“It’s the sex”: the U2 album Bono called more erotic than ‘The Joshua Tree’
When it comes to success in the music industry—meaning to make it on a large, global scale—universal themes and ambiguities have always been record labels’ kryptonite. However, sprinkle in the added benefit of thematic cleanliness—another facet of mainstream appeal—and the path to making it almost effectively creates itself. This, among many reasons, is what made the U2 record The Joshua Tree so effortlessly cherished.
Across almost all corners of pop and rock, adopting mainstream appeal is the ultimate game of ticking boxes. While U2 deserve to be recognised and commended for reasons beyond their ability to captivate widespread attention, there’s no denying the adherence to conventional musical structures and melodies that made some of their biggest hits so timeless. Incidentally, many of these can be found within The Joshua Tree.
Many of these tracks epitomise the quintessential easy listening, whether manifesting in the slow-build of ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, the more grounded, ballad-like ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, the timeless rom-com fodder ‘With Or Without You’, or the more ethereal haunt of ‘Exit’. In the late 1980s, when the record was released, the appetite for U2-level musical comfort was particularly high, with many of the major releases adopting the same calibre of mainstream appeal.
However, after receiving criticism for their follow-up hybrid live and studio record Rattle and Hum, they knew they had to do something different and slightly more off-kilter to prove they weren’t stuck in the same cycle of trying to pander to mass audiences. Achtung Baby, although evidently grittier and more authentic than the safety of The Joshua Tree, saw them leaning into the more delicate show of hedonism to establish they had developed long past the need for another tick-boxer.
According to Bono, this was deliberate from the outset. The moment that Achtung Baby was out there, they were aware that fans would either love it or hate it, with many coming to expect another series of hits that reflected the same sonic grip of hits like ‘With Or Without You’. However, much like many musicians grapple with pressures to do the same thing again and again, U2 wanted Achtung Baby to actively challenge expectations and show a more authentic side to their artistry.
Discussing this transition with Interview Magazine in 2011, Bono seemed to waste no time when describing the main difference between the two: “It’s the sex,” he said. “Because Joshua Tree was quite ascetic. I mean, it had ‘With or Without You’, and there were moments of eroticism on it, but essentially there were these Anton Corbijn photographs of people who looked like pilgrims—and we very much saw ourselves as pilgrims.”
Bono also recalled the transition that had occurred within the music industry at this juncture that pushed artists to either adapt or get left behind. For U2, this meant finding a middle ground where they could continue with what made them popular in the first place but with a more relevant edge. To them, this just meant pivoting somewhat to be seen as more authentic and not just puppets that existed to satisfy the current cultural zeitgeist.
While there were still mainstream touchpoints, the most obvious example being ‘One’, Achtung Baby was effectively U2’s way of proving they had much more to offer, even if it felt like an uphill battle. As Bono explained: “That was the ’80s, and you could feel the punches coming, because the hail of blows when people found out that you were materialistic, or that you were a flirt, or that you wanted to go to a club and dance. So with Achtung Baby, we had to up the ante ourselves.”
