IN AN INTERVIEW with Rolling Stone, U2 front-man Bono shared a searing hot take about the music of today.
The opinion was shared when the 57-year-old singer stated that his son believes a ‘rock & roll revolution is around the corner’. Rolling Stone asked Bono if he shared that belief, and he responded:
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.
Bono, Bono, Bono. What will we do with you?
Because he cited some of his son Eli’s favourite bands as The Who, The Killers, Nirvana it’s very likely that Bono is just completely ignorant of the endless genres of music that exist today, where people are free to express their fury.
It’s hardly like angry music ever makes it mainstream, anyway. Plus there are tons of women who are making music that is completely fueled by anger. What the hell does ‘girly’ even mean in this context?
When have U2 ever sounded angry? Do They Know It’s Christmas? Is that the angry kind of music he’s on about? He sounds like a da at the dinner table mocking a family member for not listening to *real* music.
Look at where anger has gotten Bono in the past. In 1987, he made this very silly mistake by losing the rag when he spotted a sign that said ‘SF’ while at a concert in San Francisco, and assumed that the ‘SF’ stood for Sinn Féin.
Someone come collect Bono, please.
All jokes aside, men should not be shamed for exploring alternative emotions to anger. The fact that men are brought up from childhood and taught not to cry, but to react with anger and to repress their other emotions, is actually a bad thing, Bono.
Here’s to men expressing their feelings and acting ‘girly’ in music and every other aspect of life, because it’s certainly better than the alternative – the inability to discuss feelings and personal problems openly – which has left us with the fourth highest teen suicide rate in the EU and suicide being the leading cause of death for men aged 45-54.
If you need to talk, contact:
Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
Aware 1800 804848 (depression, anxiety)
Pieta House 1800 247247 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide, self-harm)
Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833634 (for ages 13 to 19)
Childline 1800 666666 (for under 18s)
