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  1. In 1997, I was a sophomore in high school when Pop came out. I consumed MTV, Rolling Stone, Spin etc. and listened to alt-rock radio like it was my job. I was mocked by the kids in school when I wore my Popmart t-shirt to school. Trust me... that album flopped in the US. It sold a lot because of the U2 fans that bought it, but it had literally zero impact on popular culture. It was most famous for being U2’s supposed fall from grace. News sources gleefully cited half empty stadiums and under-rehearsed early concerts. It was the first U2 album to come out during my fandom, and I was so excited to get caught up in the wave. Imagine my disappointment as a teenager when my favorite band are suddenly the least cool band on the planet!!

    NLOTH was ignored by everyone. People took one listen to GOYB and said “NOPE! Not gonna buy that album” and moved on. But Pop was hated, because it was the cool thing to hate at the time. Had they released a different first single than Discotheque or GOYB, who knows what would’ve happened?
  2. siempre vi a NLOTH como el primo lejano de Achtung Baby lol
  3. Originally posted by muzika:[..]
    Pop was a lot more successful than anything they've done in the last 17 years

    No. Vertigo is a bigger hit than any pop single. Bomb outsold pop.

    As in post Bomb which is 17 years old
  5. Jeez!
  6. We're getting old 🤣🤣🤣 it's been a hell of a journey though. From 1989 or 90 when I got R+H on tape until now, shit .30+ years of loving U2. Now everyone's getting old and wrinkly. We all have our opinions of songs, albums, the direction of the band, etc, but I'm so thankful this community is still here 🍷
  7. Spare a thought for those of us coming up to 40 years of fandom. I was 17-18 like them when this journey started and War was the latest album. Now I'm on the downhill run towards 60. Still, I can't complain, they have provided the soundtrack for my adult life.
  8. Originally posted by podiumboy:In 1997, I was a sophomore in high school when Pop came out. I consumed MTV, Rolling Stone, Spin etc. and listened to alt-rock radio like it was my job. I was mocked by the kids in school when I wore my Popmart t-shirt to school. Trust me... that album flopped in the US. It sold a lot because of the U2 fans that bought it, but it had literally zero impact on popular culture. It was most famous for being U2’s supposed fall from grace. News sources gleefully cited half empty stadiums and under-rehearsed early concerts. It was the first U2 album to come out during my fandom, and I was so excited to get caught up in the wave. Imagine my disappointment as a teenager when my favorite band are suddenly the least cool band on the planet!!

    NLOTH was ignored by everyone. People took one listen to GOYB and said “NOPE! Not gonna buy that album” and moved on. But Pop was hated, because it was the cool thing to hate at the time. Had they released a different first single than Discotheque or GOYB, who knows what would’ve happened?
    Regarding Pop and the never-ending debates about it, it's helpful to read accounts like yours, since I didn't become a fan until 2004. It also helps confirm things that the band has said about the album "not communicating like it was supposed to" and "trying to have it both ways" by starting off more electronica/dance and then moving toward more traditional songwriting...yet never fully "finishing" it.

    What I'm left wondering is this: had the album become more of the flashy, soundtrack-of-summer type of album that at least Bono envisioned it being, would the PopMart tour have looked the same? In other words, had the album itself not turned out to be essentially something that "starts at a party - for just three songs - and then ends at a funeral", would the satire of the tour itself have actually worked? Maybe not at all? Or maybe even be enhanced...?

    Not sure if I'm making sense here because I can see it both ways. I love the irony of both the album and the tour and its whole satirical embrace of consumerism but also more and more can see what the band meant in retrospect about the whole era failing to live up to what they wanted to be (Bono saying "deep down, we weren't as shallow as we wanted to be.")
  9. Reading your posts about U2’s career being at the last chapter makes me sad , it also didn’t help I was listening to sad/beautiful music while reading it
  10. ...and the point still stands.

    Also idsay NLOTH is about the same saleswise as Pop.
  11. Pop was a lot more successful it had 5 hit singles(6 if you include Mofo ) No line had none ,Pop outsold No line by about 3 million so no your point is invalid.
  12. Originally posted by popmarter:[..]
    Pop was a lot more successful it had 5 hit singles(6 if you include Mofo ) No line had none ,Pop outsold No line by about 3 million so no your point is invalid.
    Pop has only outsold NLOTH by 1 million copies from the figures I’ve seen and we’re talking about a time when music sales were much greater when pop was released. The singles things is a different argument but as an album NLOTH was really a bigger commercial success. None of the pop singles have really stood the test of time either in terms of there commercial appeal. Even on radio stations which play u2 quite regularly I’ve never heard any pop song being played. I’ve not heard a NLOTH song being played either but I think the success the pop singles had only proves that u2 fans were more willing to go out and buy cd’s back in 1997 whereas by 2009 less fans were interested in cd singles and in fact after a quick check the pop singles weren’t really particularly successful anyway, quite comparable to the 3 NLOTH singles. Songs like song for someone, every breaking wave and love is bigger would far outsell any of the pop singles had they been released in 1997. I think magnificent would have been a bigger selling single than anything from pop and Boots probably would have been comparable since it was the lead single, I’ll go crazy as well. Pop wasn’t and isn’t a more successful album than NLOTH. A better album imo but not more successful.