The Rosary and the Microphone - Religious Impulse in U2’s Mediated Brand - Nicholas P. Greco
U2 and the Blinding Lights of the City
The Rosary and the Microphone - Religious Impulse in U2’s Mediated Brand - Nicholas P. Greco
Nicholas P. Greco [+]
Providence University College, Canada
Nicholas P. Greco is Associate Professor, Communications and Media, Providence University College, Canada. He is the author of David Bowie in Darkness (McFarland, 2015) and “Only if you are Really Interested”: Celebrity, Gender, Desire and the World of Morrissey (McFarland, 2011).
Description
This chapter explores how U2’s music and stage presentation use the image of the contemporary city as a site for exploring the utopian and dystopian aspects of contemporary life. The ways that U2 approach the urban experience also point to the band’s complicity, as U2 expresses both a powerful utopian idea (social change and human progress) and dystopian problem (being complicit with market forces; being drenched in irony or postmodern flux).