Why does Sup Forums despise U2 so much and place them in the ranks of Nickelback and 21 Pilots?

Why does Sup Forums despise U2 so much and place them in the ranks of Nickelback and 21 Pilots?

They rose up in the late 70s alongside and directly influenced by a myriad of post-punk acts, worked with Eno and Martin Hannett, played shows with This Heat, got Einstürzende Neubauten to open for them at the height of their fame, and their guitarist once made a collaborative album with the members of Can and PiL featuring contributions from Arthur Russell.

Oh and they made great albums in the 80s and 90s and disseminated their influence pretty widely.

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Sup Forums doesn't. Sup Forums is pretty much the only place on the internet where their 20th-century stuff is still admired and respected.

The Unforgettable Fire is unironically my favorite post punk album

most people who dislike them have heard 3 or less of their radio songs

And most of the radio songs from the 21st century too it's shit like Vertigo

I get the feeling that Sup Forums's level of success and influence has diluted what they've done somewhat. Something like the Joshua Tree probably isn't as amazing as it was when it came out being as it's influenced almost every Pop Rock band to come out since, even to the modern day. They're still great, but I feel like they're a band where their greatness isn't immediately appreciated like it must have been at the time.

We generally don't.

They're the boring kind of post-punk like The Smiths.

This seems to be the general consensus. It's either "Everything up to [Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Pop depending who you ask] is good" or "They suck because Vertgo."

HELLO HELLO

I'd say everything up to All That You Can't Leave Behind, but yeah, basically this

Sup Forums prefers Radiohead, which is U2 for millennials

HELLO HELLO

They're pretty much just a sadboi reskin
Most of the hate is underage/south park fans but they seem a little less vocal lately.

I think their early stuff is respected by the people that give it a chance.

But they've become one of the biggest acts of all time, thus easy targets of ridicule, and have a seriously toxic public image of smug, self-righteous rock stars (not that I agree with that, just an observation), and most people's first impression now is South Park or that shitty song where Bono sings YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH like some horrible midlife crisis demon possessed him.

If they stopped at Achtung Baby they probably wouldn't be nearly as reviled as they are.

Pretty much this. Ok Computer sounds quite a bit like Achtung Baby and the Soundtracks album under the Passengers name, both fantastic albums.

Also this. Bono's image really stains their rep. He was rad af in the 90's tho. The Fly persona was pretty neat.

Also, The Edge is GOAT. Extremely unique and influential sound.

HOLA

All That was okay. A return to older form after POP, but not amazing. They got Eno and Lanois back in the fold and Beautiful Day was pretty good. But that was still the very end of the 20th Century.

After that, Bono just became pompous as fuck and hung out with GWB and tried to save America after 9/11 and shit. And then you had the whole Vertigo era and South Park and fucking "Get on Your Boots" and the iTunes bullshit. They fucking lost the plot.

I still think they can pull it back. I think they're being businessmen at the minute, but I think when they're near the end of their careers they might make one last shot at a more experimental album again

Their 2000s stuff is generally weak but city of blinding lights is their best song.

Achtung Baby is unironically one of the greatest albums of all time. They're similar to Kanye West in that once the stain of their image goes away, they'll be considered one of the better musical artists of their time

Achtung Baby, War and Joshua Tree are all pretty fucking great

Hot take: did eno send them down the wrong path?

I'd say it's flying too high, really. They've outlived basically everyone that was in their scene, they've gone above and beyond what was expected of them, all over a career spanning the early 80s to this day. Where do you go from now if you're U2?

Why does almost everyone hate U2 from 2000-present? It's not that bad, song decent songwritting and great choruses. It is because is radio-friendly and inoffensive?

That's part of it. Early on they were part of something new and innovative, by the 2000s they were recycling ideas and imitating their former selves. All while doing a some of the biggest marketing campaign of any band I can remember. They had their own iPods and literally forced their album into people's iTunes libraries. So it's not surprising people got sick of them.

i can't tell the difference between u2 after that one song with the airplane video and coldplay's entire catalogue

>Radiohead directly ripped off U2 and wouldn't be nearly the same without Bono and The Edge's influence
>Radiohead is Sup Forums's absolute favorite band
>Sup Forums routinely either ignores or mocks U2
>U2 is actually leagues better than Radiohead
honestly Sup Forums has plebbier taste than anywhere else

>The Edge is GOAT. Extremely unique and influential sound.
This. It really annoys me that most guitar players seem to think he's a joke. The guy created his own sound, which is admirable, and he always plays for the song. Who the fuck cares that he isn't another Hendrix/Clapton/SRV/EVH copy like everyone else is? He's one of very few people to create an entirely new context and sound for the electric guitar. I have a lot more respect for The Edge as an innovative guitarist than I do for lots of other guitars that are technically better players.

>Also, The Edge is GOAT. Extremely unique and influential sound.
SOMEONE FUCKING GETS IT
Around the time of the Unforgettable Fire he moulded his own style of guitar unlike any of his contemporaries, and a style that was immensely influential on many Alternative guitarists that followed; I couldn't easily imagine Jonny Greenwood or Kevin Shields playing quite the same way without him. Just because he has a style that relies on subtly and atmospherics doesn't mean he's bad, all you old farts with your "Clapton is God" shirts

>All while doing a some of the biggest marketing campaign of any band I can remember. They had their own iPods and literally forced their album into people's iTunes libraries. So it's not surprising people got sick of them.
They need to stop with these gimmick releases. They need to stop trying to pander to the Top 40 crowd. U2 are no longer a Top 40 act and haven't had any significant Top 40 play in over a decade now. Guitar bands are uncool. Especially guitars bands with guitarists that wear beanies and a singer that delivers liberal platitudes over anthemic radio rock. It's not "in". They only way they could get close to Top 40 now is if they just sell out hard and do songs with the Chainsmokers or some other EDM act and get some big name pop producer produce their music and some Swedish dudes to write the song. Then you have to promote it all the right ways with a huge team of PR people.

And even then, it would be guaranteed because, guess what, these guys are in their mid-50s. It was a rarity for older career musicians to score late career Top 40 hits in the past (Steven Tyler, Tina Turner, Santana, Phil Collins, Springsteen) but especially into today's musical climate.

The only over 50 musician I can think of having any type of Top 40 success in the past 10 years is fucking Madonna in 2014 with "Living for Love", a trash EDM collab with Diplo that barely made it into the Top 40 for one week and then fell out of the charts completely. Of course, it only charted because it was Madonna, the lead single, and sellout pandering trash.

I pray U2 doesn't follow the same route, but knowing the fact that they want to be as "hip" as bands like Coldplay and OneRepublic, they very well may do this.

It's already showing signs in War, he has a very rhythmic style there which creates the riffs with the chopped textures that U2 is pretty much known for; it's in The Unforgettable Fire that it really picks up with delays and reverbs and creating almost gaze-like textures.

I'm not knocking his style prior to War and it was definitely the basis for his later developments, it's just that it was very indebted to the likes of Keith Levene and other earlier post-punk guitarists, but it was on the Unforgettable Fire that he took it to the next level, removing it even further from the rock base to his signature style. I'd dare say Eno and Lanois may have played a part in influencing that, adding in the influences from their ambient background, at least in the production of his guitar. Great guitarist all the way through their career though, just not a very traditional one.

I wholeheartedly concur. Though he has gotten pretty lazy post-90s.

This

For fucks sake. They need to stop trying to be "relevant" and trying to make music that they think Top 40 under 18 listners will like or that they think will be "stadium appropriate" and just go back to making music for the hell of it.

So glad that the edge is getting credit in this thread, one of my favorite guitarists

Wearing a beanie hat to your dad's funeral: Yes or no?

Yes

>1
>2
>3
>14

1^2=1
2^2=4
3^2=9
1+4+9=14

Damn.

>Bono's image really stains their rep
I never understood this meme. Yeah, he's a little preachy, but at least he's doing it for good causes and things he actually believes in. I mean, plenty of actors do similar things and people never boycott their movies for douchiness; hell, Tom Cruise is still popular and he shills a literal cult. To me, his most annoying quality is that he still tries to act like a pop star, but every other former pop star his age does, too, so even that doesn't set him apart.

I think part of what's done it is that in the 90s they intentionally really played up that image during their tours, what with him inventing the Fly character and that, to take the mickey out of themselves, but a lot of people who weren't indebted in U2 probably saw that as a genuine portrayal of himself rather than a caricature. I think he gets it a bit hard though, even if I do wish he'd turn it down a little bit every now and then.

He got way worse after like 2000 too. The hobknobbing with GWB, the ONE campaign, RED, etc.

It was like Bono became a spokesman first and a musician second.

Bono represents that Clintonesque lizard people liberal ubermensch and that jars with people. They thought they were the most important band in the world long after they were.

Its a shame because yeah, 80s U2 was solid.

Yeah and they their resurgence in the mid-00s didn't help. I mean Atomic Bomb when #1 in literally every country. But of course they fell off pretty hard in mainstream relevance after that. Plus the music wasn't that good anymore.

Is OP new? U2 is Sup Forumscore since like 6 months ago

That was mostly meme-spamming and a few older Sup Forumstants discussing them. Most of the young guard still hates them.

"young people" hate everything because they think its fashionable to do so. Why do you think so many people here are so negative? Because they're melodramatic teenagers. Once they get older and realize it's nice to like things they'll turn a leaf and give things a proper chance

Anyone with any sense knows U2 are great

...

This. Songwriting>technical ability, and the SOUND that he brings makes those songs. No one sounds like the Edge

post their greatest songs

youtube.com/watch?v=JjTI5qjm0Yw

this my fave
dat bassline
dat escalating intensity

youtube.com/watch?v=3JjDDgK8KXc

Bonor is easily one of the best singers ever in pop/rock music

Hard mode: post their greatest 21st century songs:
youtube.com/watch?v=1VFQ-UNkh3A

Okay Lee Saunders chill out

who?

HOLA

I saw the Bono at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

>No one sounds like the Edge
I always think it's funny that some artists are praised for having a very specific sound, while the Edge is usually trashed for it. I guess people like when you can tell Santana or SRV right away, but if you can tell the Edge is playing, he's using too many effects and isn't creative enough.