In defense of Bono's political work

>>71832521
The 70's and 80's

Bono grew up in a mixed household, his father Catholic and his mother Protestant, in Ireland. There are literal walls ("Peace Lines" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_lines) separating those neighborhoods to this day. Early on, U2 were rooted in the post-punk scene and part of the general anti-Thatcher sentiment any proper UK band held, with an album called War, and Bono would run around a stage with a white flag like a proper 22-year-old idiot. But they managed to score their first UK top-40 hits with songs about politics and religion, which is a feat of its own.

Throughout the 80's, their albums address various causes, ranging from the Polish Solidarity movement (New Year's Day) to Irish Troubles (Sunday Bloody Sunday), to the USA's proxy war in El Salvador (Bullet the Blue Sky), Heroin addiction (Bad, Running to Stand Still) to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of women whose children had been "disappeared" by the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships (see below) (Mothers of the Disappeared).

In the mid-80's, U2's status had grown much larger and worldwide, Bono was part of the earnest-but-cringey superstar charity efforts like, "Do They Know It's Christmas?", "We Are The World" and Live Aid. Live Aid made U2 superstars, and money went to Africa. But Bono was disappointed by its effectiveness: "The $125 million we raised with that show was less than what African countries were paying in interest on the debt every day." (http://fortune.com/bono-u2-one/) People thought they could buy an album and save a country - the 80's equivalent of slacktivism.

...And then Rattle & Hum came out. 29 years ago in 1988. And it had so much humorless, self-important cringe it haunts them to this day. (Here's the worst of it: https://vimeo.com/187490007) This movie is where where most of the reputation comes from, which is funny because a lot of the people expressing their opinion about Bono being sanctimonious weren't even born yet.

The 90's

U2 arrived on 3 October 1990 on the last flight into East Berlin before it became Berlin again. After dutifully hiding away there in shame about Rattle & Hum, U2 returned with Achtung Baby and the ZooTV tour, the most spot-on prediction and criticism of post-Internet society by anyone not named Philip K. Dick. It was inspired by the ease of changing a channel from the live missile-cams destruction of Baghdad to ... whatever else was on TV. During shows, Bono would prank called the White House (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgYzASFZPU), and remixed the Iraq War address (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mM8J9zOio). There was a "confession booth" outside the stadium and they would put their favorite confessions up on the jumbotron. They'd flash hundreds of words/phrases onto the screen during The Fly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-XgdWdbvRs) that celebrated, predicted, and lampooned the endless stream of data we now live with. In 1992.

(As an aside, ZooTV opening acts included: Public Enemy, The Pixies, PJ Harvey, Pearl Jam, Primus, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, B.A.D. II, Paul Oakenfold, and The Sugarcubes.)

The most spine-tingling moment for me was when they would interrupt this insane, spectacle rock concert to talk live via a satellite connection with people living in Sarajevo, where a huge, genocidal war was raging just a few hundred miles from many of their European gigs (The Bosnian War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War). It was a huge, fuck-your-complacency bomb right on their audience's lap. On the first transmission one of the people in Sarajevo said: "on a personal note, a friend of mine [that] had the piece of grenade ... in his head. He died this morning..."). And then U2, again playing on the TV metaphor, played some hits. Hell, this happens on Imgur all the time - kittens, death, politics, kittens. (Video showing the first transmission of 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx9sHA7q70)

>>71832596
The 90's part 2

For a few years, they couldn't play Sarajevo because, basically, any group of 20+ people would immediately get a mortar fired into the middle of them. But in September 1995, their concert took place at Koševo Stadium, which was previously used as a morgue during the war. Bono's voice was completely shot, but they made do, and the concert gave the city its first breath of normalcy in years. Although it was a short-lived peace, the AP said: "For two magical hours, the rock band U2 achieved what warriors, politicians and diplomats could not: They united Bosnia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_concert_in_Sarajevo They also played (badly) their song Miss Sarajevo, about Sarajevo's underground resistance movement that included a beauty contest where the participants all held a banner that said, "DON'T LET THEM KILL US." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Sarajevo

In 1997, their album POP gave them their other PEAK CRINGE moment of self-parody: The ABC special hosted by Dennis Hopper. It is awesome in its awfulness, but thankfully nobody watched it. (But you can if you hate yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m29l7h2zpOc.)

As mentioned above, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo were focused on Pinochet's torture/murder regime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_violations_in_Pinochet%27s_Chile), So when U2 went to Santiago in 1998, U2 actually BROUGHT THEM ON STAGE and directly addressed Pinochet in his own country's capital, in a stadium used by his regime as a prison camp after the 1973 coup d'état. "Tell these mothers: Where are their children? [...] So they can bury them; so they can say goodbye to them; so Chile can say goodbye to the past." Ballsy as fuck. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxw8o1xzjQE RS article: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-u2-honor-the-mothers-of-the-disappeared-in-chile-20131105

>>71832616
The 90's final

Another example of him doing a small but important part in a peace process, Bono was organized an impromptu handshake and victory hand-raising between Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume in support of a referendum 1998 that ultimately ended the era known as The Troubles in Ireland. The image was a boon to the Yes supporters, and basically happened because Bono is good at getting people to do this kind of thing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/good_friday_agreement

He's a rich guy who tries to do nice things and charity shit instead of drugs and alcohol, and people hate him for it because they think he gets too much credit.

...even though people hate him for it.

>>71832636
The Aughts

Bono turned his attention back to Africa after that. He worked with the Bush administration on PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) in 2003, the legislation that has earmarked some $60 billion in the fight against AIDS to date. "Dick Cheney came into the Oval Office and said, ‘Jesse Helms wants you to listen to Bono’s ideas,’” - President Bush announcing PEPFAR. New HIV infections have gone from 3.0 million in 2000 to about 1.3; those numbers inversely correlate to the massive amount of antiretroviral medications that the funding puts into Africa.

He worked with far-left liberals George Bush Jr., Jesse Helms, and Karl Rove to reduce African debt to 1st world nations. (Bush, who liked nicknaming people, named him The Pest.) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/18/usa.debtrelief

Transitioning into the 10's

Well, the "Vertigo" thing looks less cool in hindsight and that era of 2004 - 2007 was the last time U2 was truely perceived as relevant or at all "cool "(at least among a certain demo). Their 2009 album No Line On The Horizon started as an attempt at experimenting with North African folk music and Eno electronics and ambience and ended as a watered down rock record stuffed with three rushed U2-by-numbers anthems in the middle of it for fear that the experimentation wouldn't be welcomed by the general public. The album was neither a huge critical or commercial success and the horrible lead single "Get On Your Boots" was their last foray into the US Top 40 and last UK Number 1. By the turn of the 2010s it was clear that U2's age of relevance and popularity as as singles and albums band was fading. Though the concert tour going was the most successful of all time. U2 had officially become a heritage act.

Good thread, OP. It's not going to generate a lot of debate because you made a lot of good points defending a pretty reasonable position: that a guy who does a lot of charity work isn't a piece of shit.

But it's a good thread, well-researched, and I agree with you. The South Park guys are still gonna' hate him, but what can you do?

>>71832826
Today

So, there was that iTunes thing. And I suppose that is their scheduled dumbass thing of the decade. "I had this beautiful idea and we kind of got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard."
Lately he's been working with ONE, the organization he started, to push legislative change. That's important: If there's one thing Bono understands better than most people do, it's that most of this feelgood charity stuff is useless unless you get into the ear - or other orifice - of a politician to get things done. https://www.one.org/ and http://fortune.com/bono-u2-one/

In other words, the guy helped push legislation through U.S. Congress during both the Bush and Obama administrations. That money that saved thousands & thousands of lives. And he did it by schmoozing the bejeezus out of a LOT of VERY different people: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Helms, Marco Rubio, Angela Merkel, Bill Gates, Diana Pelosi, Beyonce, Coca Cola's CEO Muhtar Kent, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Democrats, Republicans, Irish Republicans, and on and on -- and you don't get to be their friends without a goddamn ton of work.

Cool thread OP, the guy definitely doesnt deserve the flack he gets

One last story, with extra feels

"I went to Ethiopia with my wife, Ali. We were there for a month and an extraordinary thing happened to me. We used to wake up in the morning and the mist would be lifting we'd see thousands and thousands of people who'd been walking all night to our food station were we were working. One man--I was standing outside talking to the translator--had this beautiful boy and he was saying to me in Amharic, I think it was, I said I can't understand what he's saying, and this nurse who spoke English and Amharic said to me, he's saying will you take his son. He's saying please take his son, he would be a great son for you. I was looking puzzled and he said, "You must take my son because if you don't take my son, my son will surely die. If you take him he will go back to Ireland and get an education." Probably like the ones we're talking about today. I had to say no, that was the rules there and I walked away from that man, I've never really walked away from it. But I think about that boy and that man and that's when I started this journey that's brought me here into this stadium." - Bono, May 17 2004, University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/between/2004/commence-b.html


tl;dr Bono is fully aware of the awfulness of pop stars trying to fix the world, but is doing his best anyway, despite the haters, and has done a lot of tangible, measurable good in the world, even if you think U2 should pay more taxes in Ireland, which they should, but that's more their management (which is its own company at this point) than the band itself. You should separate Bono the personality with Bono the artist and take what he does with a grain of salt. Don't let this or U2's more recent output ruin the musical career they had from the late 70's going into the late 90's (some would even argue the very early 00's) that was overall worthwhile.

U2 has NEVER written a good song (prove me wrong [you can't]) and foreign aid is an enormous waste of money. I wonder how much of his efforts were concentrated into the hands of corrupt African officials and how many people have died because of their greed?

>>71832953
>U2 has NEVER written a good song (prove me wrong [you can't])
New Year's Day

>>71832953
their first 4 albums are post-punk staples and among the better of the more mainstream releases of the time

It's not like Bono's coltish moments have ever resulted in any real harm. At most they're just Cringe Level Midnight.

Bashing Rattle and Hum is also too easy. Although I basically agree with each of that video's 5 points, you have to expect that not all the moments from some guys in their mid-late 20s are going to be measured and tasteful. It's easy to get caught up in the moment knowing you're being expected to perform. The MLK thing was a poor aesthetic choice made by the director/editors, sure. So what if Larry Mullen Jr. likes Elvis movies? And U2's Helter Skelter is honestly pretty good.

>>71832521
I agree with you, but your words are gonna fall on deaf ears here.

>>71832971
>implying he's not just going to say it's shit no matter what song you post

Lemon is my jam though