What do prog fans think of U2 and REM?
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=109707
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Topic: What do prog fans think of U2 and REM?
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Subject: What do prog fans think of U2 and REM?
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 17:33
These are two of my favorite non prog bands. They were both popular around the same time(late eighties early 90's). However, I can't imagine many prog fans enjoying them. I'd like to be proven wrong though. 
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Replies:
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 18:04
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I only own The Joshua Tree (vinyl and CD), nothing by REM. Songs that I have heard I like, but nothing enough to invest in buying their albums, does not mean I turn the dial when they come one. Enjoy their music, don't let mental proggers ruin your opinion of them  -------------   
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Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 18:13
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Pass. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Pastmaster
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 18:14
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I love R.E.M., one of the best alternative rock bands out there. They have many great albums, but my favorites have always been Document and Green. U2 has some good songs, but I'm not as big a fan of them as I am R.E.M.
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Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 18:24
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REM are ok, I guess. I don't like U2.
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Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 18:51
Yeah, I'm seeing the kind of responses I expected.  The thing is I'm not a real big fan of most pop stuff and usually when a band gets big it doesn't interest me(radiohead might be an exception)but with U2 and R.E.M I think they were both very good bands and both very talented and deserved the success they got. Other than them there was some stuff that was ok but most eighties bands kind of bored me or just rubbed me the wrong way(especially most of the hair metal stuff).
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Catcher10 wrote:Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 19:06
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Not a fan of either, though U.2. far surpasses R.E.M. for me. I used to listen to, I think the albums War, Boy (?) and Joshua Tree. I cringe whenever I hear R.E.M. Admittedly, I only hear the radio stuff like Everybody Hurts and Sugar King and they are annoying as f.u.c.k. |
Posted By: Formentera Lady
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 19:36
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I like U2 quite a lot (especially their early albums). I do not like REM at all. I find them annoying, too. ------------- http://theprogressiveweb.blogspot.de" rel="nofollow - Visit me in Second Life to talk about music. |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 20:13
I was never of fan of Bono, his political views and all that stuff.....Dude just sing and wear those funky glasses, collect your paycheck and go home -------------
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Posted By: DeadSouls
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 20:14
| I like REM hits. |
Posted By: LearsFool
Date Posted: December 17 2016 at 20:53
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Love R.E.M. What a run they had in the '80's - Chronic Town, Reckoning, Fables of The Reconstruction, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Green. U2 was alright in that decade themselves. War is a excellent pop album. -------------  
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Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 05:04
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I like U2's earlier work and I am rather indifferent to REM (OK, Shiny Happy People is a nice little ditty ). ------------- 
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Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 05:07
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Love REM. Don't like much U2 did after Unforgettable Fire, with the exception of a few songs, for example 'Where the sreets have no name' which is a glorious song. Bono is a complete tw&t IMO. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 05:38
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Not too fond of either. Not because they are not prog though; I like a lot of non-prog. But I consider them to be lukewarm. They don't take any risks. -------------  BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 06:21
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Personally, I never really cared for REM, except for maybe Losing My Religion and Monsters But U2 is a different thing altogether, IMHO From Unforgettable Fire until Achtung Baby , they did four excellent albums, though they suffered from overexposition (espicially Joshua Tree), and I still have an excellent souvenir from viewing on the silver screen the Rattle & Hum movie. But then they screwed things up with that Zooropa and that Passeners thing (with Eno) thingies and they were new the same afterwards. Nowadays I couldn't care less of their new albums, though I heard a sizeable amount of each to make sure I'm not missing out on something. |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 06:44
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The only track I listen to from either band is the one U2 did with Pavarotti for the Passengers soundtrack. Still gives me chills when the big man booms. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 10:16
| Both had classic periods then tailed off - U2 after Actung Baby and REM after New Adventures (although I quite like Reveal). |
Posted By: timothy leary
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 10:51
| I like Joshua tree, the National Park is awesome as is the Mohave. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 10:56
But doesn't music that take risks put them into the prog category? Maybe you like the Church or the Cure. I can't think of that many non prog bands who take risks. Maybe my definition of prog is different.
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 11:45
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First three albums from U2 where very good, the forgetable fire was okay but after that I really cannot abide them. REM... meh... ------------- What? |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 11:47
I like Inner City Unit. ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Terrapin Station
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 12:18
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I'm a pretty big fan of both, but both seriously fell off in quality--the songwriting suddenly got boring--in the 2000s in my opinion. Still, they had very good, 15 to 20-year runs leading up to that. Automatic for the People is my favorite REM album. The Unforgettable Fire is my favorite U2 album. |
Posted By: Quinino
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 13:00
The very beginning of U2 was fresh & exciting (I saw them live in 1984  )Success quickly turned them to a boooooooring band, IMO REM never were very exciting, really, just good to hear in the car radio (or as pool/beach ambient music) |
Posted By: HosiannaMantra
Date Posted: December 18 2016 at 16:07
| I like most of REM and U2's first five albums, after Joshua Tree they became quite lukewarm to me. |
Posted By: Ozark Soundscape
Date Posted: December 19 2016 at 09:05
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REM were a really good band who made some of the best albums of all time. U2 have a few good albums but over time have developed more and more into pretentious corporate rock. |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: December 19 2016 at 11:12
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Can't stand anything I've heard from REM. One of those bands that I just can't abide/ As for U2, I like a few of their earlier songs but that's about it
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Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: December 19 2016 at 14:46
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I used to listen to them both back in the day......and I like the early albums by both bands but I don't play them anymore but occasionally here them on the fm radio stations. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: December 19 2016 at 16:23
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I can't bear anything to do with Bono and his messiah complex. Rattle & Hum the nearest U2 got to a decent record. The first five R.E.M. albums were good to excellent, rapid descent into utter pap after that. |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: December 22 2016 at 05:59
I don't know. U2 downloaded their last album to most of the known world whether they wanted it or not and REM said "f*ck" on some of their songs. |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: December 22 2016 at 10:53
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Excellent, both. ------------- |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: December 22 2016 at 11:02
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On the meh list. ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: Wirebender
Date Posted: December 22 2016 at 19:01
| I am not in love with either, but each have great albums. Achtung Baby and Automatic For The People come to mind. |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: December 23 2016 at 04:03
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: December 23 2016 at 04:44
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I have and quite like Achtung Baby. I have liked their songs and most albums in part. The grandstanding Bono got on my wick at times but more so the unbelievably over rated Edge as guitarist. Take away his delay pedal and he is nothing. As a band they are scarcely there and have to rely on actual song quality. Once that goes, and it has, then so do they. I thought it was very ironic that one of the world's most popular pop groups actually were resented for giving an album away by uploading it to people's phones. All any one had to do was copy it to a computer or delete the files. But that's the essence of how pop music is seen now. Placed on a level as a bunch of folders. The magic has gone. Imagine this sort of thing pre-web. Ungrateful proles. REM... probably like some hits. Once they started having them. The sort of thing people I recall who were not into heavy or progressive music found their intellects stimulated. Prog for the punks. |
Posted By: progresssaurus
Date Posted: December 23 2016 at 04:44
| In the past "Joshua tree" by U2 and "Up" by REM time after time. |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: December 23 2016 at 06:34
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Big U2 fan right up through Achtung Baby, although I have to say one listen of Pop and I was ready to dump every single album of theirs I owned. What a total sell-out. However, I got over it. Unforgettable Fire is an astonishing album, never gets old. I really like Automatic for the people but otherwise am pretty meh about REM.
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Posted By: Kespuzzuo
Date Posted: December 24 2016 at 21:19
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For me, U2 is good when they work with Brian Eno. Their most important albums were produced by him. I don't think their late work is as good as their first records, https://instaud.io/Gey" rel="nofollow - one of their most recent songs sounds too much like a Coldplay song , which also sounds like a Foo Fighters song (And the three songs are in the same scale) REM is fine. They're pioneers of alternative rock. They were influential to that sound, a more personal type of rock. I don't listen to their music too much, they are not my cup of tea for now. |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: December 24 2016 at 21:25
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U2 up to War, and REM up to Document. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |