Growing up, I didn’t really question why this band would be played along side Nirvana, Bush, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, etc. because my radio station of choice was not just grunge, but also “adult alternative.” So it would play pop shit, too, sometimes.
But I still, to this day, often find U2 listed among grunge artists, or their songs get played on grunge playlists. The fuck? How is this shit grunge? It doesn’t fit in any way! It doesn’t have the sound, it doesn’t have the style, shit it doesn’t even have the same emotional resonance. It’s happy and hopeful.
The only thing U2 has in common with grunge is that both were popular in roughly the same time period (give or take 5 years or so).
Yeah if U2 is grunge based on time period, then Motley Crue and Michael Jackson is grunge.
I would be more okay hearing Motley Crue on such a playlist than the other two, tbh.
Don’t forget about the grunge artists Dire Straights, Phil Collins, MC Hammer and Whitney Houston…
Michael Jackson is disco.
U2 began in the mid 1970s and grunge was a thing in the 1990s.
Early U2 was a bit like punk though.