U2 Above, Across, and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Assessments(For the Record: Studies in Rock and Popular Music)

U2’s success and significance are due, in large part, to finding inventive, creative solutions for overcoming obstacles and moving past conventional boundaries. As it has embraced change and transformation over and over again, its fans and critics have come to value and expect this element of U2. These new essays from the disciplines of organizational communication, music theory, literary studies, religion, and cultural studies offer perspectives on several ways U2’s dynamic of change has been a constant theme throughout its career. The eight essays here come from the U2 Conference 2013, which explores the music, work, and influence of U2, furthering the scholarship on U2.

Table of Contents:
U2 Above, Across, and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Assessments Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: U2 TRANS- Scott Calhoun 1 Collaborative Transactions: Making Sense (Again) for U2’s Achtung Baby Christopher Wales 2 Transvaluing Adam Clayton: Why the Bass Matters in U2’s Music Brian F. Wright 3 Translating Genres: U2’s Embrace of Electronic Dance Music in the 1990s Ed Montano 4 A Transcendent Desire: In Defense of U2’s Irishness Arlan Elizabeth Hess 5 A Transmedia Storyworld: The Edge Is One, But Not The Same Fred Johnson 6 Transgressive Theology: The Sacred and the Profane at U2's PopMart Theodore Louis Trost 7 Transmitting Memories: U2’s Rituals for Creating Communal History Steve Taylor 8 The Transformative Fan: The Bricolage of U2 Live Matthew J. Hamilton About the Contributors Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Scott Calhoun directs the U2 Conference, is curator for the U2: Made in Dublin exhibit, and is professor of writing and literature at Cedarville University.

Review :
There is ample (and stimulating) intellectual discussion of the Irish band’s ‘proclivity for change’ in a world that doesn’t always welcome it. And each of the eight articles (none longer than thirty pages) makes for an easy-to-digest, hour-long patch of premiere rock and roll reading. What to make of U2? Is it possible to seek total global pop domination decades on end, to really believe your work is worthy of it, and to remain somehow soulful, sane, and socially righteous? Definitely maybe. U2 Above, Across, and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Assessments is inspiringly unafraid to bring the question down to the level of U2's often exemplary attentiveness to what William Blake calls the ‘minute particulars.’ There is so much to consider and mull over, especially if one is willing to imagine that U2's dilemmas are a lot like our own—only more so. If the goal, in all of our meaning-making, is soul, then we get to ‘minutely particularize’ our love one decision, one song, and one person at a time through this attentive study. As a band of almost forty years, as activists for world change, and as global pop stars accused of forcing their music on the world for free, U2 avoids easy approaches in the twenty-first century. This excellent collection grapples with the various transformations of U2 from eight unique perspectives; from the recording studio and the sound of Adam Clayton’s bass, to its Irishness, to the religious and communal aspects of their music. This is necessary reading for scholars and fans of U2 alike.