There's A "War" On Out There

"After their third album, War, they began traveling around the world, seeing what a mess it was, and they started asking questions," Stockman says.

Bono developed an increased interest in political activism in 1985 when he performed in the high-profile "Live Aid" concert that raised about $200 million. The 16-hour music marathon, performed simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, was broadcast to more than 60 countries, and featured many of the top musicians of the day, with performances by Bob Dylan, Duran Duran, Phil Collins and reunions of both The Who and Led Zeppelin.

Despite the star power of the show, U2's impassioned performance at Wembley Stadium was generally accepted by press and audience members alike as the highlight of the show. Bono was able to overcome the daunting size of the venue to create a true rapport with the audience, even jumping through two photography pits to stand in the crowd. Some critics believe it was this performance that truly made U2 a world phenomenon.

The band issued a statement on the day of the concert saying, "U2 are [sic] involved in Live Aid because it's more than money, it's music...but it is also a demonstration to the politicians and policymakers that men, women and children will not walk by other men, women and children as they lie, bellies swollen, starving to death for the sake of a cup of grain and some water."

Their devotion to public service has only increased over the years. Currently, Bono is working on Jubilee 2000 and its Debt Relief Campaign, aimed at convincing the world's eight richest nations to cancel the debt owed by Africa's poorest countries.

Jamie Drummond, an organizer of Jubilee 2000, says Bono signed on to the project after learning that the $200 million that "LiveAid" had made is the amount of money that the countries of Africa pays in debt every five days.

An Era Of Pop

Since the 1980s, U2's devotion to fighting important political causes has never flagged. But during the 1990s, the band shed their image of heart-on-their-sleeve activists.

Bono had announced at the final show of their 1989 Lovetown tour, "We have to go away and dream it all up again."

"They may have been protecting their own personalities, which were becoming caricatures," Stockman says.

After the failure of their documentary and double live album, Rattle and Hum, fans were becoming skeptical of the band's sincerity because of their commercial success. U2 knew that they needed a change.

The U2 that resurfaced in 1991 was dramatically different from what audiences were used to. Their sound was infused with synthesizers and techno-based drum beats, while their tours were large-scale spectacles that expanded to the $250,000-per-day multimedia extravaganza of the 1997 PopMart tour, complete with a lemon-shaped spaceship that carried the band on stage. U2 was trying to create the next generation of music and performance by utilizing the technology of the era.

"[The band] actually became an image, whereas before they had been 'the real thing,'" says Carter Alan, a Boston radio DJ and U2 biographer, referring to the 1991 U2 song "Even Better than the Real Thing." "They were making fun of their own success."