Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I'm not a crew member or anything, but I fall under the "teens and twenties" members you described (i'll be 20 in June).
I heard Real Thing and Mysterious Ways and went "What? that can't be U2...". I bought Achtung Baby and just fell in love with the fact that this band was so versatile and different. Their music suddenly had some kind of hold over me, it gave me feelings that I couldn't even describe, and it gave me feelings that no other music gave me before. I suddenly fell in love with music itself, I picked up the guitar because of The Edge (still play to this day, in a band now) and I'm taking Music in university probably because of U2.
Suddenly I found music that could describe any feelings I had, and that could get me through anything. There's just something about hte music that htis band produces that has an effect on me, and many others (as seen around here) that can't even be described.
You describe the exact same thing I thought when I heard U2's older stuff - it was insane, mysterious, different, playful, sexy. AB really showed me how great the band was at soo many different things.
You're right, the music hits your feelings/emotions dead on about almost any situation in life. U2's music is like the soundtrack to everyone's life. Beautfiul.
Originally posted by KieranU2:It was in October 2000 when I first liked U2. I became a fan at a very young age, so of course, I had no real interest in music. I never really had an artist that I actually liked, I just liked that one song off an artist. So the Beautiful Day single was coming out and it was constantly on the radio. I never really paid attention to it the first couple of times it was on the radio until it started to grow on me. My brother loved it at the time, so he bought All That You Can't Leave Behind. I used to have this Grundig CD/Cassette player (which played some of the finest CDs I own to date) and my brother put the disc in. I never really liked alot of songs on it at first listen. I liked Beautiful Day, Elevation and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I also didn't mind Walk On. So they were the only 4 songs I would listen to on that album. Then my parents notice me and my brother's constant playing of U2. My dad gave us The Joshua Tree on cassette. Fell in love with most songs. Didn't like Exit or Red Hill Mining Town back then too, now I really like them. My mum started buying us U2 CDs (Best of 1980-1990, Boy) and I started to love them even more. She even bought us the Elevation Boston DVD with it's magnificent version of The Fly which I just spent all day watching, that one song. We went to Ireland 3 years in a row for holiday. That's where we bought Achtung Baby, Zooropa, The Unforgettable Fire, Pop and Rattle and Hum.
I had a very similar experience discovering U2.
I heard the song Elevation on MTV a few times when my sister would put MTV when she would come home from school back in 2001 and thought it sounded very unique and catchy. (At this point I had no favourite band or particular music at all; the only artist I would occasionally listen to would be Bruce Springsteen or Michael Jackson. I was one of the kids at school who had very little musical taste and knowledge.) I finally asked her who's song it was and she said U2, and off I go to my computer in google to find out who they are, and the funny thing is I searched "You Too" and couldn't find anything until my sister corrected me LOL.
When I discovered who 'U2' were, I was shocked at how much music they had done, and thought I would begin with the album that was out at the time ATYCLB. In the end, I loved the album so much after listening to it every single day, for months on end, that I wanted to get another album, and at Christmas my parents bought me U2's 1990-200 Best Of album. There, I discovered Pop, AB, Zooropa, etc and it really opened me to whole other place with their music. I just couldn't understand how a band could be this versatile and good at the same time, I was just amazed, intrigued, and eager to find more information.
Live performance wise that I first saw of them, was from the Slane DVD. Up to this point I had only heard their studio songs - not any live performances. Slane, blew-me-the-hell-away. I was so absorbed by the performance, I then immediately bought Live in Boston and the rest is history really. I got Best of 1980-1990, Pop and AB and Zooropa albums, watched tons of live performance videos online and listened to bootlegs. I read every piece of info I could about them, followed as many websites as I could that followed U2, and the love and obsession has never went away.
They also really opened me up to whole different genres of music I never knew existed, and there I have explored and found many great musicians/artists, but U2 will forever remain my No. 1.
