SOE
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  1. The past several comments have definitely had so many valid points. I also think though that this album could make or break the band; really at this point in their career any new album or move can make or break them in regards to their existence in the zeitgeist of current music.

    That said, of course barring some crazy revelation, nothing the band does will break them in terms of their legacy and nothing will make them any more famous than they are.
  2. I think it doesn’t matter what the band do in terms of how they’re going to be perceived by the wider public. Even if they released an album on a par with Achtung Baby the general public wouldn’t recognise it in the same way. Sure it would get great feedback amongst fans possibly some great reviews, but I’m now of the belief that it still wouldn’t be enough to capture them a huge hit or get the recognition that some of the modern day artists are getting today. I don’t think u2 will ever have a make or break moment again because they have secured there legacy a long time ago but I guess the worst thing is they could lose some of the die hard fans and even then not enough to make a significant difference I don’t feel. I don’t think they can gain a significant amount of fans at this stage of there career either.
  3. Originally posted by deanallison:I think it doesn’t matter what the band do in terms of how they’re going to be perceived by the wider public. Even if they released an album on a par with Achtung Baby the general public wouldn’t recognise it in the same way. Sure it would get great feedback amongst fans possibly some great reviews, but I’m now of the belief that it still wouldn’t be enough to capture them a huge hit or get the recognition that some of the modern day artists are getting today. I don’t think u2 will ever have a make or break moment again because they have secured there legacy a long time ago but I guess the worst thing is they could lose some of the die hard fans and even then not enough to make a significant difference I don’t feel. I don’t think they can gain a significant amount of fans at this stage of there career either.

    Agree
    (I only have my doubts about the "great feedback among fans" bit, but otherwise I totally agree)
  4. Short answer: No.

    The long answer is more of a rebuttal to the question itself. If you look at the comments on this website, the general sentiment is that U2 is on the downswing and/or hasn't released anything noteworthy since the 1990s. If you look at people who consider themselves casual U2 fans, there are quite a few who are still interested in their new material. I've said it many times before that it is grossly incorrect to assume SOI was anything short of a massive success. All of U2's albums available on iTunes (including live material) experienced a massive surge in purchasing after the release of SOI. To disregard the iTunes free download statistics is to basically disregard the band's entire album promotion and release strategy, so that data point is massively skewed against them.

    Regarding their newer material, I've seen a lot of positive responses from those normally outside of the U2 camp. Bono's collaboration with Drake drew a lot of praise from the rap/hip hop community and Bono's collaboration with Kygo has been seen as an unexpectedly successful pairing by the EDM community, These two points show that the band is already reaching into fan demographics that would normally write off U2's material by virtue of being Rock.

    Additionally, you talk about sales as a metric of success for the past few albums. I would argue that we have long entered an era where album sales are no longer an accurate measure of success.

    Every album seems to be a "make or break" point for the band on this site and my guess is that having every album symbolize some major crux event makes the build up much more interesting to follow. People want to dramatize everything if they can because nowadays it's not enough for bands to be doing what they want for reasons of their own choosing.
  5. Originally posted by ahn1991:Short answer: No.

    The long answer is more of a rebuttal to the question itself. If you look at the comments on this website, the general sentiment is that U2 is on the downswing and/or hasn't released anything noteworthy since the 1990s. If you look at people who consider themselves casual U2 fans, there are quite a few who are still interested in their new material. I've said it many times before that it is grossly incorrect to assume SOI was anything short of a massive success. All of U2's albums available on iTunes (including live material) experienced a massive surge in purchasing after the release of SOI. To disregard the iTunes free download statistics is to basically disregard the band's entire album promotion and release strategy, so that data point is massively skewed against them.

    Regarding their newer material, I've seen a lot of positive responses from those normally outside of the U2 camp. Bono's collaboration with Drake drew a lot of praise from the rap/hip hop community and Bono's collaboration with Kygo has been seen as an unexpectedly successful pairing by the EDM community, These two points show that the band is already reaching into fan demographics that would normally write off U2's material by virtue of being Rock.

    Additionally, you talk about sales as a metric of success for the past few albums. I would argue that we have long entered an era where album sales are no longer an accurate measure of success.

    Every album seems to be a "make or break" point for the band on this site and my guess is that having every album symbolize some major crux event makes the build up much more interesting to follow. People want to dramatize everything if they can because nowadays it's not enough for bands to be doing what they want for reasons of their own choosing.
    1. If you think U2 hasn’t released anything noteworthy since the 1990s, what the hell are you doing on a site like this? You aren’t a real fan in my book.

    2. I am not sure that I know any casual fans who are excited for new material; to me casual fans would be more inclined to just like the old stuff and maybe not even know they have a new album coming.

    3. Totally agree with you about SOI. It wasn’t us buying those songs and albums on iTunes. (I also think we would have gotten a more aggressive promo if Bono hadn’t been injured).

    4. I wish Bono collaborated with Drake. It was Kendrick.

    5. I think sales do matter. I’m not sure how exactly sales were measured in 2009 and 2014, did they reflect downloads and streams, (were there downloads and streams?!)? I would say though that album sales are just a piece of the promo pie... what about tours?

    6. Regarding the positive response to new material: my local news airs an entertainment minute that they receive from elsewhere, possibly CNN and U2 has been covered 4 times in recent months, one touting the success of The Joshua Tree Tour, one about The Blackout on Facebook and two about You’re The Best Thing About Me- (single release and video).
  6. Originally posted by ahn1991:Short answer: No.

    The long answer is more of a rebuttal to the question itself. If you look at the comments on this website, the general sentiment is that U2 is on the downswing and/or hasn't released anything noteworthy since the 1990s. If you look at people who consider themselves casual U2 fans, there are quite a few who are still interested in their new material. I've said it many times before that it is grossly incorrect to assume SOI was anything short of a massive success. All of U2's albums available on iTunes (including live material) experienced a massive surge in purchasing after the release of SOI. To disregard the iTunes free download statistics is to basically disregard the band's entire album promotion and release strategy, so that data point is massively skewed against them.

    Regarding their newer material, I've seen a lot of positive responses from those normally outside of the U2 camp. Bono's collaboration with Drake drew a lot of praise from the rap/hip hop community and Bono's collaboration with Kygo has been seen as an unexpectedly successful pairing by the EDM community, These two points show that the band is already reaching into fan demographics that would normally write off U2's material by virtue of being Rock.

    Additionally, you talk about sales as a metric of success for the past few albums. I would argue that we have long entered an era where album sales are no longer an accurate measure of success.

    Every album seems to be a "make or break" point for the band on this site and my guess is that having every album symbolize some major crux event makes the build up much more interesting to follow. People want to dramatize everything if they can because nowadays it's not enough for bands to be doing what they want for reasons of their own choosing.


    10 handclaps to you, sir. Standing O from me.
  7. Originally posted by kris_smith87:[..]
    1. If you think U2 hasn’t released anything noteworthy since the 1990s, what the hell are you doing on a site like this? You aren’t a real fan in my book.

    2. I am not sure that I know any casual fans who are excited for new material; to me casual fans would be more inclined to just like the old stuff and maybe not even know they have a new album coming.

    3. Totally agree with you about SOI. It wasn’t us buying those songs and albums on iTunes. (I also think we would have gotten a more aggressive promo if Bono hadn’t been injured).

    4. I wish Bono collaborated with Drake. It was Kendrick.

    5. I think sales do matter. I’m not sure how exactly sales were measured in 2009 and 2014, did they reflect downloads and streams, (were there downloads and streams?!)? I would say though that album sales are just a piece of the promo pie... what about tours?

    6. Regarding the positive response to new material: my local news airs an entertainment minute that they receive from elsewhere, possibly CNN and U2 has been covered 4 times in recent months, one touting the success of The Joshua Tree Tour, one about The Blackout on Facebook and two about You’re The Best Thing About Me- (single release and video).
    Sales matter, and they don't... this is the streaming age.

    Record companies used to be about longevity on a project... the build and sustain. Now they want 1st week numbers and they move on to next weeks release and let the streams and downloads try to sustain themselves (except for the handful of records they are pumping money to keep in hourly rotation on your radio station)

    The "backlash" on SOI was actually a massive win for the band (as Alex previously mentioned) The detractors will have you believe otherwise, but as mentioned, catalog sales had a huge surge and even charted again... and how many people actually downloaded the album?

    I could go on and on, but Alex basically said everything in one well packaged post...

  8. I don’t think sales are too important either although they’ll still be wanting to shift a fair few albums however views on YouTube is a pretty good indicator of how u2 compare these days to some of the modern artists. It’s a place where people don’t even need to pay for the music they can effectively try it out for free yet u2 are miles behind the modern artists. Don’t get me wrong u2 are better than them all, well in my opinion, but it shows that a lot of people really aren’t that interested in new u2 material. It’s only the die hards that even give it a chance I’d say and a lot of die hards aren’t convinced by it either, but I’m only balancing things out, I see SOI as a great album and I’m looking forward to SOE from what we’ve heard so far. I do think u2 are way past it in terms of appealing to the masses but I don’t think they’re past it in releasing great music.
  9. Originally posted by deanallison:I don’t think sales are too important either although they’ll still be wanting to shift a fair few albums however views on YouTube is a pretty good indicator of how u2 compare these days to some of the modern artists. It’s a place where people don’t even need to pay for the music they can effectively try it out for free yet u2 are miles behind the modern artists. Don’t get me wrong u2 are better than them all, well in my opinion, but it shows that a lot of people really aren’t that interested in new u2 material. It’s only the die hards that even give it a chance I’d say and a lot of die hards aren’t convinced by it either, but I’m only balancing things out, I see SOI as a great album and I’m looking forward to SOE from what we’ve heard so far. I do think u2 are way past it in terms of appealing to the masses but I don’t think they’re past it in releasing great music.
    agreed, well said. the band is not getting great ammounts of views on YT. TBT should have at least triple the views it has now, i don't think the masses care about U2 anymore, sure they sellout where they play still but its starting to seem like with U2 where its one of those acts you see because of the name, to add it to the list. Even Coldplay is like that now, they are not getting the YT views they once did. Coldplay in melbourne last year had 55,000 the same stadium for Adle had 77,000 a month later. it seems nowadays more and more people (my friends and wife included) don't care about bands its all about solo, artist's.
    in the scheme of things U2 as much as we think they are the greatest thing ever, the wider mass does not agree, sure everybody's got their own thoughts about the best band ever, a lot of people even deny the achievements of U2. No ones really talking about them at least no one i know. Bon Jovi, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, U2 ect..are yesterdays news. As much i love them if were being honest here U2 have not really impacted music since 2001, Vertigo was the last real "hit" if we are going by chart success. HTDAAB, NLOTH, SOI, were all good albums, but they missed something i feel that could of made them truely great albums. SOE will be the same, a good U2 album, but lacking the earlier days punch in the face type of music, and that's fine i'm just happy new songs are on the way, and i will grow like every U2 album to love and dislike things about it. I think Bono is sounding great still , there''s a level of huskie in his voice a rough sound at times which i think sounds good, a more mature feel. We sometimes bash on his voice but with the new album and next years tour, the songs will sound fresh with his voice the way it is. Not sure how long his Chords will hold out.
  10. Originally posted by deanallison:I don’t think sales are too important either although they’ll still be wanting to shift a fair few albums however views on YouTube is a pretty good indicator of how u2 compare these days to some of the modern artists. It’s a place where people don’t even need to pay for the music they can effectively try it out for free yet u2 are miles behind the modern artists. Don’t get me wrong u2 are better than them all, well in my opinion, but it shows that a lot of people really aren’t that interested in new u2 material. It’s only the die hards that even give it a chance I’d say and a lot of die hards aren’t convinced by it either, but I’m only balancing things out, I see SOI as a great album and I’m looking forward to SOE from what we’ve heard so far. I do think u2 are way past it in terms of appealing to the masses but I don’t think they’re past it in releasing great music.
    I think you have to factor in demographics, too... U2 has such a diverse crowd (old, like me, to young 'uns like y'all, LOL) A lot of the older crowd, I would suspect, don't spend as much time perusing YouTube or the web, really and aren't as in tune with the current release or upcoming buzz... they'll find out later the old fashioned way. Not saying everyone, mind you, but the younger generation seems to be more adept, more of a puls, shall I say, of whats trending and I think that's why you see of the more "modern" artists, as you call them , with the views and streams they do... Does that make sense? I haven't had coffee yet...
  11. Originally posted by blueeyedboy:[..]
    I think you have to factor in demographics, too... U2 has such a diverse crowd (old, like me, to young 'uns like y'all, LOL) A lot of the older crowd, I would suspect, don't spend as much time perusing YouTube or the web, really and aren't as in tune with the current release or upcoming buzz... they'll find out later the old fashioned way. Not saying everyone, mind you, but the younger generation seems to be more adept, more of a puls, shall I say, of whats trending and I think that's why you see of the more "modern" artists, as you call them , with the views and streams they do... Does that make sense? I haven't had coffee yet...
    That's true indeed, a lot of their fans are not into or on the web. YouTube buzz.
  12. Originally posted by blueeyedboy:[..]
    I think you have to factor in demographics, too... U2 has such a diverse crowd (old, like me, to young 'uns like y'all, LOL) A lot of the older crowd, I would suspect, don't spend as much time perusing YouTube or the web, really and aren't as in tune with the current release or upcoming buzz... they'll find out later the old fashioned way. Not saying everyone, mind you, but the younger generation seems to be more adept, more of a puls, shall I say, of whats trending and I think that's why you see of the more "modern" artists, as you call them , with the views and streams they do... Does that make sense? I haven't had coffee yet...
    Yeah I think that’s a good point, definitely a larger percentage of say ed Sheeran fans will go on to YouTube than u2 fans but I still don’t think that accounts for u2’s new single getting 6-7 million views between the videos combined and Ed Sheeran getting over a billion views for some videos. I just don’t think u2 can cut it in terms of popularity these days, not just sales wise but in every category. As Michael mentioned above they sell out concerts, or at least they get large crowds but I don’t think there new material has anything to do with it. I just don’t think they have ‘it’ anymore when it comes to appealing to people with their new material. Again that doesn’t mean it isn’t good it just means a lot of people don’t care.