Where the Tweets Have No Name: Social media and U2 in Chicago
In 2005 U2 came to Chicago for a series of four shows at the United Center. Fresh off a new album, the aging band of Irish rockers was hot again. Their hit single, “Vertigo,” came to recall Apple’s resurgence with the iPod, since the song soundtracked the company’s popular iPod commercial.
Greg Kot, the Chicago Tribune’s music critic, poorly reviewed the show’s opening night. In his estimation, the band lacked courage by playing mostly fan favorites. Irked by Kot’s harsh take, Bono, the band’s frontman, called Kot direct on his cell the day after the review ran.
The result was a lengthy interview between Greg and Bono as a sort of rebuttal to his negative review. You can find that article here.
63,000 social media users in one place. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / July 5, 2011)
This year’s show at Soldier Field resulted in the same reaction from Mr. Kot. This time, however, the surpassing dominance of social media in popular culture spawned an up-swell of vitriol from hoards of loyal U2 fans. For his negative review Mr. Kot was eviscerated via Twitter to the degree that the hash tag “Solider Field” trended on the microblogging site at 2:00 p.m. on July 6, 2011.
A populist uprising against a curmudgeonly critic seems appropriate for such a populist outlet as Twitter. My favorite @reply came from user Dainamara who said: “Greg Kot, you’re just a bitter and spoiled man that doesn’t even enjoy the fun of concert going anymore.” Greg retweeted the comment and replied: “I love all my readers.”
Always answering first to the artists they critique, it was once that a critic would have to wait a several days to receive angry letters from readers. Then they had to wade through waves of unhappy reader emails. Now, critics can expect to have to answer to their readers immediately and in great numbers.
Will Kruisbrink is an Account Executive with Walker Sands.
Will joined the Walker Sands team with a background in print journalism and public relations for the franchising industry. A news junky, Will received a bachelor's degree in news-editorial journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduating, Will worked for Fishman Public Relations in Northbrook as a media relations specialist. At Fishman, Will devised and pitched various story ideas to the media, supporting national and local PR campaigns including business grand openings. His work also involved developing national brand awareness for a range franchised concepts, from junk removal to financial services.
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