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In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Bono managed to alienate many of his fans with his tone-deaf grumblings about how “girly” the music industry has become.
The 57-year-old U2 front man asserted that present-day music “has gotten very girly,” and also suggested that the music industry needs to clear more space for “young male anger.”
“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,” he continued. “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-king over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde.”
Anyone who lived through 2017 would likely agree that women have a good deal of anger — and fans are perplexed by his assertion that the only genre of music that deals with the emotion is hip-hop. Bono’s comments, regardless of their intent, manage to dismiss the role of women in rock ‘n’ roll, the existence of young female anger, and the many artists who use other genres to express their anger.
People quickly took to Twitter to rebuke his words, many calling them sexist.
Bono: Music is too "girly" and there's not enough rage in that sound.
Me: *plays Jagged Little Pill in full*
Bono: Okay, but that's not a kind of rage that makes my fragile masculinity comfortable.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) December 28, 2017
girls are rock and roll. using girly as a derogarory term is for the feeble minded. bono is irrelevant and so is anyone else who agrees with those views
— emmytantuccio (@emmytantuccio) December 28, 2017
Bono thinks music is too girly and there's not enough anger? I'm a girl and I was really angry when he put a U2 album on my phone without asking me
— Jessie Thompson (@jessiecath) December 28, 2017
Someone send Bono a copy of "Lemonade" before he gives another interview to anyone on anything. Jesus Christ.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) December 28, 2017
Bono has yet to respond to the backlash to his words.
