Will U2 play any songs from the Pop album to celebrate its 20th anniversary?

[andrewau2]

If you voted no but wish they would, you can always ask them to play some Pop songs through Facebook or Twitter using the #askU2.

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[riffraff]

I don't think they will. I think it'll be all TJT, plus songs from Boy and War.

[Johnny Feathers]

I don't think so.  I'd be thrilled if they threw in at least Please or something--that could be very topical with the current political climate--but they've done little to acknowledge Pop in recent tours, and it might be a tough fit with a JT-themed show.

[Saint1322]

Wondering how many threads we can have asking U2 to ignore 40 years of success and focus on their greatest commercial and critical failure.

Listen; everyone has the right to their opinion. If you love Pop, fantastic. Play it 24/7. I like a good bit of it myself. But, you have to understand that U2 might not looking back on 1997/98 as fondly as what you do. As I have said before, imagine begging Mick Jagger to eschew 60 years of success and send people running to the concession stands and bathrooms by cuing up one off Dirty Work instead of a hit or an album cut from Let It Bleed or Exile On Mainstreet. It just isn't realistic.

[bass slap]

Wondering how many threads we can have asking U2 to ignore 40 years of success and focus on their greatest commercial and critical failure.

Listen; everyone has the right to their opinion. If you love Pop, fantastic. Play it 24/7. I like a good bit of it myself. But, you have to understand that U2 might not looking back on 1997/98 as fondly as what you do. As I have said before, imagine begging Mick Jagger to eschew 60 years of success and send people running to the concession stands and bathrooms by cuing up one off Dirty Work instead of a hit or an album cut from Let It Bleed or Exile On Mainstreet. It just isn't realistic.

Who's asking them to ignore 40 years of success?!  The suggestion or hope is that they play one or two songs from an album?

[Saint1322]

Wondering how many threads we can have asking U2 to ignore 40 years of success and focus on their greatest commercial and critical failure.

Listen; everyone has the right to their opinion. If you love Pop, fantastic. Play it 24/7. I like a good bit of it myself. But, you have to understand that U2 might not looking back on 1997/98 as fondly as what you do. As I have said before, imagine begging Mick Jagger to eschew 60 years of success and send people running to the concession stands and bathrooms by cuing up one off Dirty Work instead of a hit or an album cut from Let It Bleed or Exile On Mainstreet. It just isn't realistic.

Who's asking them to ignore 40 years of success?!  The suggestion or hope is that they play one or two songs from an album?

Legit point, but that's just one piece of a larger puzzle from people asking 'Why are they ignoring the 20th anniversary of Pop? Where is the remaster/box set? Why don't they do special shows devoted to just this album?'

Because it didn't do well. Period. They could barely play these songs when they were new. I was at an early PopMart show and it was a tirefire.

I see YOUR point; two songs isn't a big deal out of 22 or so, but it is this obsession with Pop that I don't get. Just take a look at how many threads have 'Pop' in the title. For someone who lived through that era, it is just a head-scratcher, because I for one remember how thrilled 99 percent of U2 fans were to see U2 return to the stage looking and sounding like U2 again, no muscle shirts, cowboy hats or lemons, lol.

[achtung child]

NOPE

[andrewau2]

Wondering how many threads we can have asking U2 to ignore 40 years of success and focus on their greatest commercial and critical failure.

Listen; everyone has the right to their opinion. If you love Pop, fantastic. Play it 24/7. I like a good bit of it myself. But, you have to understand that U2 might not looking back on 1997/98 as fondly as what you do. As I have said before, imagine begging Mick Jagger to eschew 60 years of success and send people running to the concession stands and bathrooms by cuing up one off Dirty Work instead of a hit or an album cut from Let It Bleed or Exile On Mainstreet. It just isn't realistic.

Who's asking them to ignore 40 years of success?!  The suggestion or hope is that they play one or two songs from an album?

Legit point, but that's just one piece of a larger puzzle from people asking 'Why are they ignoring the 20th anniversary of Pop? Where is the remaster/box set? Why don't they do special shows devoted to just this album?'

Because it didn't do well. Period. They could barely play these songs when they were new. I was at an early PopMart show and it was a tirefire.

I see YOUR point; two songs isn't a big deal out of 22 or so, but it is this obsession with Pop that I don't get. Just take a look at how many threads have 'Pop' in the title. For someone who lived through that era, it is just a head-scratcher, because I for one remember how thrilled 99 percent of U2 fans were to see U2 return to the stage looking and sounding like U2 again, no muscle shirts, cowboy hats or lemons, lol.

The multiple threads with Pop in the title are due to it being the 20th anniversary of an amazing, UNDERRATED, album.  It's been 20 years so people are excited to remember and discuss a great album.  For many, it was the last great U2 album or it was the album of their formative years.

I do not see any threads asking for U2 to get back into the mirrorball lemon or put on the muscle shirts. 

However, I do see people asking for U2 to throw them a bone and play one or two of their great songs from the album (like Mofo, Gone, Please...) and not ignore the album completely like they have for the last two tours. 

While they did play Discotheque twice on the Vertigo tour, I'd imagine most people were not at those two shows.  So, it was really no songs from the Pop album for the last THREE tours.  It was back in 2001 when U2 played Gone and Please a bunch of times on the Elevation tour.  So, yeah 16 years ago.

[Thunder Peel]

I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[an tha]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

[bass slap]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

Yes..on your point.. there's a thread about loving crazy tonight. I steered well clear as I simply don't have anything positive to say about that song and thought it would just increase my chances of being snuffed from the forum..
The positivity around pop, now I can buy into that.

[an tha]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

Yes..on your point.. there's a thread about loving crazy tonight. I steered well clear as I simply don't have anything positive to say about that song and thought it would just increase my chances of being snuffed from the forum..
The positivity around pop, now I can buy into that.

Same here - Have made a conscious effort to make no comments on threads about songs i don't like etc....

[Saint1322]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

I believe I went out my way to emphasize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, I am seeing a lot of 'Why' questions. Why don't U2 ___________ when it comes to Pop? Why no special edition? Why no anniversary acknowledgment? Why not throw us a bone?

Because it was a massive failure in the United States. I am not speaking to or about the rest of the world. As far as the U.S. went, Pop and PopMart were failures, and I can't imagine U2 have many good memories of playing to stadiums that were 40 percent full in the United States on the heels of the record-breaking Joshua Tree and ZooTV tours.

PERSONALLY, I like Pop more than I do HTDAAB. But that's just me. I don't think I liked SOI as much as some people here did -- though I did like it. I adore No Line. Love that album. Love. It. But if U2 are still kicking when NLOTH turns 20 or 30, I'm not going to be clamoring for answers as to why they don't release a box set or tour behind it again. They had to drop half of the songs they were playing from it mid tour due to audience indifference, JUST LIKE ON POPMART. It didn't go over very well. Not every album is going to get its own starring role. I'm still miffed as all get out that Zooropa was treated like a red-headed stepchild and folded in with Achtung Baby. If they are going to treat Zooropa like that, what did y'all expect from Pop?

So again, please don't read my comments and think I am trashing Pop or PopMart. I am just telling you that you have to put yourselves in U2's position. We are the hardest of the hardcore fans. Of course we are going to think more favorably of Pop than the rest of the average U2 fans out there. I am just reminding y'all that outside of this tiny little community we have here, Pop was a disaster. The tour almost bankrupted the record label, remember? 40 percent sales at some shows. Songs that had to be aborted in the middle of shows. The worst rated broadcast TV show in the history of network television. Any of this ringing a bell for y'all? Because I bet I could name four guys who remember all too well. SNL jokes about their appearance. LMJ looking mortified during the Discotheque video. It goes on and on.

Do you think that's something U2 are eager to go back and re-live every night? 'Oh, let's play If God Will Send His Angels, a song we agonized over for four years before releasing on an album, only to release a different version as a single and still another to accompany the video because we never got it right. And that we had to drop from our setlists because we couldn't play it. Good times!'

[an tha]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

I believe I went out my way to emphasize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, I am seeing a lot of 'Why' questions. Why don't U2 ___________ when it comes to Pop? Why no special edition? Why no anniversary acknowledgment? Why not throw us a bone?

Because it was a massive failure in the United States. I am not speaking to or about the rest of the world. As far as the U.S. went, Pop and PopMart were failures, and I can't imagine U2 have many good memories of playing to stadiums that were 40 percent full in the United States on the heels of the record-breaking Joshua Tree and ZooTV tours.

PERSONALLY, I like Pop more than I do HTDAAB. But that's just me. I don't think I liked SOI as much as some people here did -- though I did like it. I adore No Line. Love that album. Love. It. But if U2 are still kicking when NLOTH turns 20 or 30, I'm not going to be clamoring for answers as to why they don't release a box set or tour behind it again. They had to drop half of the songs they were playing from it mid tour due to audience indifference, JUST LIKE ON POPMART. It didn't go over very well. Not every album is going to get its own starring role. I'm still miffed as all get out that Zooropa was treated like a red-headed stepchild and folded in with Achtung Baby. If they are going to treat Zooropa like that, what did y'all expect from Pop?

So again, please don't read my comments and think I am trashing Pop or PopMart. I am just telling you that you have to put yourselves in U2's position. We are the hardest of the hardcore fans. Of course we are going to think more favorably of Pop than the rest of the average U2 fans out there. I am just reminding y'all that outside of this tiny little community we have here, Pop was a disaster. The tour almost bankrupted the record label, remember? 40 percent sales at some shows. Songs that had to be aborted in the middle of shows. The worst rated broadcast TV show in the history of network television. Any of this ringing a bell for y'all? Because I bet I could name four guys who remember all too well. SNL jokes about their appearance. LMJ looking mortified during the Discotheque video. It goes on and on.

Do you think that's something U2 are eager to go back and re-live every night? 'Oh, let's play If God Will Send His Angels, a song we agonized over for four years before releasing on an album, only to release a different version as a single and still another to accompany the video because we never got it right. And that we had to drop from our setlists because we couldn't play it. Good times!'

I personally enjoy the debate and the sharing of differing opinions - place is duller and boring without them!

I just found the 'why all the Pop threads' and a couple of other comments you made were not in the spirit of things.....your general tone and points were well made enough aside from those things.

[Canadanne]

If someone was making posts like the ones above from saint in a thread about ATYCLB or HTDAAB there would be people having a right good moan as they are right now elsewhere in the forum about 'negativity/trashing stuff people love' etc....

As it happens I personally just see differing opinions as just that - differing opinions but it does seem that because u2 seem to dislike (for want of a better word) Pop that it gives people 'the right' to have a dig - a dig like people moan about when it is aimed at records that they like or that are 'u2 approved'....

It all smacks a little of double standards to me.

Yes..on your point.. there's a thread about loving crazy tonight. I steered well clear as I simply don't have anything positive to say about that song and thought it would just increase my chances of being snuffed from the forum..
The positivity around pop, now I can buy into that.

Same here - Have made a conscious effort to make no comments on threads about songs i don't like etc....

And I'd like to say thank you to everyone who is making that effort (which is exactly what I try to do, too). If only more people would do the same, we might end up with a happier forum.

I think there's a bit of a difference between saying "Pop has no redeeming features! Worst album ever!" and "I like Pop, but I understand why the band may not be keen on playing it".