My arguments (U2 is better than Backstreet Boys)
- They've been here for 20 years plus, and they're still making music.
- They've actually won Grammys.
- The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Enough said.
- Backstreet Boys only concentrate on sappy and very repetitive, meaningless songs. U2's songs have more variety (though they're quite political)
- Backstreet boys are basically a teenybopper group, focusing only on an audience full of screaming girls.
- U2's lyrics are considered to be great poetry ("I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is standard reading at my high school, believe it or not)

GF's arguments (Backstreet Boys are better than U2)
- U2 is nothing more than a Guy group (I dispute this 100%)
- Since when was the last time that U2 was nominated for the Grammys? And who just got nominated for the Grammys this year?
- The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby came out WHEN?
- The Backstreet Boys have best selling albums right now. Does U2 have any at this very moment?
- GF loves romantic songs. U2 probably has only 5 of them. Backstreet Boys? Well.........
- Backstreet Boys are considered to be part of today's generation of music (Dance, R&B, etc). U2 is nothing more than a mere fossil (get with the times, guys.......)
- U2 is old (the members are in their FORTIES now!! Too old!!). Backstreet boys are young. And they look cuter too.
- U2's concert in Toronto sold out within 2 hours. Backstreet Boys concert sold out within 20 minutes.

So, does anyone want to dispute the above facts?

Of course GF maintains that the Backstreet Boys have sold more albums than all of U2 combined. I say she's wrong, that U2 sell alot of albums, and some of their best albums are being sold to this very day. But of course, she asks the question "Did they sell a million copies last year?"

Help Here? Thanks.

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"My Name is Elmer Fudd, Millionaire. I own a Mansion and a Yacht."
Psychiatrist: "Again."

--Baloo

I'm sure your girlfriend is a lovely person, but I'm afraid she's certifiably insane. :-)

That in and of itself says that U2 is a great band.

Does anyone else notice some congruities with New Kids on the Block?

New "Kids" on the "Block"
Back"Street" "Boys"

Ok, its stretching a bit, but we'll see how long they actually last.

Until the Boys can do that then they will remain a group that can look good, dance in synchronization, and sing sappy songs.

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Ohh, so Mother Nature needs a favor? Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts, and plagues and poison monkeys. Nature started the fight for survival and now she wants to quit because she's losing...well I say "Hard Cheese"!
~C. Montgomery Burns

I agree with all you've said. Plus, I add that Bono can write good lyrics if all of U2's songs have more than one meaning.

For the Grammys U2 was nominated this year for best long-form video with PopMart Mexico City, but unfortunately lost to Jimi Hendrix. But you already know that.

U2 has no album out right now, but the soundtrack for "The Million Dollar Hotel" is due out shortly, which heavilly features U2. Many radio sations play "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", from the soundtrack. Other U2 songs are getting heavy airplay as well. The promo single for "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is already selling for high prices on eBay. The entire soundtrack has already been leaked out and mp3s for all the tracks have already been made and many fans have them.

U2 has way more than 5 love songs as many can be intepreted as a love song. People still listen to U2 and they will still be making music, say 5 or 10 years from now. Doubtful if Backstreet Boys can say the same. Remember Hanson or the Spice Girls? NKOTB?

Age has nothing to do with it. I'm on the largest U2 internet mailing list and we know of fans as young as 13, maybe even younger. Hell, there are even babies or even like U2. U2 has fans of all ages and of all nationalities.

U2 has sold a million albums last year. There was the 1st installment of a 3-set best of. "Sweetest Thing" received massive airplay.

The next album is due out in September or so. The 2nd installement of the best of is also near ready status.

U2 has done terrific covers of other people's songs. They've done The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presely, Lou Reed, Johhny Cash, Joy Division, INXS, The Talking Heads, etc.

They've worked with many people as well. Such as Johhny Cash, Michael Hutchence, Lou Reed, Tina Turner, Boyzone, The Rolling Stones, Sinead O'Connor, Lucciano Pavovatti (sp?), Wyclef Jean, Jewel, Lauryn Hill, etc.

Many people have covered them. Such as, Cher, The Smashing Pumpkins, Collective Soul, etc.

Many current musicians are fans of U2. There's 3rd Eye Blind, Collective Soul, the lead singer of the Backstreet Boys...or was it the lead singer of Savage Garden, the Smashing Pumpkins, Tal Bachman, etc.

Plus, U2 has had two tribute albums. One is from other artists covering some U2 songs, the other being the London Philharmonic covering U2.

Many songs have been featured in a movie or a televion show. Many of those songs have also been included on whatever soundtrack there was. Can say that with other musical artists, let alone the Backstreet Boys?

U2 is one of the most bootlegged artists out there. Does Backstreet Boys come close? U2 can have well over 10 different boots just for one concert. Imagine a whole tour! And there are also many boots for studio recordings, mixes, remixes and outtakes.

U2 has met the president of the US, as well as other national leaders. Bono has met the pope.

They don't care about wealth and they don't brag about it. U2 has been involved with making our world a much better place to live. They are politically involed.

I can probably say much more.

There is no way to compare U2 and the Backstreet Boys and say Backstreet Boys are better.

Look at that...I get so excited talking about U2, that I make so many mistakes in writing.
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7 alarm clock: "Do not touch me."
Dilbert: "Then how do I turn you off?"
7: "Believe me, I am plenty turned off."

[This message has been edited by PopMaze (edited February 27, 2000).]

I could probaby go on and on.

And they weren't siding with the Backstreet Boys, let me tell ya.

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"I'd give anything to be able to turn invisible. I wouldn't use my powers to beat people up, but use them to protect the girl's locker room."
Xander Harris

Well, I've gone through most of your replies, and I can honestly say that she can shoot most of them straight through with an arrow........

- Many Radio Stations play more Backstreet Boys than U2 (10 BSB songs to 1 U2). Which means that even THEY are with the times, and shows how Backstreet Boys are more popular than U2...... "The Ground beneath her feet"? None of the radio stations she listens to play it at ALL......
- How can U2 can be considered popular if she never heard of them before she even met me? She knew about the Backstreet Boys before she has even heard of U2. And if U2 was here for 20 plus years, surely she would have heard of their music, that's why she says Backstreet Boys are better.......
- She will also maintain that the Backstreet Boys write their own songs as well.
- She can probably find many people who have heard of the Backstreet Boys and Diddlysquat about U2.

My brother has jumped into this argument. He too is a Backstreet Boys fan *oh dear god!!!* His argument? U2 is nothing more than a Disco Group. Especially after "Discotheque"....... He still bugs me about that..... *GROAN*

I once checked out a Record store and I noticed that many of U2's earlier albums are now selling for $25 Canadian. The Average price for a CD is around $18....... Amazing, isn't it?

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"My Name is Elmer Fudd, Millionaire. I own a Mansion and a Yacht."
Psychiatrist: "Again."

And her counter arguments are now based on popularity. Which isn't a measure of quality in any case. Did you SEE The Phantom Menace?

Besides, most of my mates haven't heard of 90% of the music in the US charts. Which autmoatically makes it crap according to her.

(granted, it is crap, but logical arguments have never seemed necessary to me)

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"I'd give anything to be able to turn invisible. I wouldn't use my powers to beat people up, but use them to protect the girl's locker room."
Xander Harris

The Backstreet Boys represent a safe, comparatively unintellectual approach to both music and sex. Afterall, I don't think that anyone can really deny that they are selling more records for sex appeal than for musical talent.

I would imagine that they have more personal trainers to their collective credit than lyrics written. Which I think is a travesty of the higest order. Does anyone really "listen" to music anymore? Not with the injection of video culture into the main artery of American pop life.

However, the paths to stardom in both the recording and film industries are strewn with pretty boys and girls who had no staying power and lost it all after their 21st birthday (or second Hollywood divorce) and could no longer play a high school nark or appeal to the 10-14 year old crowd of kiddies. Leif Garret anyone? Although he is said to be making a more hard-edged comback.

Let's look at some of the actual music shall we? Off of a disc called simply Backstreet Boys

"Let's have a party"

But all I wanna know is where to party at

Let's have a party, let's have a party
But all I wanna know is where to party at
Everybody, let's have a party

I've been watching you
You've been watching me
Let's stop playing games girl
come and dance with me
don't you hear the music
don't you feel the groove yeah
come on girl get on the floor
I wanna dance with you . . .

Heartwrenching.

Something tells me that if the Boys were onstage and sang the ingredient list to a Captain Crunch ceral box there would still be girls screaming and saying it was the best song they had ever heard. Which, considering their collective limited experience may be sad but true.

And yet, as soon as the Backstreet Boys become Backstreet Men, i.e. that first real wrinkle or perhaps too much middle aged paunch on those washboad abs, the trash heap that is yesterdays news waits with arms spread wide.

By that time, we'll have a new, sexxy, dancy groups to compare to bands like U2.

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Ohh, so Mother Nature needs a favor? Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts, and plagues and poison monkeys. Nature started the fight for survival and now she wants to quit because she's losing...well I say "Hard Cheese"!
~C. Montgomery Burns

*falls over, laughing uncontrollably*

*gets back up about fiteen minutes later and reads it again*

Oh my... She serious believes that, doesn't she? Shoot her now, and put her out of her misery...

She thinks that the radio and adolescent popular opinion is an indication of greatness? For one thing, the radio arguement doesn't even make sense! Of course there will be stations that play more BS Boys than U2! There are also stations that play more U2 than BS Boys. There are also stations that play Beethoven and Mozart and don't play either of those other two!

And just because she hadn't heard of U2 doesn't mean squat. All it means is that she's probably been living in a hole someplace. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she's heard of Bill Clinton, but not of James Polk. Does that make the former a better president than the latter? Not by a long shot.

BTW, no offense to your girlfriend was intended, so don't go killing me or anything. :-)

(Just kidding, just kidding! Please don't kill me!)

BTW, the Backstreets don't have a documentary film made about them either. (If you look real close, you can see ME in the part of "Rattle and Hum" that was filmed at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona... during the song, "Where the Streets Have No Name.")

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Dane

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"I'd give anything to be able to turn invisible. I wouldn't use my powers to beat people up, but use them to protect the girl's locker room."
Xander Harris