News

With Or Without U2

• 24th Aug 2009

After reading various articles about over hyped bands I noticed U2’s name cropping up quite frequently. This coupled with U2’s latest album 'No Line On The Horizon' being hailed by one newspaper as “their best to date”. Although, if it is their greatest album to date it means there are songs on there better than One, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, All I Want Is You, Pride (In The Name Of Love) and so forth. I’ve not heard the album (through choice) but somehow I doubt it has better songs than the aforementioned on it. U2 are also at the forefront of our consciousness with their recent live dates and their latest BlackBerry advert. Anyway, all this got me thinking about an essay I wrote for my MA degree, based on the construction and marketing of the public persona of U2. Although it was five thousand (count them) words long, I’m somehow going to condense that into 500 words to try and shed some light as to why U2 are deemed to be over hyped.

Now U2 have written some great songs and they’ve also written some not so great ones too. However, they formed in 1976 whist at school that’s 33 years spanning four decades worth of U2 and they are still one of the most successful rock bands around. Maybe it’s to do with the music but there are plenty of people as talented as U2 who never make it past the first single deal. So what do U2 have that other lesser known bands don’t? Well, what every band needs is a marketing stategy; it takes an artist from national stardom to international stardom, from making a living out of music for four years to four decades.

The success of U2 has not been achieved accidently, U2 have constructed a public persona that has allowed them to be marketed on a domestic and global scale. Early marketing strategies involved the audience in their music. One example is how U2 got radio listeners in Ireland to vote for their favourite song from a list. The eventual winner was ‘Out of Control’ which was then chosen to be the lead track on their EP. This allows fans to think that they are contributing to the band as they’ve decided on a track for the EP, hence, generating sales and fan loyalty. It also benefits the radio station as they are also involved and are left feeling they have invested in the record.

U2 are also masters of ‘pseudo- events’ in which an event is staged for the impact it will have. For example Rolling Stone magazine named U2 as the band of the 80’s yet, at the point this was said U2 were not household names in America. It was 1985 two years before the success of 1987’s Joshua Tree album, at the time of the Rolling Stone magazine article U2 were an alternative act at the most. However, this pseudo-event became a self-fulfilling prophecy. This affirmation of U2 by Rolling Stone had given the band approval from the music press. Other pseudo-events included playing atop of a liquor store. The band knew the police would stop them as it could cause a civil disturbance, hence it created more publicity. What also bought U2 a loyalty in America was their relentless touring of the country from the very beginning of their career, generous airplay on MTV and novelty gimmicks such as playing atop a nineteenth century Mississippi Riverboat.

U2 have always been a socially conscious band. In their early career they played benefits including a protest about anti-contraception laws in Ireland as early as 1978. Of course there are also the Live Aid concerts, which brought U2 to a mass audience and confirmed that U2 were worthy enough to share a bill with established acts such as Queen.

U2 have won loyaty from Ireland as they have continued to contribute to their mother country they set up aptly named mother records to support local talent, played benefit gigs and continued to live in Ireland.

By the time of Rattle and Hum (1988) U2 were seen as a self righteous band and the ‘do-gooder’ image was beginning to weigh heavy on the public, with a potential backlash heading their way. At this point Bono himself declared ‘we are gonna have to go away and dream it all up again’. Acknowledging that U2 needed to re-invent themselves and once again become accessible to their audience. Here Bono freely admits a strategy, yet announces it honestly. That fact that Bono openly admits that there will be a re-invention makes it more credible, otherwise the audience would be left wondering who the real U2 were and possibly create a backlash as the band would be deemed fake.

They came back with the Zoo TV tour and Achtung Baby (1991). Zoo TV embraced political satire, focusing on the gulf war. Musically, Achtung Baby incorporated electronica into their sound moving away from the rock 'n' roll roots music of previous albums. The re-invention was to seal the longevity of U2 as now they were a band able to evolve. Besides this U2 have incorporated cross genre techniques into their sound for example, collaborations with other acts. They have also used cross media techniques such as working on film soundtracks and branched out into advertisement with their iPod and BlackBerry endorsements. All of which are mutually beneficial for both band and fellow collaborator.

U2 had many marketing points to begin with and the whole concept of marketing a brand is seemingly obvious. However, many bands have failed not because of lack of musical talent but simply because the record company did not know how to market them.
This is by no means a cynical look at U2, but the music industry is cut throat and to survive in it for 33 years you’re going to need a few gimmicks. Fortunately for U2 their gimmicks have been graced with a touch of marketing genius.

This all of course is far more beautifully illustrated in my essay, but you get the drift.

Wow, that was a bit of heavy reading there. If you still want more check out the website…This week we have all the latest news, hot new videos and live reviews including U2 at Wembley Stadium. There are also plenty of festival reviews including The Big Chill Festival, Secret Garden Party and 80’s Rewind festival. This week’s Glasswerk featured gigs come in the form of Mark Morriss, The Parlotones, Deaf Havana and Goldie Lookin’ Chain.