TALK ABOUT...POP MUSIC

'PopMart Live from Mexico City'

Originally released on VHS in 1998, the PopMart tour received the same DVD face lift in 2007 as ZOO TV a year prior. The tour and 'POP' album it supported, are still considered by many (and seemingly the band as well) to be both commercial and artistic flops.

The two are intertwined in controversy, in that manager Paul McGuinness was told by the band to book the shows for the upcoming tour during the middle of the recording sessions. As it came closer to the start of the tour, the planned November 1996 release had been pushed out until March 1997. Even still, the band rushed the album to completion and valuable tour rehearsal time was lost in the process. This lack of preparation manifested itself in the earlier dates, particularly during the poorly received opening night in Las Vegas.

That said, in this blogger's humble opinion, both the music found on the album and the resulting spectacle of a tour to bring it to the masses...may be one of the most underrated, misunderstood and one of my favorite periods of U2's long career. As their previous tour was a commentary on media over saturation, it was decided that this one would attack the pillars of consumerism and the concept of art/music as product. Except, unlike ZOO TV, a large part of the record-buying/concert-going public didn't get and/or feel let in on the joke.

'POP' often gets brushed aside as the band's 'techno album' and while it featured it's fair share of tape loops, programming, rhythm sequencing and sampling, along with some heavy, funky dance rhythms...it was much more than that. While the album probably sparks visions of Village People-garbed U2 performing the electronica laced lead single 'Discothèque' (a fantastic song in it's own right w/ tongue firmly planted in cheek), they don't recall some of Edge's most prolific guitar work on 'Gone'...or the riff-laden 'Last Night on Earth'. I think a lot of folks never looked past the metaphorical day-glo package this music came in and appreciated the darker recesses of the questions being posed within.

The trash and kitsch of such grandiose scale the PopMart tour featured a giant mirrorball lemon, a 100 foot cocktail stick - complete with olive, a McDonalds-esque golden arch and the works of Lichtenstein, Warhol and Haring searing themselves into the audience's eyes via a giant video screen that, at the time, was the largest in existence. I think the message was lost on a lot of folks in the overwhelming presentation...but much like the music on the album itself, i'm still inspired by the lengths they went in trying to get their point across. While the earlier performances may have been marred w/ difficulties, the performance found on this DVD does nothing but further substantiate the band's sheer power in a live setting.

Anyway, I think the entire vision was ahead of it's time and foretold a not-to-distant future of the century we've been living in shortly thereafter. Then again, it's only POP music...how prolific could it really be? You be the judge...