This Love is Like a Drop in the Ocean

I always use music lyrics as my post titles each day, but I rarely if ever write about music. It might be because music is so subjective and emotionally charged. If I were to assert that a certain piece of music, song, or band was somehow better than another it is very difficult to actually prove that. Even if you were comparing The Beatles and Nickleback, there is really no way to objectively prove that The Beatles are better, although I'm sure that some way is coming soon to prove that Nickleback or Smashmouth is the worst band of all time, but I digress.

With all of that said, I was sitting here listening to U2 this morning and I came to the conclusion that there may never be a band as big as U2 ever again. With the way that music has become so fragmented and the shelf-life of artists and bands grow ever shorter, the 25 year run of U2 is one that will not be easily replicated. "The Joshua Tree" was one of the greatest albums of all times and arguably the best album of the entire decade of the 1980's. They have easily been the biggest band of the last 25 years, with huge contributions by Nirvana and Pearl Jam noted. They have become so big that they are almost a self-contradicting mass. Bono is constantly on the news pushing initiatives related to world hunger and poverty, but a ticket to a U2 show is going to run somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 on the latest tour. I don't understand how they reconcile that, but then again, I cannot step inside someone else's head and analyze their motives.

U2 has been one of the defining bands for almost 3 different generations. So much in music has changed since their debut in 1980. They have been pumping out quality music through the rise of rap, the evolution of the the Indie movement, and the phenomenon of grunge rock. I don't call myself a music critic or historian, but I do know that one day it will not be too much of a stretch to walk into my child's room and hear U2 coming from their speakers. That is if they ever hear anything other than Phish.....