When U2 releases another album, they should not play every awards show known to man, they should not subject themselves to television interviewers, they should go straight to the public, their fans.<\/p>\n
Somewhere along the line, Bono separated himself from his audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it was admirable that he was trying to save Africa, but suddenly he was a venture capitalist, he was investing in Palm, when did he have time to be a rock star?<\/p>\n
More than ever, being a rock star is about your identity.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody can have a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Just call up Dr. Dre or Timbaland.\u00c2\u00a0 But can you mean something to your audience?\u00c2\u00a0 How do you get people to bond with you?<\/p>\n
That’s the big story of "In Rainbows".\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t a new business model, it was a gift to the fans and a middle finger to the traditional music industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Radiohead played outside the system, and won, "In Rainbows" is seen as a total success.\u00c2\u00a0 U2 played inside the system and lost, "No Line On The Horizon" didn’t get a ton of airplay, it didn’t sell well, it appears a dud, and believe me, perception is everything.<\/p>\n
But the tour’s been a rousing success.\u00c2\u00a0 Financially.\u00c2\u00a0 And today, especially in the entertainment industry, you can’t criticize anything that makes money.\u00c2\u00a0 Money trumps everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n
Bono, et al, spent so much money on their stadium tour that they’re barely past the break even point.\u00c2\u00a0 And now, the tour is delayed as a result of Bono’s unfortunate injury.\u00c2\u00a0 All that money lost, all that marketing lost.<\/p>\n
Marketing?<\/p>\n
Yup, they’re about to release a DVD and an album of the Rose Bowl gig.<\/p>\n
The CD teaser just arrived on my doorstep.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll play this.<\/p>\n
And the opening cut, "Magnificent", almost is.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember it being a success live.<\/p>\n
Unlike most of the other new cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 The people didn’t come to hear them, they were unfamiliar with them, they sat on their hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Until…<\/p>\n
Bono and the boys went into familiar territory, when they played "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For".\u00c2\u00a0 An eighties classic.\u00c2\u00a0 A Gen-X classic.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the soundtrack to their college days.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why they went to the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 They know every note.<\/p>\n
Now they were up on their feet.\u00c2\u00a0 Edge’s intro is baked into their DNA.\u00c2\u00a0 And as the CD slid into the second cut, I heard those famous notes.\u00c2\u00a0 And Bono started to sing…<\/p>\n
But what came next I was unprepared for…<\/p>\n
Edge is playing the circular riff, Larry Mullen, Jr. is hitting the skins, Bono yells and sings… And then he stops.<\/p>\n And the assembled multitude, the 100,000 in attendance take over.\u00c2\u00a0 Brought me right back, fired up those cells in my memory bank.\u00c2\u00a0 And gave me goosebumps.<\/p>\n The Beatles played and you couldn’t hear the music, girls were screaming so loud.<\/p>\n And we knew every word.<\/p>\n Go to a Taylor Swift show.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about the set changes, it’s about being a member of the club, singing along at the top of your lungs.<\/p>\n And it’s hard to get someone over forty to participate, people that age are too self-conscious.<\/p>\n Only to be with you<\/span> Well, you’d expect everybody to know this.<\/p>\n But Bono doesn’t come back, the audience continues to take the lead…<\/p>\n I have run<\/span> You’ve got to hear the crowd ERUPT after the first line of the chorus.\u00c2\u00a0 They made it!\u00c2\u00a0 They’re proud of themselves! They knew all the words.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew?<\/p>\n Baby boomers think it’s about leading, about perching yourself above, living in a gated community and flying private.\u00c2\u00a0 But the real thrill is getting down in the pit, being a member of the crowd, being involved, being as one.<\/p>\n That’s where the joy is.<\/p>\n Not being alone, but being together.<\/p>\n That’s rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 When the music makes us forget our everyday lives, allows us to transcend the world, bond with the act and fly high above the Earth, laughing at our good fortune.<\/p>\n The pacing of the Rose Bowl show sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 From new to old and back again.\u00c2\u00a0 Momentum was lost.\u00c2\u00a0 But when the band allowed the audience in, when we all joined as one, it was positively beautiful, it was TRANSCENDENT!<\/p>\n You’ll tingle when you hear this take.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll smile.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll at first be flabbergasted, and then nod your head and sing along.<\/p>\n And the effect doesn’t only work the first time through.\u00c2\u00a0 With each successive play you still get the hit.<\/p>\n That’s the essence of our business, the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about the clothes, the staging, the trappings, but the music, the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 When done right, it’s a hypodermic straight to our veins.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When U2 releases another album, they should not play every awards show known to man, they should not subject themselves to television interviewers, they should go straight to the public, their fans. Somewhere along the line, Bono separated himself from his audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it was admirable that he was trying to save Africa, but suddenly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-LD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2955,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions\/2955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I have climbed the highest mountains<\/span>
I have run through the fields<\/span><\/p>\n
Only to be with you<\/span><\/p>\n
I have crawled<\/span>
I have scaled these city walls<\/span>
These city walls<\/span>
Only to be with you<\/span>
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for<\/span>
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for<\/span><\/p>\n