When the 1980s came to a close, there were a handful of artists who had established themselves as definitive contributors to the decade's musical palette. Names like Bruce Springsteen, Prince and Michael Jackson became synonymous with changing the direction of popular music in the decade of decadence. A strong late bloomer (but still a powerful contender), U2 were also mentioned alongside those greats. Their '80s output (especially 1987's The Joshua Tree) cemented them as not only a group who could fill stadiums with their soaring anthems but who were also pushing the envelope musically and socially. Of all the great groups from the '80s, U2 managed to evolve both the fastest and the best, and they proved it on this day in 1991 when they released Achtung Baby. The 12 song collection was recorded at least partially in Berlin, Germany, in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and blew out U2's sound to include elements of dance music, industrial rock and the glowing, humming ambient tones of co-producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. While it seemed like U2 were on top of the world, Achtung Baby elevated them to new heights, inspired the massive "Zoo TV" stadium tour and helped usher in the era of alternative rock. (U2 don't get enough credit for making arty experimentation seem like pop music.)
Though the rest of the '90s were not nearly as triumphant for U2 (they battled both fans and critics on the even-further-reaching albums Zooropa and Pop), they remain one of the great shape-shifting international rock bands, and despite having 30 years of experience under their collective belt, they still feel vital today. Break out your copy of Achtung Baby and marvel at how well it has aged. Start with "Even Better Than the Real Thing."
Last night (October 25), U2 took the stage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, for the latest stop on their U2 360 tour (in support of their latest album No Line on the Horizon). But the crowd wasn't limited to the 96,000 or so who filled the home of the University of Southern California football team last night, as they streamed the show live on YouTube. It was an unprecedented event for both the band and the video hosting site, and it allowed millions of people on all seven continents to watch the show live. (The show will also be archived at the site, so if you missed it live you can still experience it.) The band's 24 song set included hits like "Vertigo," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "One" and an absolutely stunning rendition of the Achtung Baby track "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." During the show, Bono often played directly to the cameras capturing the concert for the Web, turning a long-distance stream into an intimate experience.
Though No Line on the Horizon represents U2's least successful album (both based on sales figures and critical reaction) since their experimental 1993 album Zooropa, the 360 tour is being touted as perhaps one of the biggest concert events of all time. They've spent a huge amount of money on constructing the "claw" stage (full figures have not been disclosed), which allowed them to bring in record crowds at stadiums across the world. The tour wraps up Wednesday night in Vancouver before the group goes on hiatus to launch again next June.
It wouldn't be shocking if the group managed to grind out another release during that time, as they've openly expressed disappointment with the performance of No Line on the Horizon. Though it has sold over a million copies (making it one of the more successful albums of the year), it has not had a breakout hit like "Mysterious Ways" or "Beautiful Day." However, Bono says the band wasn't "in that mindset" when they crafted the record. "We felt that the album was a kind of an almost extinct species, and we should approach it in totality and create a mood and a feeling, and a beginning, middle and an end," he told the Associated Press. "And I suppose we've made a work that is a bit challenging for people who have grown up on a diet of pop stars."
Think about this for a moment: The iPod is only eight years old. In less than a decade, Apple's portable music and media device has become an absolutely necessary part of modern life. The first iPods hit the market on this day back in 2001, with five and 10 gigabyte versions available. The first iPods were hilarious looking, especially compared to current models. They used a clunky mechanical scroll wheel and weighed about ten pounds. They were so solid you could use them for masonry. But like all technology, the iPod evolved quickly. The iPod (and by extension the iPhone) is now not only a music device but also a video player, gaming system, personal organizer, Web browser, messaging system, navigational tool and on and on. Last month, Apple introduced an iPod that has a capacity of 160 gigabytes, enough space to store over 53,000 songs. Consider that in 2000, the best option for carrying around music you liked was to burn a mix CD, which meant that you had 20 or so tunes at your disposal.
Not that it really needed it, but the iPod was also supported by a tremendous marketing campaign, and to this day, getting your song in an Apple TV spot tends to do great things for a band's business. The first batch of iPod commercials featured a track from '90s big beat enthusiasts the Propellerheads, and a number of bands have used iPod commercials as jumping off points to launch new albums (U2, Coldplay) or their entire careers (Chairlift, the Ting Tings). The first group that catapulted to superstardom care of an iPod ad was the Black Eyed Peas, whose song "Hey Mama" propelled their 2003 album Elephunk up the charts. Along the way, iPod commercials have helped give a jolt to the careers of the Caesars, the Fratellis and Chairlift and helped extend the lives of hit songs by Feist and Jack Johnson. Check out the video playlist below that takes a look back at the songs that helped make the iPod into a part of everyday life.
By Matt Thompson
Tonight (October 9), a multitude of celebrities will take part in a global event dubbed "Moving Stars and Earth for Water." Musicians, movie stars, politicians and environmentalists will unite for one common cause: Bringing the world more and better water. This diverse group includes Shakira, Salma Hayek, Bono, Joss Stone and former Vice President Al Gore. Perhaps the most riveting component of the show? On the same day we searched the moon for water, the event will be broadcast into outer space.
Why? Because the architect of the entire project is Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, who has been on a personally-financed mission to the International Space Station since October 2. He describes the event as a "poetic social mission." Laliberte intends to use his time off Earth to find supplies of one of the world's most important resources. "My mission is dedicated to making a difference on this vital resource by using what I know best: artistry," Laliberte said.
Each of the fourteen cities will have a different theme attached to them. "In Osaka, where (pop star) Tatuya Ishii is doing a performance, the poetic tales bring forth the problems related to the melting of the ice caps, which will raise eventually the ocean levels," said Fernand Rainville, the show's creative director. "In Johannesburg, we are bringing the idea of water and education and how the two are related."
DriecTV will televise the show throughout the United States, and it can also be seen on the Internet through Laliberte's Web site.
There was a ton of buzz surrounding last night's U2 show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey last night. It wasn't so much that it was the first New York-area stop for the band's massive "360" tour (though that was a big part of it), but there was a great deal of speculation about how Bono would celebrate Jersey folk hero Bruce Springsteen's 60th birthday yesterday. After all, it seemed as though it would be impossible for the group to play a show without tipping their collective hat to the Boss.
While Springsteen didn't step on the stage at Giants Stadium during the over two hour show, Bono did wish Bruce a happy birthday and swapped out "she" for "he" during the chorus of "She's the One." MTV News' Rachel Josue was at the show live and snagged a bit of video, so jam on "Mysterious Ways" while you get your belated birthday card together for Jersey's favorite son.
Even if he had never picked up a movie camera, Rob Zombie would have had a permanent place in history as the frontman of seminal psychedelic metal band White Zombie and the author of three fantastically freaky solo albums. But Zombie was never content to just sit still, and he has managed to carve himself out a nice little niche as a horror movie director. The guy is responsible for some of the craziest, goriest entries in the modern horror canon, including "House of 1,000 Corpses," "The Devil's Rejects" and his re-imagining of the John Carpenter classic "Halloween." Promotion for the latter's sequel brought Zombie to New York, where he stopped by Planet Hollywood in Times Square with his wife Sherri Moon Zombie at his side.
Be sure to stay tuned to the MTV Movies Blog next week, where Zombie will be guest-editing in support of his new movie "Halloween II." He'll also provide some updates to his upcoming projects, including the animated "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto" (based on Zombie's own comic book). And he can't shake the music bug, either, as he has an album finished and will perform at a metal festival in Japan in October, which will be his first show in two years.
In other celeb news, U2's Bono signed a handful of autographs during a visit to Radio Two in London, and Jessica Simpson dressed up as a Geisha for her upcoming VH1 show. Click here for these photos plus fresh shots of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, the Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga and Madonna!
In all the VMA news flying around today, it's easy to forget that some bands are actually putting out new videos. In fact, one of the biggest bands in the world just premiered it's latest clip. U2 rolled out the video for the No Line on the Horizon track "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight." (It rolled out on the band's official site a few weeks ago, but it's now available over at MTV Music.)
The animated video was directed by David O'Reilly, an Irish artist who has done mostly feature film work and who picked up some viral Internet buzz late last year. The narrative follows a number of characters (all drawn in O'Reilly's signature style, which is part pulp-comic and part giant-eyed manga) who have a chance encounter on a rainy night. The central narrative surrounds a small boy who runs away from home, and the key scene in the video is when he packs his bags so he can escape his drunk, unconscious father.
U2 have had a bit of a rough time of it lately, as their latest album has not been an overwhelming commercial success, and though their massive world tour has done big numbers, they were recently protested in Dublin for making too much noise. But this video is a sweet, melancholy mood piece that accompanies the song perfectly. U2 have always known their way around a video ("Lemon," "Beautiful Day," "Vertigo" and "New Year's Day" are all iconic), and "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" is the latest in a distinguished visual career.
Back in 1985, July 13 became known as "The Day That Music Changed the World" — or at least that's what Live Aid was called in its marketing materials. Big, sweeping charity festivals are common now, but in '85 Live Aid was really a revolutionary concept: One day, two main sites, several dozen bands and a single cause. The concerts in London and Philadelphia — featuring memorable sets by Queen, U2, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Sting and Run-D.M.C. — brought in nearly $50 million for famine relief in Africa, and the performances were watched by 400 million people in 60 different countries around the world.
The ringleader in all this? An Irish gentleman named Bob Geldof, who is known best for his charity work (he also organized Band Aid and Live 8, among others). But he got his start in the music business as the frontman of the Boomtown Rats, an underrated band who scored a hit in 1979 with "I Don't Like Mondays." For an anthem, it's particularly dark: Geldof wrote it about a California girl named Brenda Ann Spencer, who opened fire on a school playground because, she told police, "I don't like Mondays." We're not particularly fans of the beginning of the week here at the Newsroom either, but we'll deal with our frustrations by watching this video.
Even though their latest album No Line on the Horizon came out back in February, U2 are only just hitting the road for their "360" tour, which begins tonight in Barcelona, Spain. The show is a massive affair: The band spent millions of dollars constructing one of the largest concert stages ever built, complete with a giant metal structure known as "The Claw."
The set list focuses mostly on the band's last three albums (as well as a few shout-outs to Michael Jackson), but that doesn't mean the band isn't expanding their horizons. When Bono and Adam Clayton sat down with Sway back in March, they talked about how much they've learned from Kanye West and Jay-Z. Bono was especially enamored of Jigga's consonants.
The senior who slid the phrase "F--- All Y'All" onto the cover of the Shaker Heights High School yearbook has managed to pull off one of the great subliminal pranks of all time. As we know all too well, rock and roll is rife with subtle messages and "backmasking," dating back to the Beatles' "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy 40 years ago. Here are our favorite subliminal messages in rock history.
Prince, "Darling Nikki"
The 1980s version of Prince was a dance-crazed sex maniac who hadn't yet found the Lord. Or had he? At the end of "Darling Nikki," one of the filthiest songs Prince has ever recorded, there's a bit of garbled speech that translates to "Hello, how are you? I am fine, because I know that the Lord is coming soon" when played backwards.
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