Flutterby™! : U2: hypocrites

U2: hypocrites

2006-11-02 18:36:47.901409+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

I initially meant to put a little more explanation around yesterday's mention of Scissor Sisters, a little talking about how I haven't always been able to stand disco (and several other genres), and sometimes the contexts in which we experience a genre have a lot to do with appreciation of it.

That said, I've never "gotten" U2. I've thought the lyrics were pretentious and misinformed ("Early morning, April fourth..."), the music was repetitive and boring, and the activism of the band members had all of the traits of that ever so earnest high school sophomore. So when it's announced that in the face of Bono advocating that the Irish government give more to Africa, U2 is moving their publishing arm to the Netherlands in order to dodge taxes, all I can do is smile and say "you expected otherwise?"

[ related topics: Politics Music moron ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 03:29:53.073797+00 by: ebradway

Hmmm... I always thought that I was the only person my age that did "get" U2...

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 14:53:07.202369+00 by: Dan Lyke

No, when I was at Gracenote there were a couple of people roughly our age there who spoke of "The Joshua Tree" as the defining album of our generation.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 15:15:03.661686+00 by: ebradway [edit history]

What does a park in Southern California have to do with albums or our generation? ;)

And that begs the question: "What is the defining album of our generation?"

Shear numbers would point to Michael Jackson's "Beat it"... <cringe>

Maybe we are older than these U2-ites... But I seem to remember Duran Duran being much more popular... And, as a generation, our politics are definitely not aligned with Bono and U2.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 16:44:42.988791+00 by: topspin

I dunno about the defining album, but this song reminds me of much of the late 80s/early 90s.

"Strike a pose, there's nothing to it...."

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 17:25:33.073722+00 by: Dan Lyke

I was going to off-handedly propose Surfing with the Alien, but I'm also trying to figure out what music I remember from my high school or college years that was actually from that time (I tended to listen to a lot of earlier music) that's still around.

I'm not coming up with much.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-03 19:31:08.973055+00 by: ebradway

Unfortunately, Satriani's student, Eddie, was much more popular. Most folks wouldn't recognize Ice 9 as either a song or something from a Vonnegut story... So, to research U2 a little more... I browsed over to U2.com. At the bottom of the page is this little gem:

The site is designed for the widest possible access. For best results, please use a recent browser, set your screen size to 1024x768 and install Flash Player, Windows Media and Quicktime

And a quick glance a the page source - they are using tables heavily and no ALT tags. Using the term "access" on a page based on tables is a contradiction in itself...

#Comment Re: made: 2006-11-04 05:53:49.935793+00 by: DaveP

Hmm. I'm only a couple of years older than you, Dan, but Joshua Tree was well past U2's prime. If you'd dissed "Boy" "October" or "War", I might be able to get worked up about this, but "Joshua Tree"? That's like judging The Who on "Face Dances".