The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #96280 Message #1880614
Posted By: GUEST,lox
09-Nov-06 - 05:39 PM
Thread Name: BS: Bono
Subject: RE: BS: Bono
I think Bono and madonna are very different to each other.
Bono has never deliberately drawn attention to himself as an individual. He has never been a "showbiz personality" despite being instantly recognizable worldwide, preferring instead to present himself to the media as a part of U2 the band.
Consequently he is no more famous than the edge, adam clayton or larry mullen.
If anyone of them became a media playboy it was Adam Clayton what with his affairs with various models etc.
Once off stage, Bono never abused his fame. He has been married to the same woman for many years now and unless I am otherwise mistaken she was his girlfriend from right back when U2 first started making records.
There has always therefore been a clear dividing line between the band, their work and their private lives.
Just the fact that I can't think of any gossip in the media about him tells a story on this subject.
He hasn't needed to titillate or "shock" his audience to get their attention, being able to rely on the strength of his art to do that for him. He and the edge are enormously prolific and versatile songwriters and have many enduring classics to their name.
Their can indeed be pretentious, but they always attempt to say something meaningful and many of them are extremely evocative.
None of them are about "me" and none of them encourage us to put "me" first.
The consistent tone and content of U2's music and lyrics is all about "the other guy". They are a band who look outwards from themselves to the world around them and comment on the sadness, beauty and injustice that they see in it.
It would be consistent for Bono, realising that he has billions of people world wide listening to him, and that politicians will therefore suck up to him to look good, to feel that he might make use of his popularity to become a thorn in their side and perhaps a spokesman for those with whom he has so consistently shown empathy over the years.
He is criticized for dong what madonna refuses to do and that is including himself in the politics. Slowly a media personality is beginning to emerge for the first time, but it is not a flattering one. It is that of a cardigan clad boring old liberal.
This image is still very seperate from the "character" BONO that he plays in the band U2, who is by contrast very enigmatic exciting and charismatic.
He is actively involved in campaigns worldwide and has been for years and has not sought to publicly put himself on the cross in the way that Madonna has.
He does the boring nitty gritty stuff that an attention seeker simply wouldn't have the time for and the the tabloids simply aren't interested in.
The differences are many and run deep.
The respect that he has from people like Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela and many others, and the ability to mobilize their support for the Live 8 fiasco (something which by the way I still find it hard to understand the value of) should tell a story in it's own right. Great politicians and people of vision are not easily manipulated by shallow pop stars. It takes something extra. That little bit of homework and that bit more thought perusal and scrutiny to make so many great people see the value of your litle idea.
Bono isn't a great man, don't get me wrong, and I've already agreed that his songs can be pretentious, but I never set out to argue that case, merely to highlight some differences between him and madonna.