10 Rock Musicians That Get Way Too Much Hate

There's practically been an entire myth that revolves around U2 ever since they came out of the '80s. From their amazing performance at Live Aid to reinventing themselves into the ironic generation on Achtung Baby, everything about these guys seemed to be about something more than music, taking the confines of rock and roll and using it to enact change in the world. It's all in the presentation though, and there's far too many fans that see a lot of pretension underneath those Grandma sunglasses.

Then again, Bono being pompous for the hell of it hasn't exactly been a new thing, with footage from Rattle and Hum showing him patronizing his fans for not listening to his long winded speeches in between the songs. When you strip away all of the political ideology and soap box speeches though, Bono is actually one of the more powerful voices of the '80s, from the weird eccentric sounds he got out of his voice on a song like Drowning Man to hitting most of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For all within his natural register without going into falsetto.

Even if some of us would prefer that he not say another word again as long as he lives, the stigma of Bono as this pretentious windbag is just looking at the forest for the trees. He may need to get over himself every now and again, but underneath those cringy moments is a good heart who's trying to make rock and roll something more than just notes on a page...like all great rockstars should.