by Brian Solis
I don’t know about you, but The Joshua Tree was one of the biggest musical and inspirational milestones in my life. To hear that one of the fabled songs that didn’t make the CD is finally going to be released is both incredible and unbelievable. This is, afterall, the CD that defined a supergroup and in the process, changed the musical landscape moving forward.
Basically, the news is that The Joshua Tree is going to be re-released, re-mastered and will feature never-before heard (or finished) tracks.
This should be a mecca, but instead, one of the tracks, “Wave of Sorrow,” was announced via U2.com and then broadcast through iLike on Facebook.
To learn about it through a low quality, poorly produced video on Facebook is disappointing to say the least. Actually, it’s disenchanting.
This is significant and there are other ways to debut something like this in a more meaningful light, while still promoting the iLike brand and the new U2 release.
While everyone is boasting about the 1.2 million fans who have signed up to listen to it via Facebook, or the thousands who appreciate the gesture, the truth is that there should have been other, more polished venues for transcending those numbers into the tens of millions, appealing to the world, instead of the trendy.
This isn’t about Myspace vs. Facebook. This isn’t OK Go. This is U2.
While I’m a fan of the raw beauty of social media, and quite honeslty iLike, sometimes it can take away the significance of something much more powerful.
In this case, this video could have leaked after a more substantial introduction to continue the viral effect – in my humble opinion.
For those in the know, the greatest songs during this genre were released as b-sides. Also, a point of note is that the signature track, “Where the Streets Have No Name,” almost didn’t make the CD because, while they had a beginning and an ending, they couldn’t agree on the middle. It was a source of rift between everyone and almost “crashed” the party.
More at CNET.
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Discussion
The “Wave of Sorrow” video was posted on U2.com about 48 hours before it was released on iLike.
Content posted on iLike is automatically syndicated across multiple channels, including Facebook. As a result, most major bands can reach more fans via iLike than Myspace. (In U2′s case, by a factor of about 10x.)
If you skim the 9,000+ comments on the video, most are grateful and applaud the band for releasing it to the fans first as they did. One might even say it was released as today’s equivalent of a b-side.
Ali Partovi
Co-founder, iLike
ps. The saga behind “Where the Streets Have No Name” is amazing indeed. Reportedly, after weeks of struggling with that one track, Brian Eno got so frustrated that he attempted to erase the entire tape, and had to be physically restrained (!). In a later interview, Eno argued that the song was brilliant, but it would have been faster to re-record it from scratch than to try to untangle and fix all the issues to make a finished production out of the existing track. It is indeed a tricky song– it begins and ends in 6/8 time, but the main part is in 4/4… yet the transition is so smooth you’d never notice it.