U2 frontman Bono is lamenting the lack of male aggression in modern music. In an interview with magazine, the 57-year-old singer stated, “music has gotten very girly.” He goes on to add that “there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that's not good.”
Explaining how his children have introduced him to new music, the Irish singer explained his kids’ differing tastes: “Eve is hip-hop. Elijah is in a band, and he has got very strong feelings about music, but he doesn’t make any distinction between, let’s say, the Who and the Killers. Or, you know, Nirvana and Royal Blood…it is not generational for him. It is the sound and what he is experiencing. He believes that a rock & roll revolution is around the corner.”
For Bono, the current state of rock and roll is not like the days of old. "When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don't care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is f*cking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it.”
While it’s unclear whether he meant “girly” to imply weakness, or whether he thinks only male musicians can express anger, Twitter users have expressed their own rage at the singer’s tone-deaf comment.
Other users, defended the singer's comments, believing "girly" was the wrong term to use, but he raised a valid point.
And as this tweet points out, the singer seems to have forgotten that women had to be angry about in 2017.
