queen vs u2

Mr.Jingles79 wrote:

I don't need say again that IMO what U2 did through most of the 90s was awful, and if you want to keep discussing it, that's fine with me. I'm not saying you shouldn't.

I don't mind that, in your opinion, U2 sucked in the 90s. There's no problem with that. But when you make claims that all those bands were bigger, then offer up some proof. I mean no ill will, only a good honest debate. I've offered a few points as to why they weren't bigger, respond accordingly. I just grow tired of blanket statements with no regard for fact.

Mr.Jingles79 wrote:

Supossedely Bono writes most of the lyrics in U2, and they credit the music to the whole band.

Does anyone really know how much input puts each member on the band?

Bono does the lyrics, The Edge the music. That's not to say Adam and Larry are completely out of it; they remain the band's fiercest critics, from what I can tell.

Well, let's debate then.

Back in the 90s all those bands including U2 were selling out arenas and stadiums wherever they played. So you could say they pretty much they all equally shared the popularity of their live shows. Not to mention that the Stones and Pink Floyd were huge ticket sellers, even though their songs didn't receive much radio airplay.

However in the case of 'Zooropa' and 'Pop' they hardly had any songs receiving constant radio air-play, except for 'Stay' and 'Staring At The Sun'. In the case of Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Aerosmith, and Metallica, most of their 90s albums like 'Use Your Illusion' (I & II), Nevermind, In Utero, Pump, Get A Grip, The Black Album, and Load had at least 3 songs receiving a lot of radio airplay. Not to mention also that all those albums sold a lot more than 'Zooropa' or 'Pop'.
By the time U2 hit the road on the 'Pop-Mart' tour they had some troubled selling-out arenas and stadiums. Their popularity was indeed slowly fading away, but there's no doubt that 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' gave them a huge boost.

Regarding the tours:
http://www.u2faqs.com/live/#1
# 1992: Zoo TV was the top grossing tour with 73 shows in 61 cities.
# 1997: PopMart was the second highest grossing tour in the U.S. at $79.9 million with 46 shows in 37 cities. A total of 1.7 million tickets were sold in the U.S.

Zooropa is difficult to classify because of how U2 folded much of it into Achtung Baby. The album got included into the Zoo TV tour, so any clear comments on that are hard to make. PopMart, though, did much better than people want to remember. They may not have sold out every stadium, but then, they were trying to play 50,000 seat stadiums and not 15,000 seat arenas like Aerosmith.

If you compare tours and attendance among the 5 bands we've discussed, I'd bet U2 is in the top 2. I can only see Metallica, with their insane desire to tour and the stadium dates they did in the early 90s, beating U2. Aerosmith might be up there, but I think they played too many 2000 seat outdoor shows.

I will concede your point on radio airplay. Again, Zooropa gets lumped in with Achtung Baby. As for Pop, I think it caught on somewhat with alternative stations, but have no clue about the Top 40. My only defense of Pop, besides the fact that I really like it, is that the band themselves consider it their weakest album. Still, as the record sales and tour profits show, it wasn't that big of a flop.

Ah, you added this line:
"Not to mention also that all those albums sold a lot more than 'Zooropa' or 'Pop'."

Are you sure? Some, no doubt (Use Your Illusion, Nevermind, Black Album); but what about In Utero and Load? Show me the stats.

I dunno about worldwide numbers, since they're not actually available sources aside from some not so reliable stats. At least for what is known in the U.S. 'In Utero' and 'Unplugged' went 5 times platinum, just like Metallica's 'Load'. 'Re-Load' was really weak and only went 3x platinum. 'Garage Inc.' went 5x platinum and S&M 4x.

'Zooropa' went 2x platinum, and Pop 1.

I'd be interested in seeing how Zooropa and Pop compared in international sales with those other albums. Those albums remained bigger sellers overseas, then here. Still, US sales do put them toward the bottom if you are comparing these bands' performance in America.

I will add one caveat: these figures count the number of actual discs sold and not individual sales. For most CDs, this means nothing. But in the case of Garage, Inc and S&M, these were double cd sets. While S&M went 4X Platinum, it actually only sold 2 million units, and not four. Its sales, then, were on par with Zooropa.

Zeni wrote:

Those albums remained bigger sellers overseas, then here.

Any stats?

And btw, double albums get awarded for individual sales and not for sales of each disc. If otherwise then Smashing Pumpkins would have sold about as many copies per disc of 'Siamese Dream' as they did with 'Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness'. No doubt that 'Mellon Collie' sold a lot better than 'Siamese Dream'.

Mr.Jingles79 wrote:

Zeni wrote:

Those albums remained bigger sellers overseas, then here.

Any stats?

And btw, double albums get awarded for individual sales and not for sales of each disc. If otherwise then Smashing Pumpkins would have sold about as many copies per disc of 'Siamese Dream' as they did with 'Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness'. No doubt that 'Mellon Collie' sold a lot better than 'Siamese Dream'.

I don't think so. This was something that came to light with Rod Stewart sometime during the 90s. He released a 4 disc box set that went platinum, then people realized that it only sold 250,000 copies. According to the RIAA, Mellon Collie was 8X Platinum, while Siamese Dream was 4X.

As for stats:
http://www.bpi.co.uk/

Both Zooropa and Pop went platinum in the UK, while Load, Reload, and In Utero only went gold. The Black Album did go platinum, as did Unplugged, but S&M and Garage, Inc aren't certified at all.

Can't find anything on the rest of the world.

How the RIAA certifies records:
http://www.riaa.com/gp/certification/criteria.asp

Scroll down to Multi-Disc set
"Package must include two or more CDs"
"Each unit within set counts as one unit toward certification"

Its insulting to compare U2 with Queen I hate U2 and im Irish they just do my head in and Bono thinks he's a God. Queen blew them and everyone else away at Live Aid and would ten times out of ten.