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Let's get a couple things out of the way. The members of U2 are quite
talented. Talented marketers, businessmen, team members. The also
posess a fair amount of musical talent. They know how to hire the best,
produce shimmering collections of songs, and market them as the last true band, the last band that matters.
The fact is that their sound is largely the creation of Brian Eno and
Daniel Lanois. Their greatest songs are mostly Eno songs, Daniel Lanois
songs. No matter. Poetic pop constructs ... perfectly mixed mastered
and printed ... puffery pings the Zeitgeist ... but that's not enough for Bono.
Poor
Bono wants a Nobel, or a Pulitzer. He won't say it out loud. But this
hustler recognizes that world-class hustler's game, and if I didn't
find him such an ass, I would tip my hat.
He and Oprah have come up with Project(RED),
whereby consumers consume and a portion of the profits (not the gross)
are donated to African AIDS charities. Approximately $100 Million has
been spent by huge corporations for advertising, plastering Bono's face
all over the world, at their expense. As the British say,"Brilliant!"
So
far they've raised perhaps $25 million for charity from sales generated
by that $100 Million marketing campaign. Makes perfect sense, doesn't
it?
Okay, after the jump. The story that demonstrates to me that U2 are the most self-important ... uh ... dickwads on earth, and, as such, sit at the
same table with Sting and his god-awful horse-faced wife.
But
before you go, please note this picture of Bono with Dr. Gupta,
the man the Bush administration has sent out to trash Michael Moore and
his movie Sicko. Bono cavorts with Bush. What else do you need to know?
{okay, now click on read more}
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Music 
