Yes, I do have a U2-free iPod.

I'm a music lover. Ok, ok, I like the music I like and don't care about the music you like. I have always loved music. I have an eclectic collection of albums; rare, out of print, foreign releases, you name it. It's easier for me to list the music I don't like than the music I do like. My appreciatan stems from my playing a few instruments, I guess. In high school, I would spend the majority of my paychecks on music. After high school, I got bigger paychecks. Apple's iPod was made for people like me.

Because of this interest, people come to me with music questions. A friend once asked me to put together a "Must-have CD list" for him. The one question I get that makes me laugh is "how do you maintain a U2-free iPod?" I would compare it to keeping Windows XP virus-free. You have to work at it, constantly monitoring, checking and deleting the junk that comes from other people's collections. If you're on a network and other people are sharing their libraries, you have to be extra careful.


Some people (and tragically these citizens are allowed to vote) question me by saying "how can you NOT like U2?" It's easy. First you have to have values, you have to know that U2 has never produced anything of value, especially in the recent decade. Even if they (like so many other groups) had initially made worthwhile, entertaining music and then turned to crap, they haven't had a hit in years. They just keep playing the same rehashed, garbage-rock hey've been playing for too long. I would testify in a court of law, that it is better to listen to country, than U2, and it's better to be naked, bound and dipped, head-first, into a warm horse manure than listen to country.

Ultimately, it's up to each of us how we're going to contribute to society. Ask yourself, "Am I going to stand up for decent, talented musicians or am I going to keep calling the corporate entertainment toilet, er, radio station and ask then to put U2* on repeat?" (* or Maroon 5, or Cold Play, or Creed (shutter), or countless other garbage-rock groups).




"I have excellent new for the world; there is no such thing as Lounge music. It does not exist. It's just the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain that you not into the same old boring rock-n-roll, but you didn't dare say Barry Manilow because you were afraid of getting kicked out of the party. There's Musak, Modern Jazz, Latin, Swing, Calipso, Mambo, Samba and Polka. But Lounge doesn't mean sh*t."