If you hate U2, it’s because you know good music, right? You know that this watered down, apathetic mush that U2 puts out is neither extreme enough to be fun or iconoclastic enough to be interesting. It’s radio drivel. You hate it. Go snob go!
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m certainly not about to go buy the whole U2 catalog, but I don’t hate U2. While they don’t endear themselves to me, I respect (most of) what they’re doing.
I present my case in two points.
First point: The Negativland incident.
In 1991, experimental/noise project Negativland produced an EP titled ‘U2′ that was presented so as to perhaps trick the unsuspecting record buyer into thinking it was some new single from U2. The EP featured a cacophonous cover of Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and ‘The Letter U And The Numeral 2,’ which sampled Casey Kasem heatedly discussing his distaste for, among other things, U2. Negativland had the crap sued out of them by Island Records, U2′s label. However, U2 guitarist Edge later admitted in an interview that much of the suit was done without U2′s knowledge, and U2 even went so far as to use their influence to have a re-release of the EP issued. That’s the kind of response to a good natured ribbing that you wouldn’t get from, say, Metallica.
Second Point: Their Older Shit Wasn’t Better
I could wax philosophical all afternoon about why exactly musicians tend to get worse as they age, but the reasons aren’t important. It’s very rare indeed that a band can keep the same vibrancy when it’s been around for a long time. However, I submit that U2 has done a pretty remarkable job.
Here’s I Will Follow, U2′s first video:
I was going to compare that with the clip of U2 playing Elevation on Saturday Night Live back in 2000. It was pretty wild. Bono jumped offstage and ran out into the audience, and the camera people were totally unprepared for it, so they had to just film the rest of the band while Bono was off-screen. Unfortunately, I can’t find that clip, but I found a more recent Saturday Night Live clip of them, and it really isn’t very awesome, so maybe my argument’s totally shot.