BONO IS FACING somewhat of an online backlash for saying in an interview that “music has gotten very girly”.
The U2 frontman was speaking to Rolling Stone magazine when he was asked for his thoughts on the state of new music today.
Bono spoke about his three children and the types of music they are interested in.
Focusing on his son Elijah, who Bono said is in a band himself, the singer said that Elijah foresees a “rock & roll revolution” in the near future.
Pressed on this, Bono said that more anger is needed in the music of today.
“I think music has gotten very girly,” Bono told Rolling Stone.
And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that’s not good. When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don’t care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is fucking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it.
Bono went on to say that he felt the anger in music he favours “will return”.
His comments have been criticised for being both sexist and out of touch with music in general.
Writing in The Independent, music journalist Roisín O’Connor said that Bono was: “Clinging to a time where men were told it’s not OK to show emotions regarded as ‘feminine’.”
O’Connor also pointed out that many of U2′s most famous songs are also driven by emotions such as love rather than anger.
Other people have also argued that much of the music which is produced by women is indeed driven by anger.
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