1. ah...... my bad.... I get confused by the topline in my screen saying: "U2ie TOUR hits Vancouver in 3 days". That isn't the topic here, sorry....!

    on topic: bring back more POP !!!
    but no rush, I'm OK with qaiting until the tour hits europe...
  2. Originally posted by ahn1991:If they want to bring back Pop, bring back Please, Gone, or Staring at the Sun. Last Night On Earth could be nice, but it doesn't really fit with their current style...


    I would love to hear all of those songs, and actually think that a song like LNOE would work well as an aggressive rocker paired with a new one like Cedarwood Road.

    Plus, if they really want a transition between innocence and experience, thematically, Pop as a whole provides a great opportunity there! For me it definitely epitomizes the 90s era as U2's "loss of innocence," if that makes sense.
  3. Originally posted by bpt3:[..]


    .........Plus, if they really want a transition between innocence and experience, thematically, Pop as a whole provides a great opportunity there! For me it definitely epitomizes the 90s era as U2's "loss of innocence," if that makes sense.


    very good point!
  4. Pop was a critical album because it led U2 to produce one of their greatest works, ATYCLB. As much as I have my reservations about Pop, I do think it's a crucial part of their history and especially regarding Innocence/Experience, Pop was a time where they took the personas developed in Achtung Baby a bit too far.
  5. Funny as i loathed Pop when it first came out and now I listen to it more than any of their other studio albums.

    I believe it has held up much better than Zooropa.

    Would love to hear some tracks from it, but doubt they'd choose the ones I'd want most.
  6. That happened to a LOT of fans.
  7. I will admit that my opinion towards Pop has transitioned from ignoring its very existence to accepting it as a crucial part of U2's history and development. I haven't gotten so far as to listen to it more than any other studio album and I don't see that happening since SOI is such a strong album.
  8. It was mind-blowing for me too, but I also remember it was completely forgotten by MTV and their viewers. I was pissed. After that mesmerizing performance, all Chris Rock was able to say was that Bono looked like the Unabomber. Really? Then more Puff Daddy crap and no one talked about U2.
  9. Originally posted by ahn1991:I will admit that my opinion towards Pop has transitioned from ignoring its very existence to accepting it as a crucial part of U2's history and development. I haven't gotten so far as to listen to it more than any other studio album and I don't see that happening since SOI is such a strong album.
    I don't listen to the studio albums all that much as I listen to shows probably 95% of the time that I'm hearing U2.

    Pop is up there for me though when I want a U2 album outside of a playlist.

    Most listened to playlist is from Achtung on... The new songs obviously fit in really well.
  10. Originally posted by cesar_garza01:It was mind-blowing for me too, but I also remember it was completely forgotten by MTV and their viewers. I was pissed. After that mesmerizing performance, all Chris Rock was able to say was that Bono looked like the Unabomber. Really? Then more Puff Daddy crap and no one talked about U2.
    This statement is the core reason U2 decides to ignore Pop. Ironically, it has very little to do with the music itself. Pop is a weird album that has some great hits mixed with some junk, but in all honesty it's no different than any other typical album regarding its composition of hits and misses.


    Most people don't like what Pop represented. If I were to rationalize why U2 decided to do Pop as they did, it would be quite simple. Achtung Baby and ZooTV were wildly successful because of the jesting commentary about society. It openly played into the fact that the world is obscured by distractions and used that to produce some very genuine songs. U2 saw that success and figured that if it was worth doing, it was worth overdoing. The lyrics of Pop are similar in nature to Achtung Baby; genuine feelings intermixed with satire. Sometimes the balance is just right, but sometimes it feels like there's too much satire, which is fine if you like that sort of thing.

    The tour, however, is probably what destroyed U2's image at that time because it was way too far afield for Americans. They wanted to draw attention to consumer culture much like they brought sensory overload to ZooTV, but the people did not respond the same way. The idea of sensory overload and overwhelming media presence was well recognized in the early 1990s because of the global events occurring. People were generally accepting of U2's use and misuse of popular media. Consumer culture, on the other hand, was something so well ingrained into American society that they didn't even recognize it as a phenomenon. That's why when people saw U2 roll up with their giant McDonald's arch and Bono dressed up like some muscle guy they didn't get it. In a ways it mirrored the backlash they received from Rattle and Hum; telling Americans what their culture was.


    Basically, Pop as an album may have been more of a success if they promoted it and toured with it differently. I still think it's my least favorite U2 album as a whole.