Who is U2? | Hacker News Reader

Who is U2?

whoisu2.com

I don't dislike U2 music. I'm not a fan. They were big when I was growing up (high school & college). I'm pretty sure I even saw them in concert. But I'd be rightly pissed if Google/Motorola (not sure which one would be the equivalent of the Apple arm that did this) pushed their album to my phone. This certainly should have been a totally obvious opt in. Like "Hey! Click here to download your FREE U2 album to your iTunes" or something. As I understand it, not everyone got it, depending some auto sync option in iTunes.

Skimming through these, the sad thing is that quite a lot of these are seemingly people/kids for western countries. It reminds me of a segment in Jay Leno where they went on the street asking geography questions like, where on the map is Russia or something like that.

It amazes me how people, even young ones, can be so out of touch with culture. Whether you like U2 or not, if you grew up in the western world and you're above the age of 14 (which most these people seem like), you know, or now what, U2 is.

I would have to disagree with the age. 14 seems like the time when someone starts consciously listening to music. U2 was popular around the 90 to 00 and the last good album U2 created was 10 years ago. Therefore 20 and younger probably don't know them. I would like to see a pool to confirm or disprove this.

Here is something interesting: http://musicmachinery.com/2014/02/13/age-specific-listening/

Maybe you're right. Interesting link.

I have to say though, they did one of the biggest grossing tours, if not THE biggest tour, in history of music between 2009 and 2011: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_360%C2%B0_Tour

To be honest, at the age of around 14 today you should at least know "what" U2 is even thought you've never listed to or heard any or their music.

I listened to a set of U2 albums this week. I could recognize only one song!

They're clearly not a memorable band, contrarily to the Beatles (whether you appreciate them or not) or the Pink Floyds.

(I'm 50 years old, so it's not a question of age).

I hate some bands, but at least I understand why they are popular (e.g. Cyrus or Bieber). With U2 I don't even understand the latter. Is it the constant charity-pushing or some amplifying recursive effect of their networking?

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