Abstract
The rock band U2, based in Dublin, Ireland, has become one of the most successful touring acts in the history of live music. Treating U2 as a global business enterprise, this paper introduces a gravity approach to understanding performance location selection. A brief descriptive analysis of the band‘s tour geography is followed by the presentation of results from linear regression models that evaluate the choice of countries for live performances. Over 33 years, U2 played more than one thousand six hundred concerts at locations in 40 countries. Having completed several world tours with multiple legs, U2 has developed a clear geographical circuit, performing mainly in Europe, North America, and Oceania. Findings from the models indicate that the band is attracted primarily by market size (presence of large urban areas) and market strength (income). In addition, the band‘s location choices appear to be governed by cultural proximity. Counter to expectations, neither geographical distance nor country risk appear to play a significant role in the selection of tour destinations, especially in the most recent U2360 tour of 2009–2011. This interdisciplinary paper demonstrates the application of an adapted gravity approach--often employed in economics--to better understand music geography, an area traditionally dominated by cultural geographers.
Highlights
The musical career of U2 spans four decades, and based upon ticket sales for their U2360 ̊ tour of 2009–2011, the band is among the most successful performing acts in history
U2 can be considered as a business enterprise that is subject to the same considerations as other transnational corporations
We can infer from Waddell et al (2007), and Boyd (2013), that given U2‘s present stature and the nature of popular music, profits are primarily achieved through touring the world from the band‘s base in Dublin, Ireland
Summary
The musical career of U2 spans four decades, and based upon ticket sales for their U2360 ̊ tour of 2009–2011, the band is among the most successful performing acts in history. Each performing act has an absolute spatial origin (Dublin, Ireland in U2‘s case) and its management decides upon other locations for concerts, subject to the parameters of the music industry. While increasing exposure for itself as a relatively unknown band, U2‘s objective in appearing at Live Aid in 1984 was one of social conscience: to join other performers in drawing attention to Africa‘s famine. Under normal circumstances any band‘s primary purpose for touring is to earn money. This can be achieved either directly through selling tickets to performances, or indirectly by promoting recorded material to live audiences
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