10 Worst Burnouts In Rock History
7. U2 - Pop
A lot of people tend to forget how many bands died at the expense of the alternative revolution. Once the sounds of bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden became the norm in the rock scene, it wasn't cool to be the big posturing rock star anymore. Of any of the '80s heavyhitters, U2 should have been dead in the water...and yet they didn't.
With the release of Achtung Baby, these Irish rockers immersed themselves in irony and came out with one of the greatest records they had ever made. No one really gets that kind of opportunity in their career, but that kind of music does have its diminishing returns. Following it up with Zooropa, U2 went even farther down the musical rabbit hole, taking more chances and adding more electronic elements to their sound. Then....Pop happened.
On the surface, this is not as insulting to the legacy of U2 as one might think. For most of its running time, this truly is the natural progression of electronics, only with some of the cheapest writing that Bono had ever done up until this point. While you could get behind the outright silliness of something like Discotheque, the rest of the record feels like random B-sides that wouldn't have made it past the demo stage for any other act. Even though experimentation might be fun, this is the moment where it comes back to bite you in the ass.