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  1. I really do like Pop, and I’ve only really discovered it since the vinyl reissue came out in April. I distinctly remember the classic rock radio station where I worked playing Discotheque heavily in rotation and then Staring at the Sun. I’m just not sure Discotheque was the right song to be the lead single? Wonder if things would have been different if they had chosen Staring at the Sun to be the lead single, cuz it’s the most U2 sounding track, and then followed it up with Do You Feel Loved, and gently ease the general population into the musical direction they were going? Wonder if that had made any difference at all? I honestly think Discotheque was the wrong choice for lead single.
  2. Originally posted by ap5:For perspective, I consider Pop to be a top 3 or 4 album for the band.

    U2 want their albums to be embraced by as many people as possible while at the same time making music that interests them. I don’t think this path is necessarily “safe” or not. But it’s what they have always pursued. They are an incredibly insecure band (mostly in a genuinely positive, humble way).

    The fact that Pop was not embraced by the “average” music fan clearly bothered them - while for different reasons I think the reactions to RH and very much like NLOTH have bothered them as well - they try and change musical course as a reaction to those albums. It’s not purely sales, it’s about a pursuit to have their music be embraced as touchstones in as many peoples lives as possible. Their post-Pop output has largely been about trying to capture that broad audience again.

    Each of us may or may not like the albums that have resulted from their efforts - but I don’t think the bands underlying motivations have changed a whole lot. Bono’s “we don’t need the pop kids” during Zoo TV was nothing more than typical Bono hyperbole - the entire AB album was still at its core about the band trying to capture the widest audience possible.
    Perfectly put.
  3. Originally posted by JimmyMac91:I really do like Pop, and I’ve only really discovered it since the vinyl reissue came out in April. I distinctly remember the classic rock radio station where I worked playing Discotheque heavily in rotation and then Staring at the Sun. I’m just not sure Discotheque was the right song to be the lead single? Wonder if things would have been different if they had chosen Staring at the Sun to be the lead single, cuz it’s the most U2 sounding track, and then followed it up with Do You Feel Loved, and gently ease the general population into the musical direction they were going? Wonder if that had made any difference at all? I honestly think Discotheque was the wrong choice for lead single.
    I think you could be right about SATS being a better choice for 1st single. The sound plus the image with the discotheque video probably was a bit of a challenge for some. While we’re on the topic of singles from pop every time I listen to or think about LNOE im amazed it wasn’t more successful, i guess I’m in the minority but it just sounds like a great u2 single that could easily have been played regularly after popmart, I don’t know what I’m missing with that one and why it wasn’t a big selling single.
  4. Originally posted by ap5:For perspective, I consider Pop to be a top 3 or 4 album for the band.

    U2 want their albums to be embraced by as many people as possible while at the same time making music that interests them. I don’t think this path is necessarily “safe” or not. But it’s what they have always pursued. They are an incredibly insecure band (mostly in a genuinely positive, humble way).

    The fact that Pop was not embraced by the “average” music fan clearly bothered them - while for different reasons I think the reactions to RH and very much like NLOTH have bothered them as well - they try and change musical course as a reaction to those albums. It’s not purely sales, it’s about a pursuit to have their music be embraced as touchstones in as many peoples lives as possible. Their post-Pop output has largely been about trying to capture that broad audience again.

    Each of us may or may not like the albums that have resulted from their efforts - but I don’t think the bands underlying motivations have changed a whole lot. Bono’s “we don’t need the pop kids” during Zoo TV was nothing more than typical Bono hyperbole - the entire AB album was still at its core about the band trying to capture the widest audience possible.


    Very well said!
  6. Thank you!

    „There is a beautiful thing when a real drummer plays a groove right. You can sample forever, but once you put it into the hands of a drummer who can play and has a groove, then it takes off into another world. “ Howie B
  7. I‘ve been to B+E‘s The Kitchen at the Clarence when Howie B played his set in 2000..... quite an obscure evening.....
  8. ..
  9. Great to see there's another Pop fan. Only maybe five or six records from the last 50 years can compare for innovation.

    Totally agree. Spent most of the late 90s defending this album.
  10. Originally posted by FromMEtoU2: Great to see there's another Pop fan. Only maybe five or six records from the last 50 years can compare for innovation.

    Totally agree. Spent most of the late 90s defending this album.
    Think we are still defending now. Brought the vinyl last week and keep playing it through in full, such a great album.
  11. Yes, indeed. This album will always be U2's Black Sheep, and the worst part of it is that it's not only casual fans who despise it, but also lots of so-called true fans, carried by the band's hate for this piece of work...
  12. Originally posted by LikeASong:Yes, indeed. This album will always be U2's Black Sheep, and the worst part of it is that it's not only casual fans who despise it, but also lots of so-called true fans, carried by the band's hate for this piece of work...
    Unless for some reason someone just doesn't like the "sound" of this record, or the lyrics, or for some reason finds it uninteresting, I just think those people don't really understand this record. I hate how that makes me sound, elitist, snobby, but that's not really how I mean to sound. Pop is like Achtung Baby, in that understanding its context in the U2 canon makes it that much more interesting, but Pop is definitely less accessible. You can give Achtung Baby to someone who doesn't know U2 at all and they'd probably find more than a few things they like on it. Pop, maybe not so much. It's way more niche sounding, and the lyrics are definitely more personal and darker. But when you're familiar with U2 and you know really what Pop means and did to the band, it makes it that much more interesting as an album. As a fan, I've definitely come around a LOT on this album since I became a fan. A LOT.

    I think the album is up there with U2's best, and I really would consider it up there with Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby if it had that last tiny bit of polish on it. If the entire album had the polish that say, Gone (Pop album version) vs Gone (new mix from best of album version) had, it would be one of U2's greats. I'm not sure people would've had a different reaction, but still. I'm speaking from an objective perspective though. Subjectively, I think it might be U2's most interesting record in terms of both the album itself, the band U2 were when they recorded it, and what it did to U2 afterwards.

    For anyone who hasn't read this article, it's fucking great and basically encapsulates what we all know about this album and its context in a really well-written and thought-out article by a huge U2 fan: https://www.stereogum.com/1927982/pop-turns-20/franchises/the-anniversary/.

    It's crazy on how on-point this writer is, and really makes you realize that yes, U2 is literally still on the same reactionary path they set out on post-Pop. Like their output since then or not, it's clear they've never really "recovered". NLOTH has some hints of it (as I've been gushing about in that NLOTH thread the past few days), but they've never gone back to that same headspace, totally.