When a band from the Range U2s plays in front of an audience of electric market customers and private radio listeners and - exclusively - lets itself be looked over the shoulder by the tabloid press, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark, then rock'n'roll has lost its teeth and claws, and the artist makes himself the executive organ of institutions with which he should have nothing to do. And in the case of U2, it's already the second fat cell within two months.
First the Apple deal, which cost the telecommunications giant 100 million US dollars, and which ensured that the thirteenth U2 epic "Songs Of Innocence" was simply downloaded onto the mobile phones of 500 million customers - whether they wanted it or not. A campaign that triggered a true Shitstorm and went mad as a marketing campaign. Which Bono has now also realized.
In an interview with "Die Zeit" (but not with the classical music press), the 54-year-old admits that this step was not properly explained, which led to misunderstandings and hostility. U2 are not Jay-Z or Beyoncé. Their audience consists of more traditional music consumers who acquire classical sound carriers and take the cleaners' or do-gooders' image of the band very, very seriously. But by 2014, U2s have long since ceased to be the idealistically inspired, down-to-earth rockers of the street.
Rather, they are enterprising businessmen who do business in real estate, gastronomy and more, whose personal wealth is estimated at over 800 million British pounds, who have sold 150 million albums, received 22 Grammys and have achieved everything a career in the music business holds in store for knights of fortune. U2 allegedly had to nibble on the sales of their last epic "No Line On The Horizon" (five million buyers after all), which fell short of expectations, in such a way that they plunged into a real crisis of meaning.
They suddenly questioned their own relevance, approach and future. This kept the Irish busy for almost five years and apparently annoyed them just as much as the flop of the "Spiderman" musical, with which Bono and The Edge threw a proud 60 million dollars in the sand.
