keith a wrote:
So what if he's helped 2 million people?
He's got a big ego and I don't like him.
He's had his photo taken with people I don't like.
And the last few albums have been shit. Well I've not actually heard them but they sold millions so they must be.
I wish he'd just let people suffer and leave me in peace.
Not my views btw. Far from it. But, cutting through the chaff, isn't this the view of some folk here?
What a great post.
My concern is the same - that 99% of the opprobrium that is directed at Bono from the wolrd of cool is there because he fails on the rock n roll cool-o-meter. That and having the temerity to be an "out" Christian.
That Bono is doing anything at all is miraculous when he could be sitting on his ass all day disseceting Post Modernism with Eno, Bowie and David Byrne over a bottle or three of Romanee Conti.
Meanwhile someone like Peter Gabriel gets a pass because he made a few decent records a long time ago and because he got a hair cut and bailed out on Prog just as Punk appeared on the horizon. Lke Fripp and Hammill. Sure he has a well considered world music label and once upon a time nearly went bust putting on Womad but how releasing a few albums by third world artists compares favourably with what Bono has done is beyond me. And what is the difference between Bono's activism and Eno's War Child?
At it's very worst rock n roll culture rejects earnestness and embraces smoke and mirrors. Adores posturing but mistrusts poise. Idolises the buzz-word but is suspicious of substance. Derides effort and praises sloth. Mistrusts real activism but lionises the myth of teenage rampage. In other words rock n roll is the very embodiment of adolescent self-regard and there are few things that teenagers seem to hate more than people who try hard and don't try to hide it.
