Why Don't You Like U2?

Every fuckin time my parents play a U2 CD or DVD or it comes up in a conversation, my mom always asks me why I don't like U2. This doesn't seem like something I even have to justify. I could ask her why she doesn't like Gerry Boulet and I wouldn't ask her to write me a fuckin essay on it (not that I really listen to Gerry, though it's quite cult).

I've heard this thing about U2 about 15 times a year for 3 years now. Every time I don't see a need to elaborate as to why I don't like them. I have, however, in the past, argued on the band's merits, much to my mother's offense. She always just ends up saying "they're a great band, it's a great show... you really get into it... how can you NOT like U2?"

I find this to be a funny comment. How can I NOT like U2? Like they're the one band in the world that everyone has to listen to religiously and enjoy as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just don't get it. So I responded that I simply didn't like their music, I didn't find it to be musically interesting, all their songs were rather similar, and the instrumentation was very average. This, of course, offended my mom. She said that I say such things to "pick a fight" or just to say the opposite of what others say. That seems really distorted to me. The worst of it all is that we actually ended up fucking arguing for 5 minutes about why I don't like U2.

So then we got into this big thing about how The Edge is an amazing fuckin guitarist. THE BEST... obviously. I completely disagreed and said that he was extremely average, and his only claim to fame is that he is the only guitarist who will willingly set his delay pedal to the max, which makes it sound "complex", but anyone with half and ear and a little bit of musical knowledge will know right away that it's very simple, and if you removed all his effects pedals, he'd sound like a two year old with a ukulele. Everything else in the band is just average. I don't get the fuss over these guys. It's like they've started a revolution amongst middle-aged people who think this is a real "rockin'" kind of band that is somehow ahead of the curve and the cool thing to listen to. Reminds me of the time my 70 year old grandfather thought that Pink Floyd was a new band...