and successful - Just watching a TV program about 20 best artist or bands of all time and U2 is among such 

giants like Pink Floyd, Queen, Michael Jackson, etc etc. I mean come on, those guys from U2 barely could play 
on their instruments...Granted they have few nice songs and original style (accomplished willy-nilly because of lack of instrumental skills) 
but how they can be even compared to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple....it's not same league.

Ya

I liked their first LP boy. 

but they got at least first three artists right - Beatles, MJ and LZ.

I take serious exception to that.  

I am a child of the 80s, after all.

I absolutely hate Led Zeppelin.

It's OK Jules, you're young. You'll learn.

I'm trying to think of another mainstream pop rock band with similar longevity covering the same era and which enjoyed similar success through the 80s and 90s and who are still active today.

I can't think of any at the moment. I don't think there's that much competition. 

Many band of that era who have since became classic/cult bands, and U2 could probably have gone into history books asone of them, relatively big, but nothing in comparison to their current status. But unlike others, they persisted... and they became legends. 

And once you become a legend, it's like you can't do anything wrong. You're appreciated for your status almost regardless of you musical output. Plenty of artists and bands cash in on that phenomenon w/ reunion tours.

IMHO, it's all blown out of proportion - and being blown out of proportion is often what pop is all about. 

Don't get me wrong - Achtung Baby is an all-time favorite of mine, and they wrote a few gems. But musically, they're pretty average. Still, by today's standards...


EDIT - Ok, there's one of my favorite bands, namely the Cure. Though, despite a few hits, they don't come across as mainstream as U2, IMHO. Still the principle at work is still the same - their last few albums don't really justify the following. And I wouldn't regard them as virtuosos either.

Until extremely recently, I'd cite REM.... And while I was a huge fan of REM as well, I don't think they are in the same league.  U2 started out much like every other band on the planet... A bunch of kids figuring it out.  Bono wasn't originally a singer, but they needed one.  But where your average bunch of kids might run up on a few good choruses here and there, U2 evolved with the times, running the gamut from post punk to new wave to arena to alternative and back again.  I won't pretend to know off the top of my head just how many albums they've put out, but there's more than one hit song on each of them.  

I would absolutely say that they deserve to be in that listing.

If you haven't listened to The Joshua Tree, you are Missing out.  IMHO, it's by far their best, and likely in my top 5 albums of all times. It's lyrically and musically interesting all the way through, and beautiful to boot.

(Rain, I was also thinking of The Cure... But don't kid myself about them being "mainstream" as much as I love them...)

I liked Joshua Tree, but I still felt that they were holding back. There something "clumsy" about it. But that's just my tastes. Still, it has a warm spot in my heart.

We also have to remember that many of those legendary bands weren't necessarily the greatest musicians in their own time either.