because that’s when I started listening to music. But the big U2 comeback with All That You Can’t Leave Behind in 2000 was met with glowing reviews from critics and the four big singles from the album everywhere at all times…but there was also a LOT of shit slung at the band during that time from hipsters and people who had probably never liked U2 to begin with, there were SNL sketches making fun of Bono and that South Park episode with Randy Marsh being unable to take a shit (because Bono is the world’s biggest shit) and fan types sneering that the band had cheaply gone back to its old 80s sound to get their comeback and does Bono really think he’s going to save all those poor people in the third world, etc.
All of this brings me to my next point: that I’m well aware that people always sneered at U2 (I seem to recall there were punk bands sneering at U2 in their lyrics, but can’t remember who precisely–the Mekons, I think), always were SNL sketches and parodies making fun of them…BUT: it seemed to me like in 2000 there was a much more pronounced divide between mainstream fans of the band and critics on one side, and the sneering hipsters who knew better on the other. And it only got worse from there, because any easy five-star reviews in Rolling Stone for subsequent U2 albums and the like didn’t mean anything to anyone who gave up on the band in 2000, in part because people got sick of those four hit songs REALLY quickly, too. But if somebody can go dig up some article or some press or something from prior to 2000, when I wasn’t paying attention to music, U2, or music press, to prove me otherwise, I’d be glad to listen.