10 Biggest Drop-offs In Rock History
6. U2
There aren't too many bands from the '80s who can say they survived the '90s relatively unscathed. No matter what kind of music you played in the era of neon colored everything, the grunge explosion was sure to send you to the bargain bins at one point or another. Even though U2 felt like prime candidates for having a drop-off, they actually managed to turn things around...for a couple of years.
After the massive success of their drastic change on Achtung Baby, Zooropa at least showed that they were willing to take chances, with songs like Babyface and Numb taking a greater pop influence than we had seen previously. There's a fine line between taking influence and just plain old selling out...and Pop pretty much marks the defining line of that argument.
Instead of paving their own way for themselves, this entire record feels like U2 trying to put their trademark optimistic sound into the production of industrial music, which hits with an audible thud on nearly every track on here. Outside of some of the "so bad they're good" moments on something like Discotheque, a lot of these songs are reminiscent of what Trent Reznor might sound like if he never experienced a problem in his life. For as long as U2 managed to be on top of the world, there's no excuse for having songs that feel like the sonic equivalent of defecating into a MIDI synthesizer.