“Flowers of Fire”: Sociopolitical Issues in U2’s War and The Joshua Tree

Abstract

U2 have always managed to hold a narrow line between social awareness and partisan political allegiance, belonging to a broad category of music that Rachel E. Seiler calls “contemporary conscious popular music”, which includes “music of any genre that focuses on social issues and perceived problems in society and may or may not include music that carries an overtly political message”. Consequently, much of the analysis of their songs claim that these are only a mere description of the terrible situation countries such as Ireland and the US were facing at that time. In this paper, however, I will examine the sociopolitical significance of U2’s songs as an appreciator of their cultural contribution and show that the events which formed the backdrop to some of U2’s most explicitly political songs in the 1980s – especially those included in War and The Joshua Tree – are etched indelibly into the text of both Ireland’s and America’s troubled colonial and political history. Ultimately, the lyrics analysed will also provide a good way of exploring how rock music, identity and sociopolitical ideas combine.