Bono thinks contemporary music "has gotten very girly"
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Bono shared a few thoughts on contemporary music.
The U2 frontman discussed Spotify, finding out new bands through his children and declared: “I think music has gotten very girly.” He continued,saying that “hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment–and that's not good. When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars.”
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The quote got me wondering what he means by girly music and why it doesn't involve guitars. Anyway, I digress.
Here's the full quote:
“I think music has gotten very girly. And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that's not good. When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don't care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is fucking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it. Some great rock & roll tends to have that, which is why the Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage.”
Bono also talked about Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services. “Right now, streaming is on the ad-based model,” he said. “And that is very, very young, and it's very, very pop. It's dominated by frequency of plays, but that is not actually a measure of the weight of an artist.”
“This is really a transition period. It has been very unfriendly to a lot of artists,” he continued, stating he believes we'll move on to a subscription model, which benefits musicians and audiences: “We are going to witness a revolution in the way artists and their fans interact. Chance the Rapper, who has a beautiful soul and a mind to match it, has no record label.”
The singer explained all members of U2 are always listening to music, but his children are a big part of him finding out about new artists. “Jordan is a music snob, an indie snob. Eve is hip-hop. Elijah is in a band, and he has got very strong feelings about music, but he doesn't make any distinction between, let's say, the Who and the Killers. Or, you know, Nirvana and Royal Blood,” Bono shared. “It is not generational for him. It is the sound and what he is experiencing. He believes that a rock & roll revolution is around the corner.”
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