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U2 are a rock band formed in Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Bono (vocals and rhythm guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums and percussion).
The band formed at secondary school in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency. Within four years, they signed to Island Records and released their debut album. By the mid-1980s, they had become a top international act. They were more successful as a live act than they were at selling records, until their 1987 album The Joshua Tree, which, according to Rolling Stone, elevated the band's stature "from heroes to superstars".[ first = Elysa ] Their 1991 album Achtung Baby and the accompanying Zoo TV Tour were a musical and thematic reinvention for the band. Reacting to their own sense of musical stagnation and a late-1980's critical backlash, U2 incorporated dance music and alternative rock into their sound and performances, replacing their earnest image with a more ironic tone. Since 2000, U2 have pursued a more conventional sound, while maintaining influences from their 1990's musical explorations.
U2 have released 12 studio albums, with worldwide sales totaling more than 145 million records,[ title = U2 signs on with Live Nation ] more than any other band.[Grammy Winners List grammy.com
. Retrieved 15 October 2006.] In 2005, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone magazine listed U2 at #22 in its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.[The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling Stone (24 March 2004). Retrieved on 8 February 2008.] Throughout their career, as a band and as individuals, they have campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes, including Amnesty International, the ONE Campaign, Product Red, and Bono's DATA campaign.
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Historyseealso Timeline of U2
Formation and early years (1976–79)U2 in 1980. Shown from left to right: Clayton, Mullen, Bono, Edge.
The band formed in Dublin on 25 September 1976. Larry Mullen, Jr., then 14 years old, posted a notice on his secondary school (Mount Temple Comprehensive School) notice board in search of musicians for a new band. Setting up in his kitchen, Mullen later described it as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." Mullen was on drums, Paul Hewson (Bono) on lead vocals, Dave Evans (The Edge) and his older brother Dik Evans on guitar, Adam Clayton, a friend of the Evans brothers on bass guitar, and initially Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin, two other friends of Mullen. Soon after, the group settled on the name "Feedback", because it was one of the few technical terms they knew. Martin did not return after the first practice, and McCormick left the group within a few weeks. Most of the group's material initially consisted of cover versions, which the band said was not their forte.
In March 1977, the band changed their name to "The Hype". Dik Evans, who was older and by this time at college, was becoming the odd man out. The rest of the band was leaning towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble and he was "phased out" in March 1978. During a farewell concert in the Presbyterian Church Hall in Howth, which featured The Hype playing covers, Dik ceremoniously walked offstage. The remaining four band members completed the concert playing original material as "U2".[McCormick (2006), pages 46–48] Steve Averill, a punk rock musician and family friend of Clayton's, had suggested six potential names from which the band chose "U2" for its ambiguity and open-ended interpretations, and because it was the name that they disliked the least.
On Saint Patrick's Day in 1978, U2 won a talent show in Limerick, Ireland. The prize consisted of £500 and studio time to record a demo which would be heard by CBS Ireland. This win was an important milestone and affirmation for the fledgling band.[Wall, Mick, (2005). Bono. Andre Deutsch Publishers. ISBN 0233001593 (Promotional edition published by Paperview UK is association with the Irish Independent), pages 45] Hot Press magazine was influential in shaping the band's future; in May, Paul McGuinness, who had earlier been introduced to the band by the magazine's journalist Bill Graham, agreed to be U2's manager. U2's first release, an Ireland-only EP entitled Three, was released in September 1979 and was the band's first Irish chart success. In December 1979, U2 performed in London for their first shows outside Ireland, although they failed to get much attention from audiences or critics. In February 1980, their second single "Another Day" was released on the CBS label, but again only for the Irish market.
Boy, October, and War (1980–83)Island Records signed U2 in March 1980, and in May, the band released "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" as their first international single. The band's debut album, Boy, followed in October. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite and received generally positive reviews. Although Bono's lyrics were unfocused and seemingly improvised, a common theme was the dreams and frustrations of adolescence. The album included the band's first United Kingdom hit single, "I Will Follow". Boy's release was followed by U2's first tour of continental Europe and the United States. Despite being unpolished, these early live performances demonstrated U2's potential, as critics noted that Bono was a "charismatic" and "passionate" showman.
The band's second album, October, was released in 1981 and contained overtly spiritual themes. During the album's recording sessions, Bono and The Edge left the band due to spiritual conflicts, and U2 ceased to exist for a brief period of time. Bono, The Edge, and Mullen had joined a Christian group in Dublin called the 'Shalom Fellowship', which led them to question the relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle. Ultimately, they left the group to continue with the band. Recording was further complicated when a briefcase containing lyrics for several working songs was stolen from backstage during the band's performance at a nightclub in Portland, Oregon. The album received mixed reviews and limited radio play. Low sales outside the UK put pressure on their contract with Island and focused the band on improvement.
Resolving their doubts of the October period, U2 released War in 1983. A record where the band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade", War's sincerity and "rugged" guitar was intentionally at odds with the "cooler" synthpop of the time. The album included the politically-charged "Sunday Bloody Sunday", where Bono had lyrically tried to contrast the events of Bloody Sunday with Easter Sunday. Rolling Stone magazine wrote that the song showed the band was capable of deep and meaningful songwriting. War was U2's first album to feature the photography of Anton Corbijn, who remains U2's principal photographer and has had a major influence on their vision and public image. U2's first commercial success, War debuted at number one in the UK, and its first single, "New Year's Day", was the band's first hit outside Ireland or the UK.
On the subsequent War Tour, the band performed sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the US. Bono, waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", became the tour's iconic image. U2 recorded the Under a Blood Red Sky live album on this tour, as well as the Live at Red Rocks concert film, both of which received extensive play on the radio and MTV, expanding the band's audience and showcasing their live performance. Their record deal with Island Records was coming to an end, and in 1984 the band signed a more lucrative extension. They negotiated the return of their copyrights (so that they owned the rights to their own songs), an increase in their royalty rate, and a general improvement in terms, at the expense of a larger initial payment.
The Unforgettable Fire and Live Aid (1984–85)s new direction.[McCormick (2006), page 147]| width = 27%| align = left}}
The Unforgettable Fire was released in 1984. Ambient and abstract, it was at the time the band's most marked change in direction.[Parra, Pimm Jal de la U2 Live: A Concert Documentary, pages 52–55, 1996, Harper Collins Publishers, ISBN 0-7322-6036-1] The band feared that following the overt rock of the War album and tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band".[Graham (2004), page 21] as Adam Clayton recalls, "We were looking for something that was a bit more serious, more arty."
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The Unforgettable Fire has a rich and orchestrated sound. Under Lanois' direction, Mullen's drumming became looser, funkier, and more subtle and Clayton's bass became more subliminal; the rhythm section no longer intruded, but flowed in support of the songs.[ first = Niall] Complementing the sonic atmospherics, the album's lyrics are open to many interpretations, providing what the band called a "very visual feel".[McCormick (2006), page 151] "Pride (In the Name of Love)", about Martin Luther King, Jr., was the album's first single and became the band's biggest hit to that point, including being their first to enter the U.S. top 40.
Much of The Unforgettable Fire Tour moved into indoor arenas as U2 began to win their long battle to build their audience. The complex textures of the new studio-recorded tracks, such as "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Bad", were problematic to translate to live performance.
U2 participated in the Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief at Wembley Stadium in July 1985. U2's performance was a pivotal point in the band's career. During the song "Bad", Bono leapt down off the stage to embrace and dance with a fan, showing a television audience of millions the personal connection that Bono could make with audiences. In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 have become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters".
The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum (1986–89)Motivated by friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards, the band looked back to the roots of rock music, and Bono focused on his skills as a song and lyric writer. Realising "that U2 had no tradition", the band explored American blues, country, and gospel music. For their fifth album, the band wanted to build on ''The Unforgettable Fire's atmospherics, but instead of its out-of-focus tracks, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the strict discipline of conventional song structures. U2 interrupted their 1986 album sessions to serve as a headline act on [[Amnesty International|Amnesty International's]] [[A Conspiracy of Hope]] tour. Rather than a distraction, the tour added extra intensity and power to their new music. In 1986 Bono travelled to [[San Salvador]] and [[Nicaragua]], and saw first-hand the distress of peasants bullied in internal conflicts that were subject to American political intervention. The experience became a central influence on the new music.
" artistic objective.''| source = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''| width = 27%| align = left}}
The Joshua Tree was released in March 1987. The album juxtaposes antipathy towards America against the band's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedom, and what it stands for. The band wanted music with a sense of location, a 'cinematic' quality and the album's music and lyrics draw on imagery created by American writers whose works the band had been reading.
The Joshua Tree became the fastest-selling album in British chart history, and was number one for nine weeks in the United States. The album's first two singles, "[[With or Without You]]"[[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/ The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time] ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 15 October 2006.] [[The Joshua Tree Tour]] was the first during which the band played numerous stadium shows alongside smaller arena shows.
The documentary Rattle and Hum featured footage recorded from The Joshua Tree Tour, and the accompanying double album of the same name included nine studio tracks and six live U2 performances. Released in October 1988, the album and film were intended as a tribute to American music, and included recordings at Sun Studios in Memphis and performances with Bob Dylan and B. B. King. Rattle and Hum performed modestly at the box office and received mixed reviews from both film and music critics; one Rolling Stone editor spoke of the album's "excitement", another described it as "bombastic and misguided".[ first = Elysa ] The film's director, Phil Joanou, described it as "an overly pretentious look at U2".[ first = Elysa ] Most of the album's new material was played on 1989's Lovetown Tour, which played in Australia, Japan and Europe, because the band wanted to avoid the American backlash. In addition, they had grown disatisfied with their live performances; Mullen recalled that "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best". With a sense of musical stagnation, Bono said on one of the last dates of the Tour that it was "the end of something for U2..." and that they had to "... go away and just dream it all up again".
Achtung Baby, Zoo TV, and Zooropa (1990–93)| width = 27%| align = right}}
Stung by the criticism of Rattle and Hum, the band made a calculated change in musical and thematic direction for their seventh studio album, Achtung Baby; the change was their most dramatic since The Unforgettable Fire. The band began work on Achtung Baby in East Berlin in October 1990 with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, seeking inspiration and renewal on the eve of German reunification. The sessions instead proved to be difficult, as conflict arose within the band over their musical direction and the quality of their material. While Clayton and Mullen preferred a sound similar to U2's previous work, Bono and Edge were inspired by alternative rock and European dance music and advocated a change. Weeks of slow progress, arguments, and tension subsided when the band rallied around a chord progression The Edge had written to improvise the song "One". The band completed the album in 1991 in Dublin.
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In November 1991, U2 released Achtung Baby. Sonically, the album incorporated alternative rock, dance, and industrial influences of the time and the band referred to the album as the sound of "four men chopping down the Joshua Tree". Thematically, it was a more inward-looking and personal record; it was darker, yet at times more flippant, than the band's previous work. Commercially and critically, it has been one of the band's most successful albums and was a crucial part of the band's early 1990s reinvention. Like ''The Joshua Tree'', it is cited by ''Rolling Stone'' as one of rock's greatest.
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The Zoo TV Tour of 1992–1993 was a multimedia event, and showcased an extravagant but intentionally bewildering array of hundreds of video screens, upside-down flying Trabant cars, mock transmission towers, satellite TV links, subliminal messages, and Bono's over-the-top stage characters such as "The Fly", "Mirror-Ball Man", and "(Mister) MacPhisto". The extravagant shows were intentionally in contrast to the austere staging of previous U2 tours, and mocked the excesses of rock and roll by appearing to embrace these very excesses. The shows were, in part, U2's way to represent the pervasive nature of cable television and its blurring of news, entertainment, and home shopping. Prank phone calls were made to President Bush, the United Nations, and others. Live satellite uplinks to war-torn Sarajevo caused controversy.
Quickly recorded and released during a break in the Zoo TV tour in mid-1993, the Zooropa album continued many of the themes from Achtung Baby and the Zoo TV tour. Initially intended as an EP, the band expanded Zooropa into a full-length LP album. It was an even greater departure from the style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno influences and other electronic effects. Johnny Cash sang the vocal on the "The Wanderer". Most of the songs were played at least once during the 1993 leg of the tour, which extended through Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan; half the album's tracks became fixtures in the set.
Passengers, Pop, and PopMart (1994–99)
In 1995, U2 released an experimental album called Original Soundtracks 1. Brian Eno, producer of three previous U2 albums, contributed as a full partner, including writing and performing. For this reason, and due to the record's highly experimental nature, the band chose to release it under the moniker "Passengers" to distinguish it from U2's conventional albums. Mullen said of the album, "There's a thin line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it on the Passengers record." It was commercially unnoticed by U2 standards and it received generally poor reviews. However, the single "Miss Sarajevo" featuring Luciano Pavarotti, which Bono cites as one of his favourite U2 songs, was a hit.
On 1997's Pop, U2 continued experimenting; tape loops, programming, rhythm sequencing, and sampling provided much of the album with heavy, funky dance rhythms. Released in March, the album debuted at number one in 35 countries, and drew mainly positive reviews. Rolling Stone, for example, stated that U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives". Others felt that the album was a major disappointment and sales were poor compared to previous U2 releases. The band was hurried into completing the album in time for the impending pre-booked tour, and Bono admitted that the album "didn't communicate the way it was intended to".
The subsequent tour, PopMart, commenced in April 1997. Like Zoo TV, it poked fun at pop culture and was intended to send a sarcastic message to those accusing U2 of commercialism. The stage included a ft tall golden yellow arch (reminiscent of the McDonald's logo), a ft long video screen, and a ft tall mirrorball lemon. U2's "big shtick" failed, however, to satisfy many who were seemingly confused by the band's new kitsch image and elaborate sets. The late delivery of Pop meant rehearsal time was severely reduced, and performances in early shows suffered. A highlight of the tour was a concert in Sarajevo where U2 were the first major group to perform following the Bosnian War. Mullen described the concert as "an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life, and if I had to spend 20 years in the band just to play that show, and have done that, I think it would have been worthwhile." One month following the conclusion of the PopMart Tour, U2 appeared on the 200th episode of The Simpsons, "Trash of the Titans", in which Homer Simpson disrupted the band on stage during a PopMart concert.
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"Reapplying for the job of the best band in the world" (2000–06)Following the comparatively poor reception of Pop, U2 declared they were "reapplying for the job ... [1] the best band in the world", and have since pursued a more conventional rock sound mixed with the influences of their 1990s musical explorations. ''All That You Can't Leave Behind'' was released in October 2000 and was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. For many of those not won over by the band's 1990s music, it was considered a return to grace; Rolling Stone called it U2's "third masterpiece" alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. The album debuted at number one in 22 countries and its worldwide hit single, "Beautiful Day" earned three Grammy Awards, as did the album's three other singles.
For the Elevation Tour, U2 performed in a scaled-down setting, returning to arenas after nearly a decade of stadium productions. A heart-shaped stage and ramp permitted greater proximity to the audience. Following the September 11 attacks, the new album gained added resonance, and in October, U2 performed at [[Madison Square Garden]] in New York City. Bono and the Edge later said these New York City shows were among their most memorable and emotional performances. In early 2002, U2 performed during halftime of [[Super Bowl XXXVI]], which [[SI.com]] ranked as the best halftime show in Super Bowl history.
The band's next studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released in November 2004. The band were looking for a harder-hitting rock sound than ''All That You Can't Leave Behind. Thematically, Bono states that "A lot of the songs are paeans to naiveté, a rejection of knowingness."[ first =Jann S ] The first single, "Vertigo", was featured on a widely-aired television commercial for the Apple iPod, and a U2 iPod and an iTunes U2 box set was released. The album debuted at number one in the U.S. where first week sales doubled that of All That You Can't Leave Behind'' and set a record for the band. Claiming it as a contender as one of U2's three best albums, Bono said, "There are no weak songs. But as an album, the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, and it fucking annoys me."[U2 stars enter rock Hall of Fame bbc.co.uk (15 March 2005). Retrieved 17 January 2007; Transcript: Bruce Springsteen Inducts U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. u2station.com. Retrieved 17 January 2007] A 3-D concert film, U2 3D, filmed at nine concerts during the South America leg of the Vertigo Tour was released on 23 January 2008.
In August 2006, the band incorporated its publishing business in The Netherlands following the capping of Irish artists' tax exemption at €250,000. Dave Evans stated that businesses often seek to minimize their tax burdens.[title=Bono, Preacher on Poverty, Tarnishes Halo With Irish Tax Move] Bono also recorded a spare, nearly spoken-word version of [[Leonard Cohen]]'s "[[Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)|Hallelujah]]" for the "[[Tower of Song]]" compilation in 1995. Additionally, in 1998, Bono collaborated with [[Kirk Franklin]] and [[Crystal Lewis]] (along with other controversially mainstream artists [[R. Kelly]] and [[Mary J. Blige]]) for a successful gospel song called "[[Lean on Me (song)|Lean on Me]]", an interpretation of the [[Bill Withers]] song.
Aside from musical collaborations, U2 have worked with several authors. American author William S. Burroughs had a guest appearance in U2's video for "Last Night on Earth" shortly before he died. His poem "A Thanksgiving Prayer" was used as video footage during the band's Zoo TV Tour. Other collaborators include William Gibson and Allen Ginsberg. In early 2000, the band recorded three songs for the The Million Dollar Hotel movie soundtrack, including "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", which was co-written by Salman Rushdie and motivated by his book of the same name.
Most recently, Bono appeared and performed The Beatles songs in the movie Across the Universe (2007). Bono and The Edge are also writing the music to Spider-Man: The Musical, expected to open in February 2010. Additionally, The Edge created the theme song for Season 1 and 2 of the television series The Batman.
DiscographyList of U2 songs
- Boy (1980)
- October (1981)
- War (1983)
- The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
- The Joshua Tree (1987)
- Rattle and Hum (1988)
- Achtung Baby (1991)
- Zooropa (1993)
- Pop (1997)
- ''All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)
- How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
- No Line on the Horizon (2009)
AwardsU2 first received Grammy Awards for the The Joshua Tree in 1988, and have won 22 in total since, tying U2 with Stevie Wonder as contemporary artists with the most Grammys.[title=Song of the Year 2006]
Copyright Citations
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