U2 360° By Numbers:

U2 360° By Numbers:
7,100,000 Fans  10 million People watched a live stream of U2 360° at the Rose Bowl on YouTube 320,000 Fans saw 360° in Mexico City  92,270 Meals fed to working staff and guests 29,000 Tee shirts given to local stagehands 9,760 Guitar strings utilized 7,100 Miles – approximate distance travelled by space station while talking with U2 5,200 Years – collective touring experience of U2 tour personnel  400 Tons – weight of the fully loaded claw 134 Crew members  126 Truck drivers  110 Concerts 53 Gigs attended by a single fan 33 Flemish speaking crew members 30 Countries 12 Bus drivers 11 Babies born to crew  7 Astronauts attended 4 Appreciative Irishmen 2 fairytale crew weddings 1 Singer in surgery 1 World leader released from house arrest during tour

What's the most recent song that U2 wrote that was a big enough hit so that just about anybody could hum it? I mean like a Sunday Bloody Sunday sort of thing...

seriously?
come out of your cave lately?!


hm....  there are so many big-time kudos here on this band, it's really an exercise in history, rather than a comparison of songs and melodies....



on the last album, 
No Line on the Horizon -  
In the United States, it was U2's seventh number-one album; 
nominated in the Best Rock Album category at the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010; 
The cut song "Winter" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 67th Golden Globe Awards for its role in the film Brothers; 
Rolling Stone ranked No Line on the Horizon the best album of the year and the 36th-best album of the decade, and "Moment of Surrender" as the best song of the year and the 36th-best song of the decade;
"Get on Your Boots" is probably the one most people know off this one..



before that, you've got 
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb-
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and its singles won all nine Grammy Awards for which it was nominated
it was the fourth biggest selling album of 2004;
selling over 9 million copies
and yielded several successful singles in "Vertigo", "City of Blinding Lights", and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own"

i guarantee you, the U2 fans can hum all of these.


before that, there was one of my favorites of the 21st century bunch, 
All That You Can't Leave Behind
All That You Can't Leave Behind has sold over 12 million copies, received wide critical acclaim, and won seven Grammy Awards.

LOL

The songs "Beautiful Day", "Walk On", "Elevation", and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" were all successful singles. 
In 2003, the album was ranked number 139 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

 "Beautiful Day", released on 9 October 2000. It was U2's fourth #1 single in the UK, their first #1 in the Netherlands, and was also #1 for a week in Australia. The song peaked at #21 in the US.


but more important than whether you can hum along to it or not:
The album is banned in Burma by SPDC because "Walk On" is a song dedicated to Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

heheh
phuk em.

You know, I've got nothing against U2 per se. But the key, I feel, is in one of the sentence you used:
"there are so many big-time kudos here on this band, it's really an exercise in history, rather than a comparison of songs and melodies"


The music sort of becomes secondary, if not to the musicians themselves, at lest to a large part of the audience. 

I saw Metallica back in the days (Master of Puppets). We were a few hundreds. We weren't there because they were big and famous, had won a Grammy, or because the Rolling Stone said they were good. Their music was an integral part of our life, really. It meant something. 

These days, it's like you HAVE to see something because, well, it's legendary. I'm wondering how many of those 100 000 people who went to see Metallica were there 2 years ago for Paul McCartney. For Celine a few days later. They were there for Rammstein last summer. For Black Eyed Peas. For Van Halen. For Kiss. For Scorpions and Twisted Sisters.

For Nine Inch Nails, we were a couple of thousands. Bring them back in 10 years with a boring new album and bill them as The Legendary Nine Inch Nails and you'll sell 100 000 tickets.

I personally know quite a few people who went because, well, it's Metallica. You have to see that legendary band, right? Same for the others. 

But it doesn't mean that the band and its music are anymore relevant. They're big. That's all.