U2, Globalization, and the Identity Trade

Home

• Introduction
• Modern Irish Nationalism
• Problems with Irish Identity
  • Diaspora
  • Religion and Secularization
  • Hybridity, Diaspora and Globalization
  • Summary
• Folk/Traditional Music
• U2
• Origin
• Pop/Rock Authenticity
• U2's Style and Authenticity
• "Early Period"
• Pop Periphery and the Global Bubble
• U2's Identity Trade
  • "Global Period"
  • In Their Own Words...
  • Americanization and Commercialization
• U2 vs The Pogues
  • The Pogues' Style and Authenticity
  • Hybridity and Diaspora
  • International vs National
• Summary and Conclusion
• Bibliography

In 1976, Larry Mullin Jr., U2’s drummer, posted a note in the hallway of his high school asking for musicians to help him form a band to play at a school function. He gathered together Paul Hewson on lead vocals, David Evans and his older brother Dick on guitars, and Adam Clayton on bass guitar. One year later, after Dick Evans left the band, the four remaining members officially started the super pop/rock group known as U2. Since their inception, the band has sold around 170 million records worldwide and remains the most successful Irish group to date ("Irish" meaning from the Irish island).  The main question being addressed here, however, is not whether U2 was a successful Irish pop group, but whether U2 should even be considered an Irish group at all.  Contemporary critics do not often refute U2’s authenticity as a novel rock/pop group with an original sound, but they would certainly have a convincing argument in claiming that U2 traded their Irish-ness in order to become an international, cosmopolitan supergroup.