U2
For more than two decades, U2 has stayed true to themselves and their art, creating music and making social statements that reflected their perspectives about life, politics, and religion. Along the way, they not only had a profound social impact on the world, but also connected with millions of people on a personal level helping them look introspectively at themselves and how they viewed the world. They have sold more than 120 million albums worldwide, won 14 Grammy Awards, and performed at numerous concerts benefiting social programs and causes.
U2s story began in Dublin, where they started out as a group of high school friends, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton and The Edge. Their first major accomplishment in their career was when they won a talent contest in 1978. This gave them several opportunities and they released their first album in 1979, U2 Three. It hit number one on the Irish charts, but still they did not receive their first major contract until 1980. With their first two albums, Boy(1980) and October(1981), along with electrifying concerts, they began to develop a loyal following in both England and the US. In 1983, with the release of War(1983), which went to number one on the UK charts and 12 on the US charts, U2 became one of the first bands of this era to make political statements with their music, especially with the songs, Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about religion and the struggles of Northern Ireland, and "New Years Day", a song inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement. Following the success of this album, many bands followed their lead and also began taking political stances and even the music industry followed the trend with the Band Aid and Live Aid projects in 1984 and 1985. U2 did not stop at just producing conscious music though, they performed for numerous social causes and charities creating unforgettable memories including their Live Aid performance, which included a 13 minute version of Bad where Bono dived into the crowd and also Amnesty Internationals Conspiracy of Hope Tour. With their next album, Unforgettable Fire(1984), named after an exhibition of paintings made by survivors to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, U2 repeated their success and of course continued to express their personal views with a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., (Pride) In the Name of Love. Finally though in 1987 with their release of The Joshua Tree(1987), many believe they reached superstardom. This album went to number one on the American and UK charts. This album contained numerous biblical images and dealt with issues such as social injustices, faith, governmental oppression, terrorism, and drug addiction. There next project was Rattle and Hum, a rockumentary and double album where they wanted to pay tribute to the American music pioneers who had influenced U2s music. This project was not received as well as the rest of their albums though and many said it was pretentious and excessive.
With their next two albums U2 experimented with a different musical style and content beginning with the blues style of Rattle and Hum (1988) and the dance and electronic style of Achtung, Baby (1991). With these albums, the content was more introspective and personal. Their next several albums, Zooropa(1993) and Pop(1997) continued the techno and dance trend. In the album Pop, "Please" had a similar message to "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" pleaing for peace in Ireland and "MOFO" was a message from Bono to his mother, similar to "I Will Follow." In 2000, with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind they went back to their roots in musical style. One of the songs on this album, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, was inspired by the author Salmon Rushdie. In their latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, they have continued with their traditional U2 sound and once again not only created a very personal experience for their fans, but also openly communicated about many of the issues people have to deal with, from love versus romance, to dealing with the death of a loved one, to of course religion. Of course throughout this entire time, U2 has been involved with numerous political issues including peace in Ireland, third world debt relief, HIV/AIDS relief, and many more.
U2 is a band that has taken risks throughout their career by opening up their heart and soul to the world and also being brave enough to stand up for what they believe in. They have expressed themselves to the world through their music and even taken it a step further and done as much as possible to help those less fortunate the world over speaking out against injustice, poverty, and abuse. U2 is helping to change the world and their fans are supporting them every step of the way.
Information for this biography was compiled from the following sources:
http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/artist.php?artist=U2
By Tristram Lozaw - http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/artistFocus.asp?artistID=1027798
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine - http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0udkyl4jxppb~T1
Tiscali Music - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/music/biography/u2_biog.html
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