U2 are the social justice voicers of our society who provide song as their communication to unleash their meaning full messages and personal thoughts behind their clever lyrics. When the band formed in Dublin who knew they were going to be such a significant influence on not only my personal ways of seeing things but the entire human race. 5000 fans didn’t run to gather at the rooftop building of the BBC studio just to hear them sing; they gathered there to hear what topic would have been brought up next. U2 had such a strong voice on events that shaped not only fans, but general public’s minds about what was happening in this world and the different perspectives. This Irish band has not only made their fans stop and think about real world issues but everyone else including me.
Every time you hear U2’s songs, you can be assured that it have some deeper meaning; weather it be from Social and political commentary, or embellished with Christian and spiritual imagery. These major aspects of U2’s lyrical contents have created the reputation and what they stand for today. Songs such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Silver and Gold", and "Mothers of the Disappeared" were motivated by current events of the time. These songs were written about the troubles in Northern Ireland while the latter concerns the struggle of comadres—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared" by the government during the Salvadoran Civil War.
Bono is a genius at writing ambiguous lyrics, allowing listeners to decide what each song means to them. The lyrics of U2’s songs make me believe that there is so much going on in the world that half of us don’t know about and U2 are trying to voice out to us, like a message.As U2’s time went on Bono (lead singer) added personal events into the lyrics of their songs such as "Tomorrow," from October, Bono was truly speaking from the heart. When he was 14, his mother suffered a brain hemorrhage at her father's funeral and died a few days later.
Bono would later state that the melancholy lyrics to "Tomorrow" were a description of her funeral. This also shows that even stars have soft spots and a family and feelings their not just all about publicity and popularity. This made me think about how people judge stars so much and yet they are still human beings, with feelings just like us. U2’s songs enriches us with powerful messages; criticizes evangelical preachers, politicians, and the greed ingrained in the landscape of 1980s America, ‘Desire’ to Jesus ("one man betrayed with a kiss") and Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘Pride’.U2 have become not only one of my role models but also role models for the entire world, their mystical lyrics make you think, is this life fair? What are we doing to help? What about the other side of the story? Each member of the band has their own force which all binds together in one single knot to tie what they stand for together.
I see them as standing for that short kid at the back of the class who no one ever pays attention to, for all those situations in the world that no one cares about or thinks is a big deal; U2 are the lyrics in their songs. They have shaped the way I look at different perspectives of world events. What do you believe they stand for? Is what you think they stand for right or do you just read what you want to read in the songs? In the end U2 have stuck together I believe an unbreakable bond was formed in Dublin, Ireland 1976.
