Is this the part where Greg Kot flies the rockist flag?

And I need you to need me, Bono.

Greg Kot: "hey yeah you stood for all these watered down post-punk values and now you've betrayed them all and it sucks."

Bono: "Ah what you don't realize is that we are reinventing the wheel. The black race is greedy too, but we represent the white race. It's not our politics that changed the world, its actually our outstanding song writing and our lovely faces. It's not about the message, its about the medium. It's hard to make a living these days, what with being a rock star all of my adult life. Oh, the things we do for money. But we do them because we have a message. That Apple is cool looking. Did you know my dad died? KNEEL BEFORE ME, SON OF JOR-EL! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

That's a really important point that I want to get across to you. There's this poverty of ambition, in terms of what rock people will do to promote their work. That's a critical issue to me. The excitement of punk rock, in the Irish and UK scene when we were coming up, was seeing our favorite band on "Top of the Pops," right next to the "enemy." That would be exciting. We did talk shows, TV shows, back then. The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto. I don't like that kind of thinking. I know some of it exists, and some of our best friends are part of it. It's not for me. Progressive rock was the enemy in 1976. And it still is. And it has many, many faces. This beast is lurking everywhere. It can describe itself as indie rock. It's the same [blanking] thing. It's misery. I have seen so many great minds struck down by it. . . . When you suggest we're betraying ourselves by doing TV shows and promotional stuff, to me the Super Bowl was our Ed Sullivan moment. It just came 25 years later. I didn't expect it. But it is one of the moments I'm most proud of in my life.

Dear Bono, plz fuck off and die forever xoxox

rollin' with heaven 17 in this bitch.

Anyway, I thought they both did pretty okay. I think U2's big sellout maneuvers lately have been irritating--mostly the ones that have to do with these recent back-to-basics records--but I also think, having seen U2 in concert, that the whole 'this song is only good if it's HUGE' thing is kind of true. The hugeness of their show is amazing. They are one of the only bands in the world that can sell out months worth of stadiums in countries on every continent, and that fact that in a good U2 show every one of the tens of thousands of people there knows the words and sings along to 'all i want is you' makes the show an amazing experience. and U2 do this while writing songs that are, IMO, good!

i have to say: if you're going to be all anti-rockist or whatever, you can't then hold bono to your puritan principles of proper rockstar behavior, whatever they may be.

(of course, now I know there's no difference between "Runaway" or "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Mysterious Ways" or "Two Hearts Beat As One." But Larry Mullen Jr sure is foxier than Tico Torres)

But I don't get how it's half-arsed. Haven't you read your Frankfurt School? CAPITALISM IS THE ENEMY. The Man is real and he is assimilating U2! The whole point is that Bono's 'hugeness' ambition is also awesome, and unfortunately the two principles are in conflict. That's part of what makes watching U2 fun--esp. around the time of "Achtung Baby" and "Pop."

Taking Sides: Theodor Adorno vs Walter Benjamin

The surgeon general has determined that listening to progressive rock may lead to Alzheimer's, stroke or other dementias.

In other words, I think it's fine when an artist chooses to let their work be used in a commercial, but if the artist chooses not to, I mean Jesus Christ, it's not like it's too hard to find ripoffs songs/artists. If you can't get the Killers, go with the Bravery, you know?

See, I'd rather it was Bon Jovi, like much much rather, since their songs are better and also they don't pose as though they were feckin' CULTURALLY RELEVANT, MAAAN like teh Bono.

"What [rock critics} basically want is for it to be like 1969 again. It 's this thing where British – or in U2's case, Irish – groups discover the roots of American music. U2 have discovered this and they're just doing pastiches [his voice rises] and it's reviewed as a serious thing because DYLAN PLAYS ORGAN on some song and B.B. King playso n some throwaway pop song "When Love Comes to Town" that could have been written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It coudl bein Starlight Express if you ask me.

...We hate everything that they are and stand for. We hate it because it's totally stultifying, it says nothing, it is big and pompous and ugly. We hate it for exactly the same reasons Johnny Rotten said he hated dinosaur groups in 1976. To me U2 are a dinosaur group. They're saying nothing but they're pretending to be something. I think they're FAKE."

I would agree that this line of U2 crit made a lot more sense in 1989 than it does now.

where, during this period, they were selling out stadiums, incidentally

No, wait...

Anthony Is, in fact, Right. But only because he ignores Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Tennant's painfully rockist accusation of fakery.

U2 idolaters deserve an undending stream of scorn and mockery. The band and Bono still strike me as quite self-aware and often hilarious.

Usually I read the word "U2" in a headline as "Skip To Next Story," but I was prompted by this thread to actually read the interview. Bono comoes off as far more clearheaded than Kot, whose rockism he challenges in a way that, were he not Bono, many here might support.

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/images/guides/p1057837/tnt.jpg

One's in the MoMA's permanent collection, if you think I'm being a cheese-hound.

as an "indie rock" musician I gotta say Bono's actually kinda right - I *do* prefer my music to be in "a ghetto", because I don't see any virtue in being willfully absorbed into the larger marketplace. just let me have my little corner over here where no one's looking and I can do whatever I want....

Anyway, since when was this thread about music? I thought it was:

TS: Bloated Rock Hax0rz Who Should Have Retired A Decade Ago And Would Have If Not For The Opportunity To Do Good In The World That Comes With Money And Fame But Somehow Come Off As Even Bigger Douches Than If They Just Did It For The Money vs. Music-Writer-Slash-Consumer-Advocates Who Position Themselves As The Temple Guardians Of Teh Realness

Meanwhile, I can't believe George Foreman allowed his name on a kitchen gadget. Sellout/Douche.

I kiss you M@tt. There's the thread in a nutshell.

Off now to check the going rate to have "GoldenPalace.com" tattooed on Iggy Pop's back.

Now, that I've shilled... where's my money?

BONO: That's a really important point that I want to get across to you. There's this poverty of ambition, in terms of what rock people will do to promote their work. That's a critical issue to me.

The excitement of punk rock, in the Irish and UK scene when we were coming up, was seeing our favorite band on "Top of the Pops," right next to the "enemy." That would be exciting. We did talk shows, TV shows, back then. The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto. I don't like that kind of thinking. I know some of it exists, and some of our best friends are part of it. It's not for me.

Progressive rock was the enemy in 1976. And it still is. And it has many, many faces. This beast is lurking everywhere. It can describe itself as indie rock. It's the same [blanking] thing. It's misery. I have seen so many great minds struck down by it.

Lol is that a recent quote?

no, from the article upthread