Bono: 'Music has gotten very girly'
U2 frontman Bono has criticised what he says is a lack of rock and roll in today's music.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the singer said: "I think music has gotten very girly.
"And 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 added that one of his sons, Elijah, "believes that a rock and roll revolution is around the corner".
And the singer said he agreed with his son that the genre "will return".
Bono explained: "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.
"In the end, what is rock'n'roll? Rage is at the heart of it. Some great rock'n'roll tends to have that, which is why The Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage."
The singer also spoke cryptically about a near-death experience.
"People have these extinction events in their lives; it could be psychological or it could be physical. And, yes, it was physical for me, but I think I have spared myself all that soap opera," Bono told Rolling Stone.
"Especially with this kind of celebrity obsession with the minutiae of peoples' lives – I have got out of that. I want to speak about the issue in a way that lets people fill in the blanks of what they have been through, you know?"
But he added: "People have had so much worse to deal with, so that is another reason not to talk about it. You demean all the people who, you know, never made it through that or couldn't get health care!"
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