U2start.com | Popmart Tour

Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
so... U2: At the End of the World 2: The Last Night on Earth by Bill Flanagan.

Now I want this.

I got excited because I thought this was legit...

LSMelo

9 years

I was 29 at that time when I saw them in Lisbon (in September). for me Pop was na excelente tour, and Sarajevo is THE show of the band. Even with all the the problems occored in the show, and specilly with Bono's voice.

I would love to have a Sarajevo Proshot!!!

Edwin_B

9 years

not the most favorite tour

Alvin

9 years

Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
Sure, and that's a very popular opinion in every U2 forum... just keep in mind that for every single fan that sees it this way, there's 10 U2 fans out there who see it/saw it as the exact opposite.
It's all relative.

I just really felt it like that. I know it's just my opinion and there are many fans who feel it opposite way. But it was about that time and many bands that time collaborated with electronics... Have you been fan that time already? (sorry, don't know how old are you

)

Bloodraven

9 years

Originally posted by Alvin:[..]

I just really felt it like that. I know it's just my opinion and there are many fans who feel it opposite way. But it was about that time and many bands that time collaborated with electronics... Have you been fan that time already? (sorry, don't know how old are you )

I already had been married to U2 for 10 years or so, so I loved everything they did.
But I hated (and I guess I still do) the electronic/dance/techno music.
So my approach to the whole Pop era (and AB before that) was not really with excitement.

Looking back at it is like when you get on a car with a reckless driver and once you arrive safe to your destiny you think "hey, that was fun!", but you can remember that you didn't really enjoyed the ride and running all those red lights.
Like that, I can now enjoy Pop in a "hey, that was fun!", but back then I was not really excited about it.

But then again, it was U2, so I still loved the album and the tour AND I had to "defend" both with people who thought that the band had sold-out and they were making totally mainstream poppy music (electronic/tecno/dance was mainstream poppy back then, so while now that album may look very alternative and taking risks and so on, I don't think that was the perception back then, at least in my circles).

pleasegone

9 years

Interesting thoughts, Bloodraven. I was not much into electronic music, but I fully embraced Achtung, and Pop. Underneath all the loops, samples, and noise, were great U2 songs, and I really have not gotten into much electronic music since. I really am into more traditional pop/rock/funk as I have given Prince loads of you know what for what seems like pandering to young people who won't even buy his albums with his foray into EDM. But U2 have taken a decent path since Pop...albeit a very safe path.

Bloodraven

9 years

Originally posted by pleasegone:Underneath all the loops, samples, and noise, were great U2 songs

Absolutely. It's a great rock album, the (few) loops and samples were nothing but a disguise/distraction.

But talking about Pop is an endless rabbit hole. There were way too many circumstances surrounding that album. We're not even going into the whole "it wasn't finished" thing.

Alvin

9 years

Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
I already had been married to U2 for 10 years or so, so I loved everything they did.
But I hated (and I guess I still do) the electronic/dance/techno music.
So my approach to the whole Pop era (and AB before that) was not really with excitement.

Looking back at it is like when you get on a car with a reckless driver and once you arrive safe to your destiny you think "hey, that was fun!", but you can remember that you didn't really enjoyed the ride and running all those red lights.
Like that, I can now enjoy Pop in a "hey, that was fun!", but back then I was not really excited about it.

But then again, it was U2, so I still loved the album and the tour AND I had to "defend" both with people who thought that the band had sold-out and they were making totally mainstream poppy music (electronic/tecno/dance was mainstream poppy back then, so while now that album may look very alternative and taking risks and so on, I don't think that was the perception back then, at least in my circles).

If you mean Chemical Brothers, Prodigy or Underworld were poppy, then okay...

Seriously I think they wanted to go the alternative electronics way and not every dance was mainstreem and poppy...

Bloodraven

9 years

Originally posted by Alvin:[..]
If you mean Chemical Brothers, Prodigy or Underworld were poppy, then okay...
Seriously I think they wanted to go the alternative electronics way and not every dance was mainstreem and poppy...

I'm assuming the bands you mentioned are not poppy, which I'd probably know if I knew anything about electro/dance/techno music, which I obviously don't.

But that's sort of my point:
The whole genre sounds mainstream/poppy to many people, and a rock band venturing in those waters is easily viewed as that band giving up and safely going mainstream/poppy to sell out, even more if they -in their attempt to be ironic- name their album "Pop", made the album cover shinny and colourful, their first single is called "Discotheque", the video is them not only dancing, but dancing and dressing like the Village People and the tour announcement is made inside a K-Mart.
You hardly can blame the people from thinking that that was a huge sellout, a desperate and cheap move to try to sell as many records as possible.
Again, in retrospective, it was a bold move, but at the time it wasn't viewed bold at all.

---

(Also, again, I loved the album -it was the new U2 album, how could I hated it?- I defended it at the time, and I don't even think it's THAT electrotechnodancey... it's one of their most hard rock albums anyway.

And also, the album and how people thought about the album is just one side of what "went wrong" with the Popmart tour, which is the subject of this thread. And that's why I don't want to dwell into the album itself, just on how people saw the album back then and how it might have affected the tour.)

Bloodraven

9 years

i.e. it's like if NLOTH would have had touches of reggaeton in it... sure, probably 10 years from now people would think that that was a bold move, but at the time would've been "a bit" embarrassing.

patou2

9 years