POP/FLY/Lemon stuff they are very much in danger of going down the Simple Minds route of extinction.
Lets's face it man, the only reason why bands become huge is their ability to change once in a while. U2 need to redefine themselves yet again like they did with Achtung Baby and Pop. Madonna and Bowie did it when they were huge and U2 will have to do it again man.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 15 |
comment by bionic lucas
Jan 23, 2007
i would like to see it happen ...i just hope they can pull it off. i dont think they can ever define themselves like bowie did .his Aladin sane and Ziggy era's where musical masterpieces that would be hard to emulate nowadays.
but fingers crossed U2 can pull somthing out of the bag and reclaim their status as a credible group ,not a bunch of(millionaire) preachers asking us to give away our money ,while they churn out mediocre music
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 16 |
comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 23, 2007
see im not so sure about pop as an album.. i was bitterly disapponted with it.. but then i guess if you loved their earlier stuff as i did, the newer stuff was completely different.. i just feel they lost the edge after joshua and they never got it back.. there's no power in their songs any more.. even their b'sides in the early 80's were classic examples of good music in their own right.. but alas no more
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 17 |
comment by theswampmonster
Jan 23, 2007
I agree. U2 need to shock us again like they did with Actung baby & it worked man.
Singers and groups like Madonna, Bowie, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Kylie, even Robbie have the power to shock, sometimes with bad taste, sometimes with a complete new image and this is how they remain at the top. U2 was one of these acts in the early nineties that did eactly this..a sort of shock to the system. They need to be controversial again, maybe go back to dance or concentrate on pure Indie rock or a wake up call that would make people sit up again like they did in the early nineties.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 18 |
comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 23, 2007
u really think achtung shocked people???? see to me that was the next stage in the spiral downturn of them.. it was mediocre to say the least and not what i personally had come to expect.. that day back in 1980 when i first heard them really does seem like a whole lifetime ago now
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 19 |
comment by theswampmonster
Jan 23, 2007
Yes, I think it was shocking at the time. People had got used to U2 as a soft rock band who had churned out soft rock anthems. I think if they continued down this path they would have gone down the path of bands like Europe, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake etc who died out because they failed to adapt themselves.
Achtung Baby is regarded as a landmark album man beacuse it redefined and breathed new life into a band that was running out of steam, if anything they breathed new life into themselves.
I would like to see U2 go heavy with their music or get back into dance again.
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U2.. Still great? or Sell outs?
| post 20 |
comment by hauntedmoonstone
Jan 23, 2007
i guess it was different for them but not really that different to anything else that was going on at the time of its release...
still its nice to know everyone has differing opinions about the same thing.. what one likes another doesnt but it does seem the general concenus overall is that they are now pants and just churning out non existant rubbish
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