What Type of Fan Are You? - U2
- Casual fans' favorite - The Joshua Tree, The Unforgettable Fire, or All That You Can't Leave Behind
- Serious fans' favorite - Achtung Baby
- Avid fans' favorite - War or Zooropa
- Diehard fans' favorite - Boy or October
Sometimes, you can tell how avid a fan is by what their favorite album by an artist is. This series hopes to fine tune this practice.
In general, diehard fans fall in love with the qualities that most separate a given band from other artists. As a result, they tend to gravitate to albums others may consider rather self-indulgent. They also tend to steer away from the more popular "favorites".
I'm dividing fans into four categories - casual, serious, avid, and diehard. Casual fans gravitate toward the more well-known or recent work. Serious fans usually latch on to an only slightly lesser-known work which is still perfectly enjoyable by non-converts. Avid fans go in for less popular work that showcase the band's less mainstream or more distinctive sides. Diehard fans tend to praise work that only diehard fans ever admit to enjoying, work where a given artist's personality completely absorbs the album, for better or worse.
Just a working theory for now, but I'll post a few bands to get the idea rolling. I'm open to ideas or help fine-tuning each list.
Okay, I understand the concept of what you are attempting, but you lose me a little on practice with this band. I have always considered War my favorite U2 album but by no means am I an avid fan. Perhaps you should say if you like these albums also War and Zooropa as well as the casual and serious selctions you are an avid fan. It seems to me, quanity as opposed to a particulair album makes avid and die hard fans. Cool idea though.
I would consider myself a diehard U2 fan, and Achtung Baby is my favorite album.
I love U2; they're one of my favorite bands. Know what, though? I'm not really a diehard fan of any artist. I'm nobody's completist, and I certainly cannot say I am a diehard fan compared to folks who keep track of what Bono ate for breakfast last Monday or who actually own bootlegs of every performance from U2's last tour. Those are the folks I mean when I say diehard.
Now, are you *really* a diehard fan?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
But quantity would make such a boring list, eh? "You are an avid U2 fan if you own 5 U2 cds. You are a diehard U2 fan if you own 7 cds."
Nah, I'll stick with the fun version, however flawed...
These generalizations are based on my extensive knowledge of various fans of these different groups. These lists won't always peg everybody, but we are dealing with averages and generalizations here.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Since you put that way, I guess I'm not. However, I like them alot!
Moi, aussi.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
As I said I understand the concept but the flaw is so huge I need to give a hesitant thumbs down on the idea. War and Joshua Tree are the only 2 U2 albums I can stomach. What does that make me?...beside having bad taste for not loving more of U2
"What does that make me?"
Unique and outside the average. Not a bad thing to be, really...
But then, you already knew that, right? :)
I'll wait for a bit more input before creating more of these puppies.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
OK, I certainly am not a diehard fan of U2 or anyone else, but they are my favorite band by a fairly wide margin, so I would call myself an avid fan. They are the only band I have ever bought a bootleg for, and the only one I have collected import singles and compilations to get ahold of one song. Now I love War and Zooropa, my second and third favorites by them, but Achtung Baby is by far my absolute favorite. I would say one tiny flaw is that this division must assume that the typical fan has been listening from the beginning, or from nearly the beginning. The U2 of AB, which is when I started listening, has a different personality than the U2 that made Boy or October. I can't love those albums as much because albums like AB, Zooropa and Pop came out as I was an active music listener. Someone who came in with Boy might indeed love it the most or consider it the best because it was their introduction to the band: get what I'm saying? Maybe a classification like this is almost impossible for such a subjective topic. However, maybe not; it is an intriguing idea...
Johnny Waco
I'm starting to believe that U2 might have been a poor choice of a band to try to force into this odd idea of mine.
I definitely think age can have alot to do with this list. If somebody was actually listening to U2 starting with Boy, they are probably more likely to enjoy the earlier albums than somebody who latched onto the band with Joshua Tree.
The idea is intriguing, thanks. Maybe I can finetune it so it will work better. Maybe not...
I tried.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs