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U2, Globalization, and the Identity Trade

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U2, Globalization, and the Identity Trade

U2's Identity Trade: "Global Period"

 

Over the next two and half decades, U2 worked concurrently with the rapidly advancing Irish economy to climb the global ladder, and when they finally reached that “virtual space” of world pop, they had effectively lost all remnants of their previous Irish identity.  For this discussion, it will suffice to refer to this second period of development, which can be traced approximately to the mid-1990s, as U2’s “global period.”  In actuality, many critics have decided for some time that U2’s music is more easily placed under the category of American pop/rock than Irish rock or pop.  Because U2’s loss of local identity was gradual, however, it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the exact moment at which they traded in their Irish national identity for either an American or a global one.  Instead, it would suffice to analyze their more recent works in contrast to the undoubtedly Irish hit “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” beginning with the aptly-named Pop (1997) and ending with their most recent album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004).  Through the study of these recent works, one can observe how U2 adopted an ambiguous, completely commercialized image and musical style.  In addition, this argument becomes all the more convincing through a comparison of U2 to The Pogues, another “Irish” band that maintains a much stronger Irish identity despite the fact that it formed from the Irishdiaspora population in London.