It’s interesting that despite the detractors and Bono‘s reputation as a bit of a self-congratulatory diva, U2 still remain “the world’s biggest band”. This may not hold objectively true when taking into account total album sales or concert attendance, but the air of supreme grandness hasn’t been usurped by any other band to date. The four Irish rockers still maintain ubiquity- they’ll pop up in your iTunes whether you want them there or not.
They’re a legacy act for sure; their seemingly eternal grasp on relevance has slipped away over the course of the past few albums and its fairly unlikely they can pull out another reinvention. They’re still the biggest legacy act though, and the fact that they held on to the spotlight for the better part of three decades is an unmatched feat. The band defined “arena rock” and became the prototype for every aspiring group of skyward reaching acts for the next thirty years. They amassed over sixty radio singles over the course of their career- here are the best ten.
