Bono, the lead vocalist of U2, conducted an interview with Rolling Stone that was published yesterday. In it, Bono and Jann S. Wenner of the Rolling Stones, discussed music, politics, and all in between, but one part stuck out to a lot of people — and they aren’t happy about it.
“I think music has gotten very girly,” the 57-year-old Irish musician said in the interview.
This raises the question of what he means by girly. It seems like Bono is referring to the number of women who have made it to the top of the charts recently. Cardi B reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart with her hit “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” making her the first female rapper in over 20 years to top the chart without an accompanying act. Taylor Swift broke multiple records with her newest album, Reputation. She sold 1.29 million copies in just the first week, and has already made her 55th hit on the Hot 100.
But according to Bono, “hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that’s not good.”
His insensitive and sexist comments are a problem for multiple reasons — chief among them the implication that being “girly” and feminine is somehow “not good” and the racially insensitive way he stereotypes rap as angry.
“In the end, what is rock and roll? Rage is at the heart of it,” Bono later continues. “Some great rock and roll tends to have that, which is why The Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage.”
He says this as if women don’t have a place in rock and roll. What about Pat Benatar or Joan Jett? Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks? And the list goes on. Last year, Glamour chose Bono as their Man of the Year for his Poverty Is Sexist Campaign. But, if you ask me, his music comment reeked of misogyny.