Most Influential Modern Rock Albums, Part 4

Ok, ok, I know I’m behind on this list. Number 5 will come later this week…

U2, Achtung Baby : For me, Achtung turned the musi­cal world upside-down… the first CD that I owned, which I received as a gift with my first CD player, was The Joshua Tree — with Rattle and Hum, this was the cul­mi­na­tion of 80′s-era do-​gooder U2. Intensely spir­i­tual, earnest and direct, Joshua Tree cemented the band’s pos­i­tive public image, while simul­ta­ne­ously launch­ing them into the ranks of super­star­dom, caus­ing even Time Mag­a­zine to dub them Rock’s hottest Ticket.

But, the band was about the re-​invent itself. I remem­ber seeing the first video from Achtung, The Fly, and think­ing what the hell is this?. Gone were the soul­ful tunes and cowboy hats… instead we heard a jar­ring guitar riff, Bono singing in falsetto and walk­ing along the edge of a rooftop, while clever slo­gans flashed across a night­time city land­scape. WATCH MORE TV. EVERY­THING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. It was an assault on your eyes and ears, and couldn’t have been more dif­fer­ent from the days when Bono sang about Martin Luther King Jr..

Sure, the album has some ter­rific songs — One, Mys­te­ri­ous Ways, and So Cruel to name a few. But as a high school kid, I was more intrigued by the media cri­tique Bono and the band pre­sented. ZooTV was the first tour that used video as a medium for more than pro­vid­ing the people in the cheap seats with a better view. Instead, the band played a mul­ti­me­dia mix­ture of clips — any­thing from CNN, to cricket matches, to those clever little slo­gans men­tioned above.

And Bono’s on-​stage per­sona, “The Fly”, was a rejec­tion of the do-​gooder U2 image of the 80s, and an embrace of the excess and self-​gratification that fans and crit­ics expect of celebri­ties. “Tongue-and-cheek” to be sure, but for all the satire, the music still kicked ass.