U2, Music Critics and The Music Industry: As Pathetic as You Can Get

Flashback to 1987: U2 released The Joshua Tree, the album that solidified their position as the greatest band on earth. The first two singles, “With or Without You” and “Where The Streets Have No Name” zoomed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The Joshua Tree Tour was an electrifying concert event that defined the stadium concert era. Back then, it seemed like U2 could do no wrong.

Zoom forward to 2007: After only ten weeks, U2’s U218: Singles album, featuring the new song, “Windows In The Sky,” has plummeted to number 53 on the the Billboard 200 album chart. The new single is a certified bomb. Indeed, the public has finally realized that U2 has jumped the shark. It’s amazing that it has taken the public so long to realize this, given that U2 had actually jumped the shark six years ago with their album All That You Can’t Leave Behind, which was basically a rewrite of U2’s other successful albums.

U2 were unfairly criticized for 1997’s Pop, which wasn’t perfect, but the band definitely deserved respect for their experimentation. So, in 2000, U2 decided to play it safe by releasing the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The critics and diehard U2 fans loved the album. “Beautiful Day,” the first single, sounded like a return to form, but the rest of the album was a cliché of U2’s other albums. The album sold well. However, in November of 2002, CBS aired a special about U2’s Elevation Tour which was a complete ratings bomb for U2 and the network.

In 2004, U2 released How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb to record sales of over 850,000 the first week of release. By then, however, the backlash had been firmly in place. Veteran Chicago music critic, Jim DeRogatis, declared the following about Bono: “But the singer's musings never rise above the level of fortune-cookie proverbs, and the most honest line in any of his lyrics comes in "All Because of You," when he confesses, "I like the sound of my own voice.”
U2 ‘s new album was a tie in to a U2 branded iPod. The very scruffy looking band members appeared in several commercials. Once again, U2’s diehard fans ate it up, but the more casual fans were wondering if U2 were going to appear in peanut butter ads soon. Indeed, the band, known for “not selling out,” had sold their souls to the Devil of Commercialism.

U2 followed up the lead single “Vertigo” with one of the worst songs ever created in the rock world, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” which included the following elementary lyrics: You don't have to put up a fight/You don't have to always be right/Let me take some of the punches/For you tonight.” The music critics, who would most likely get fired if they gave U2 a bad review, claimed the song to be one of U2’s best. To make matters worse, the song won “Song of The Year” at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the same organization that gave awards to Milli Vinilli and Jethro Tull. The sad part is that even though the awards achieved by these acts were laughable, their material, at the time, had far more substance than anything U2 has done recently.

The fact is if any other act had dared to put out “music” like U2 has recently, they would be crucified by unforgiving music critics and casual music fans as well. So why does U2 continue to receive constant praise and win awards for releasing material that doesn’t even deserve to be included as an extra “prize” at the bottom of a cereal box? One of my friends, a very popular music critic, told me that if you give U2, Bruce Springsteen, or The Beatles a bad review, you will most likely be fired. If a news organization actually allows a bad review for one of these acts, you have to say how great they are but you just don't prefer their current work. “You would think that we have freedom of speech in the media, but we don’t. It’s quite pathetic. I remember plenty of music writers were angry with Bruce Springsteen’s anti-police song “41 Shots,” back in 2000. They were not allowed to write about their anger because the news organizations that ran the media were against criticizing anybody that agreed with their extremist liberal beliefs.”

More important than political beliefs is the fact that the so-called “professional” music community chooses acts that they consider “good” and if people don’t like these acts, damn them to Hell! A perfect example is the website velvetrope, which contains a forum of so-called music professionals. There have been numerous threads trashing artists (and some deservingly) such as Britney Spears, James Blunt, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, and others. You would think that, from some of the threads, that one of these artists murdered somebody’s child. However, there are various threads which discuss U2, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Prince, and The Beatles. Even though there are a lot of people who dislike some of these acts (especially Bruce Springsteen and U2), you will probably only see a negative post or two on the topic. However, if you look a couple hours later, not only is the post removed, but the user is banned. That, my friends, is what the politically conspired music industry considers democracy.

Perhaps the greatest music critic in the business today is the previously mentioned Jim DeRogitis, who has the guts to criticize musical acts when they screw up, whether they are “Jesus Christ” figures or not. His review of U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and the Vertigo Tour that followed were some of the most harsh reviews I’ve ever read. However, they were also incredibly accurate. Jim DeRogitis, famous for his venomous reviews, was fired from Rolling Stone magazine in 1996 after he dared to write a negative review of Hootie and the Blowfish’s new album, Fairweather Johnson. Instead, his review was replaced with a more favorable one by current USA Today music critic, Elysa Gardner. After all, their previous album sold over 8.5 million copies at the time and they were the favorite band of frat boys everywhere. They were also the favorite band of politically correct media conglomerates everywhere for obvious reasons, so anything said against the band was considered a sin. Perhaps Jim DeRogitis had the last laugh: Fairweather Johnson not only bombed at the record stores, but pretty much turned the band into a joke.

U2 is scheduled to release an album later this year. You can bet that, no matter how bad the album is, positive reviews will be written far ahead of its actual release. The album will win several Grammy awards. Music critics, who dare to criticize the album, will be fired. Angry music listeners, who dare to post negative comments about U2 on message boards, will have their posts removed. This, my friends, is pathetic. So why do we constantly act surprised that the music industry has taken such a deep dive over the past five years?