Innocence

I’m quite sure that anyone reading this is already aware that U2 has released a new album a few weeks ago. The method they chose to do it is a little unorthodox, and for some reason, an awful lot of people felt they should comment on the case, so I’m just jumping on the bandwagon.

U2 used to be a band, and they used to make music, which became more and more popular as time went by. They were very ambitious: they wanted to be the biggest band in the world, and I’m confident to say that they succeeded. With their excellent 1987 album “The Joshua Tree”, they were topping charts all over the world (even singles charts, which usually happened to more obviously commercial acts), selling out stadiums and winning Grammys. It might have been inevitable, that by this point they became a corporation, which sold a product. I don’t mean this in any negative way, it just happened. They were able to pull stunts like arranging a seemingly spontaneous concert on a rooftop (something The Beatles actually did around 2 decades earlier), just to have the police shut them down (which they were very reluctant to do), in order to film the whole thing for a music video. A year after the German reunion, they released their “Berlin album” (which was a brilliant collection of songs by the way), and everybody got to know it as a “Berlin album”: there was a German word in the title, a very recognizable (East) German car, the Trabant was on album and single sleeves, and even on the tour as lighting gear, the opening song was named after an underground station in Berlin, and the legendary Hansa Studio, where the likes of David Bowie, Brian Eno and Iggy Pop made memorable albums (plus Depeche Mode, but they weren’t mentioned) got named in every interview at the time as the place of recording. It’s no secret that the band struggled to come up with the goods during their Berlin sessions, the only fact slightly overlooked is that the majority of the album was actually recorded in Dublin: from the songs that ended up on the album, only 1 or 2 were recorded in Berlin.

What I’m trying to say with all this, is that they were always very good at presenting themselves in a way that made sure everybody noticed. However good the music was, they became the biggest because they were willing to do what it took, and it seems like they’re still like that. When they put out a new album, they’re not satisfied with having only their huge fanbase paying attention, they want everyone to know. They must be aware that a lot of people strongly dislike them, and through their latest stunt, they got all the haters working for them. Teaming up with Apple and uploading their album to every iTunes-account might not be the most tasteful move, I’m glad that it wasn’t one of the acts I prefer over them who did it, but from their point of view, they did everything right. The album practically cannot fail, whatever sales figures and chart positions they reach, it's been out for free before, so the numbers no longer mean too much, the fans can see it as a nice gesture getting the album legally without having to pay for it, they still got paid for their work, they obviously reached some people outside their core audience, and because of the complaining, now everybody knows there’s a new U2 album out there, available for free. And they didn’t even have to pay a penny to spread the word, the haters did it all for them. They're not even the bad guys who spammed all those accounts with their product, Apple did that. I’m impressed.

Just to make you feel better, I’d like point out a funny little lie that Bono slipped in there. He stated that the album is available for free for iTunes costumers and the subscribers of U2.com. An annual subscription costs 50 US dollars (40 if you’re renewing an already existing one), and over the years, they did release some exclusive stuff for the subscribers (and offered deals on merchandise and concert tickets), but you couldn’t get the album if you didn’t have an iTunes account, there was no special access whatsoever, you were simply pointed in the direction of the Apple Store.

As a last classy move, those 11 “Songs Of Innocence” saw the light of day on vinyl in the last days of September, in limited quantities in a few record shops, to make it eligible for next years Grammy Awards. Collectors around the world will end up paying quite a lot for this rarity in the coming days, weeks or even years, but the band just couldn’t resist the possible publicity of appearing/being nominated/performing/winning yet another award at this marvellous event. Still, it’s all about the innocence, clearly.