History Music / U2

* VariantCover:
** The cassette edition of ''The Unforgettable Fire'' used a different shot of the band.
** The North American releases of ''Boy'' substituted a high-contrast image of the band because the label was afraid the original cover would be construed as endorsing pedophilia.

* ConceptVideo: Quite a few.
* {{Corpsing}}: In the "Numb" video when the two women are kissing him, The Edge is doing a terrible job of trying not to smile.

* StartOfDarkness: According to Bono, "I believe my whole creative life goes back to when my world collapsed, age fourteen." Because at age 14, Bono's grandfather dropped dead of a massive heart attack. And at the funeral, ''[[FromBadToWorse his mother dropped dead from a massive aneurysm right int front of him]].'' The incident completely shattered him, and he became a violent delinquent. He then met three other musicians and decided to channel his grief into music instead of fighting people...

* 2004 - ''How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb''
* 2009 - ''No Line On The Horizon''
* 2014 - ''Songs Of Innocence''

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: U2 in TheNineties were futuristic funky-techno-dance-Madchester-industrial-alternative-electronic-pop-rock. And it was awesome.

[[caption-width-right:280: "[[MemeticMutation These guys]] [[CriticalResearchFailure are from England]] [[Radio/AmericanTop40 and who]] [[Creator/CaseyKasem gives a shit?]]" [[note]]From left to right: Larry Mullen Jr., Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton.[[/note]]]]

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Their PostPunk records in the 80s tended to stay in the 3-4 range, with a few excursions down to a 1 or 2 (''Running To Stand Still'', for example) and a few that reach 5. The excursions on both sides become more common on their later albums, which have songs that can be anywhere from 1 to (arguably) 6.

* LargeHam: Bono, often. Taken UpToEleven in some of the larger concerts...and [[SerialEscalation up to twelve]]'' on Popmart, which was basically a [[WorldOfHam Stadium Of Ham]].

** The "sad astronaut" face on the cover of ''Zooropa'' was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooropa apparently]] meant to represent a hoax story about a Soviet cosmonaut who had been left floating in orbit for weeks after [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the USSR collapsed]], and the back cover includes images of Lenin, Mussolini and Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Looking beyond the current discography, Bono said at the surprise launch for ''Songs of Innocence'' that U2 have made a few albums since 2009, and this is just the first one to be released, and a few hours later announced that their next album ''Songs of Experience'' should be out soon. Oh, and Bono and Edge worked on the soundtrack to ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark''. Suffice it to say, for a band that's been going for over forty years, they don't show any signs of slowing down soon.

* 1984 - ''The Unforgettable Fire''

* 1997 - ''Pop''

* 1993 - ''Zooropa''

-->--"Windows in the Skies"

By the mid-1980s, the band had become a top international act, noted for their anthemic sound, Bono's impassioned vocals, and The Edge's textural guitar playing. U2 started as one of the early pioneers of PostPunk and their albums ''Boy'' and ''[[Music/{{War}} War]]'' were largely college radio hits. Their success as a live act was greater than their success at selling records until their 1987 album ''Music/TheJoshuaTree'' increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars," according to Rolling Stone. U2 responded to the dance and alternative rock revolutions, the backlash against their earnest image and their own sense of musical stagnation by reinventing themselves with their 1991 album ''Achtung Baby'' and the accompanying Zoo TV Tour. They carried on with their experimental, heavily electronic and satirical AlternativeRock sound for the rest of the 1990s. Starting in the 2000s, U2 pursued a more traditional sound that retained the influence of their previous musical explorations before combining ''that'' with the experimental spirit of the '90s on one of their most recent albums, ''No Line On The Horizon.''

* 1983 - ''Music/{{War}}''

** Similarly, ''Under a Blood Red Sky'' is an AlbumTitleDrop from the ''Music/{{War}}'' track ''New Year's Day'', which is also a live track on ''Under a Blood Red Sky''.

** ''Music/{{War}}'': While the album's title is fitting, the word is only mentioned in a line in "The Refugee" (the plural form, "wars," is heard in "New Year's Day").

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Beyond his usual backing vocal duties, The Edge has sung lead vocals on "Van Diemen's Land" (from ''Rattle and Hum''), "Numb" (from ''Zooropa'') and "Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)" (from the Passengers album), the first two verses of "Seconds" (from ''Music/{{War}}''), and shares lead vocals with Bono on the verses of "Discothèque" (from ''Pop''). Adam Clayton sang lead vocals on "Endless Deep", the B-side to "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and also performed a {{Spoken Word|In Music}} verse on "Your Blue Room" (from the Passengers album), making Larry the only U2 member to never have done lead vocals, although he does sing the occasional backing vocals.

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: A new song called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfnYpc-gVFI&feature=related Return of the Stingray Guitar]]", used to open the U2 360° Tour [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic in suitably epic fashion]] several times in 2010 and 2011.

* GriefSong: "Tomorrow", from the ''October'' album, was written about Bono's mother's funeral. It's become something of a [[SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove forgotten classic]] these days.

* AdamWesting: Bono wholeheartedly acknowledges his reputation for being egotistical, and aside from repeatedly lampshading it, appeared in the mock charity video at the end of ''Film/{{Bruno}}'' as a slight self-parody of his real self.

* TakeThat: A classic one at the beginning of ''Rattle and Hum''. Bono introduces U2's cover of "Helter Skelter" by shouting at the audience, "This is a song UsefulNotes/CharlesManson stole from Music/TheBeatles. We're stealing it back!"

* NonAppearingTitle: Definitely applies to a minority of their songs, but there is at least one on every album save ''Achtung Baby'' (which is ironically a non-appearing ''album'' title), ''All That You Can't Leave Behind'', and ''Songs of Innocence''. (another non-appearing album title)

--> Unos, dos, tres, catorce!

* VariantCover:
** The cassette edition of ''The Unforgettable Fire'' used a different shot of the band.
** The North American releases of ''Boy'' substituted a high-contrast image of the band because the label was afraid the original cover would be construed as endorsing pedophilia.

* VariantCover: The cassette edition of ''The Unforgettable Fire'' used a different shot of the band.

** "Wire", from ''The Unforgettable Fire'', is about a childhood friend of Bono who had died of a heroin overdose.
** "Bad", from the same album and "Running to Stand Still" from ''Music/TheJoshuaTree'' are also about heroin addiction.

* LineOfSightName: Bono took his stage name from a hearing aid store, Bono Vox.