Bono takes exception to Chicago rock critic

[NotAbbott]

Check this out (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-050521bono-transcript,1,1498553,print.story?coll=chi-news-hed) (registration required).

Later,
COZ

[obie]

That's quite a good interview. For the last several years I have had a very hard time with Bono talking so spiritedly about ending extreme poverty during the day and then charging $180 a ticket to see them at night. But he's got some great insights there. Among the best:

Meanwhile a bunch of white middle-class kids are practicing in daddy's garage saying [adopts fake Midwestern whine], "No, man, that is just so uncool." And, "Hey, Bert, get me a knife. I have to cut my ear off!" It's the bleeding ear brigade. They try to find some viruses, interesting neuroses, or bad habits, to make their round washed faces look grubby enough to be taken seriously by the indie press.

[servotron]

That's quite a good interview. For the last several years I have had a very hard time with Bono talking so spiritedly about ending extreme poverty during the day and then charging $180 a ticket to see them at night. But he's got some great insights there. Among the best:

Meanwhile a bunch of white middle-class kids are practicing in daddy's garage saying [adopts fake Midwestern whine], "No, man, that is just so uncool." And, "Hey, Bert, get me a knife. I have to cut my ear off!" It's the bleeding ear brigade. They try to find some viruses, interesting neuroses, or bad habits, to make their round washed faces look grubby enough to be taken seriously by the indie press.
He's not trying to end poverty, he's trying to bring everyone down to the same level, which would make poverty seem not quite so bad.

[chad]

What did Kot say about them to begin with?

Nice that Bono is concerned about getting his songs on MTV.

[NotAbbott]

What did Kot say about them to begin with?

Here's the full article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0505220011may22,1,7318023.story?coll=chi-news-hed), rather than just the interview. It gives more context.

Later,
COZ

[chad]

Thanks!

[bmurphyfl]

Reading a full interview with Bono is the equivalent of listening to the crazy ramblers sitting at the counter down at the coffee shop. Your head starts to spin as they race from issue to issue until you just agree with them because you don't even remember what the question was.

I agree with him about promotion. I have no problem with a band playing in-store shows, radio shows, doing interviews, etc. Whatever it takes to get people to take the time to consider your music. However, I disagree with him about the use of the band's songs to sell products. Even if it is a product as snappy as an iPod.

The true fans that love a band fall in love with those songs because it means something to them emotionally. The song will connect you to that band and that emotion. To then have the band use that song to hawk some sterile widget pulls the rug out from under the fan and leaves them with a feeling similar to unrequited love.

I agree more with Ira Kaplan of YLT on this issue. He's said that they've refused to sell an existing piece of music to a company but they've gladly accepted money from Coke and Roto-Rooter to create an original piece of music for the ad. That sounds like a good compromise to me. The band gets a nice payday (Ira said that the money from Coke was enough to cover their expenses for a year) and the fans don't lose that emotional attachment to a song.

By the way, I give the interviewer credit for not backing down to Bono. He stuck to his points the whole way through the interview. I imagine that Bono is a pretty charismatic fellow and it would have been easy for Kot to just nod, smile and thank Bono for setting him straight. I know I would be a puddle in front of someone as famous as him.

[skipshady]

The true fans that love a band fall in love with those songs because it means something to them emotionally. The song will connect you to that band and that emotion. To then have the band use that song to hawk some sterile widget pulls the rug out from under the fan and leaves them with a feeling similar to unrequited love.In Bono's defense, the iPod commercial came out well before the album, before fans could form any emotional attachment, and he does say he has refused offers for "Where the Streets Have No Name". But for better or worse, "Vertigo" started out as "the iPod song".

I do agree with you on the larger issue of using your music to move products, though at the same time, I wonder if that's part of the promotion artists have to do to get out there. Would it be such a bad thing if Kings of Leon got a few new fans because some kids found them on Google after watching the VW commercial?

[Crimen y Castigo]

In Bono's defense, the iPod commercial came out well before the album, before fans could form any emotional attachment, and he does say he has refused offers for "Where the Streets Have No Name". But for better or worse, "Vertigo" started out as "the iPod song".

I do agree with you on the larger issue of using your music to move products, though at the same time, I wonder if that's part of the promotion artists have to do to get out there. Would it be such a bad thing if Kings of Leon got a few new fans because some kids found them on Google after watching the VW commercial?

The NYT Sunday Magazine had a great article on this very issue maybe three (?) years ago, featuring the Apples in Stereo who basically could get their songs in a commercial before they could ever get on commercial radio. And a good band like that totally deserves to make some cash. They've got kids, they need money.

There is definitely some instant equation in my head that I've not dissected yet that lends either distaste or appreciation for pop songs in commercials. As others here have said, it probably has something to do with the success of the artist, the emotional attachment to the song and maybe the relative obscurity of either. I dunno.

For example:
Old Navy "Super Freak": Hate
Coke commercial with the rollerskating girl and song by Paul Okenfield: Love.
Cadillac commercial with Led Zeppelin: Hate
VW commercials with Nick Drake and other indies: Love
Nike's Beatle's Revolution commercial: Hate
iPod commercials: Like pretty much

[skipshady]

Cadillac commercial with Led Zeppelin: HateFor me, this is the worst kind of commercial music. People at Cadillac are thinking:
"Consumers think our brand is old, boring. How can we make it more 'rock and roll'?"
"What if we use 'rock and roll' music in our commercials?"
"Wow, isn't that risky? We don't want to alienate the octogenarian market. They're still very important to us."
"Then we'll use an edgy, exciting, but ultimately safe and established song."
"What about Led Zeppelin's 'Rock 'N Roll'? It says 'Rock 'N Roll' in the title so the consumer knows our brand is 'rock 'n roll'."
"Perfect."

I think use of pop music in commercial fails when the attempt to be hip is so transparent that it becomes so not hip. It works when the brand isn't borrowing from the music, but it is the music, for example, Saturn with the Walkmen or Pas/Cal.

[OneArmSteve]

Bono is a complete and total buffoon. It will be a happy day when he is no longer allowed a platform to preach his hypocrisy and stupidity. Damn I hate that jackass more than words can possibly ever come close to describing.

Maddox puts it best though The 11 Worst Songs of 2004 (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=11worst)

8. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - U2 - Crumbs From Your Table

This song is about how America and its wealthiest people don't do enough to help solve world hunger. The title suggests that crumbs from our table could help starving people in Africa. Bono indicts America for being hypocritical with these lines:

Would you deny for others
What you demand for yourself?

Bono could not be reached for comment as he was stepping off his private jet and into his limousine.

That should be required reading for all U2 / Bono haters. The other 10 songs are described in only a way that the Best Page in the Universe can :cool:

[Claymore]

For me, this is the worst kind of commercial music. People at Cadillac are thinking:
"Consumers think our brand is old, boring. How can we make it more 'rock and roll'?"
"What if we use 'rock and roll' music in our commercials?"
"Wow, isn't that risky? We don't want to alienate the octogenarian market. They're still very important to us."
"Then we'll use an edgy, exciting, but ultimately safe and established song."
"What about Led Zeppelin's 'Rock 'N Roll'? It says 'Rock 'N Roll' in the title so the consumer knows our brand is 'rock 'n roll'."
"Perfect."

I think use of pop music in commercial fails when the attempt to be hip is so transparent that it becomes so not hip. It works when the brand isn't borrowing from the music, but it is the music, for example, Saturn with the Walkmen or Pas/Cal.

Actually, I think the people who were really into Led Zepplin back in the day have now aged to the point where they're smack in the middle of the Cadillac demographic - retirees.

[obie]

Top 40 radio was never, ever going to play "Vertigo". Hence, instead of flailing in vain at the big corporate radio behemoths like Viacom and ClearChannel, U2 used other big corporate behemoths like Apple to get their music heard. Just like Moby did with Play. And in both cases, it worked for them.

I don't have a problem with struggling artists selling their songs out -- I personally wouldn't sell to, say, Philip Morris or GM, but to me the scales tipped when The Gap started using Luna's "California (All The Way)". Signing that contract was probably the most money Dean Wareham ever made in one sitting, more than I ever gave him in record sales and Maxwell's show tickets.

I still think Cadillac paying Jimmy Page for "Rock and Roll" is crass, but The Gap paying Luna makes me feel good for Dean. If that makes me a hypocrite, well then, I'm a hypocrite. No big deal.

[royalstilton]

Maddox puts it best though The 11 Worst Songs of 2004 (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=11worst)
---
i bet a buck that your annual help-the-poor budget is less than .1% of your income.

did i get that wrong?

[Chicago1871]

Cadillac commercial with Led Zeppelin: Hate
I used to like 'Rock n Roll.' Not that I don't like it now, but I really don't like seeing one of Cadillac's ugly ass POS cars running around in my head with the music.

[bmurphyfl]

I didn't know that the Gap had used California (All the Way). Interesting.

Pragmatically, I understand why an artist would sell the rights to one of their songs for a nice payday and I'm glad for the lesser-known artist when they are able to bring some financial stability into their lives. However, I'd be lying if I said it didn't ruin the song for me when I heard Wingspan Bank using a Sea & Cake tune and some other financial institution using an Eels song.

I know some smart-ass is going to follow up this post with a "Get over it" kind of comment but, like I said, I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me to hear one of my favorite songs being used to trumpet "low-cost checking accounts".

In some sort of perfect world, I'd like to have the artists get the money but then never see the ads. Kind of like what happened with Luna's California (All the Way). Despite heavy TV watching, I somehow missed the ad.

[Crimen y Castigo]

I didn't know that the Gap had used California (All the Way). Interesting.

First time I ever heard Badly Drawn Boy was in a Gap commercial. One of their Christmas spots used "The Shining." I bought that record because of that commercial and I love it.

[OneArmSteve]

i bet a buck that your annual help-the-poor budget is less than .1% of your income.

You did, but even if you didn't it wouldn't matter because I'm not being sanctimonious ************** about it ala Bono. Bono is one of the most ridiculous transparent caricatures in the history of rock and roll. He is a walking punchline.

BTW, you do realize that if I made $50,000 last year all I would need to give is $50 for you to lose your bet?

[JeffS]

All this rambling about what Rock and Roll is supposed to be is pure crap. Rock is a genre of music, period. This whole "Rock spirit", or "teen angst", "raly against the man", or "youth rebellion", or "out of the ghetto" crap grew old and tiresome over two decades ago. So who gives a flying leap if U2 allows one of their songs to used in an iPod commercial? Big friggin' deal.

Yes, Rock is a genre of music, and happens to be one of my favorite genres of music. And IMHO, U2 is still one of it's better practioners. The latest album is quite good, including "Vertigo" - lot's of good riffs, rythems, melodies, clever, insightful, sometimes emotional lyrics, and plenty of energy.

[JeffS]

You did, but even if you didn't it wouldn't matter because I'm not being sanctimonious ************** about it ala Bono. Bono is one of the most ridiculous transparent caricatures in the history of rock and roll. He is a walking punchline.

BTW, you do realize that if I made $50,000 last year all I would need to give is $50 for you to lose your bet?

Has the thought crossed your mind that perhaps your posts are santimonious?

Besides, Bono has earned the right to be santimonious about charity, because he has practiced what he's preached in a big way.

I don't give a sh!t if you don't like U2. We all like what we like and it's all totally irrelevant to anything that matters. What's annoying is your holier than thou attitude about it. Do you really put yourself on some "I'm the ultimate authority on rock legitimacy" pedastal? If you do, it's pretty pathetic, and laughable.

Anyway, who in rock or any genre of music do you not consider a walking punchline?