That Bono seems too conscious of pop history and his solidified place within it. What it boils down to is probably that people find this behavior preachy. Once someone puts you in the conversation about those artists, you must feel an immense pressure to prove that you deserve to stay there. Maybe it’s precisely because of that rock god status: as a rockstar in the ’80s, he was like the younger brother of all these other Greats, which results in a sort of peacocking. He’s a rock god from the era where that archetype was breathing its dying gasp, soon to be dressed up or transposed into theoretically fame-averse alt-rockers, or a host of indie-rockers who didn’t have the wide-eyed ambitions to be monolithic, even if the music culture landscape hadn’t shifted and fragmented to the point where there couldn’t be another Bono anyway. He is an odd figure to still be so in the forefront of our pop-culture consciousness. For whatever reason - and I don’t really know what year this finally snapped - a lot of people do not seem to have much patience for him, even as any concert video will show there’s got to be an insane amount of people somewhere out in the world who still very much adore him. To a certain extent, the blame falls on Bono. U2, on the other hand, is a rare case: all empirical evidence points to them being one of the most beloved and lauded bands ever, and yet bringing them up in conversation seems to yield a groan or an eyeroll or a sneer as often as it does enthusiasm. That’s the most severe dismissal I’ve heard of those bands. You recognize these were important artists, you can appreciate what they achieved in the abstract, and sometimes it’s cool when they come on the radio and sometimes it’s not. That’s all just an annoyance, though, a gnat - so maybe you’re indifferent. Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, and the Stones? Maybe they’re not your thing, but nobody hates those guys, right? And maybe you dislike Springsteen, maybe even strongly, but it’s not like he actively evokes anger from you, right? At worst, these bands might bug you because you’ve heard “Start Me Up” 1,000 too many times, or because classic rock radio will never let “Money” go. Out of the other Great Artists we’ve covered in this feature, though, U2 elicit ire more than others.
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