The Rosary and the Microphone

Religious Impulse in U2's Mediated Brand

by Nicholas P. Greco

Book cover: The Rosary and the Microphone

Extent: 230 pages

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Subjects: Music & Performing Arts

Series: Studies in Popular Music

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(October 2019)

ISBN: 9781781795552

Price: $32.00

In stock

Hardback (Published)

(November 2019)

ISBN: 9781781795545

6.1 x 9.17 inches

Price: $100.00

In stock

The Rosary and the Microphone explores U2 as a politically engaged band that manifests a particular brand of Christianity through the band’s mediation in a global context and for a global audience. Through the primarily semiotic study of U2’s various mediations, this book maps the band’s strategies for negotiating its place in the world as a global band–and mediated brand–and as a proponent of a kind of cosmopolitanism, or global care. U2’s brand is heavily informed by Bono’s own personal religious formation. This religious viewpoint is expressed in a global concern–a Christian cosmopolitanism–that looks outward and draws others to do the same.

Preface Introduction Chapter 1 From Underground to Overground: U2 from Boy to Rattle and Hum Chapter 2 U2 and the Blinding Lights of the City Chapter 3 Beautiful Day: Technological Optimism, Gesture and Intimacy Chapter 4 The Irish in America: Nationalism and Politics on Tour Chapter 5 The Rosary and the Microphone: Social Justice and the Stage Chapter 6 Linear: A Way Forward Chapter 7 Songs of Innocence as Barthes' Ideal Novel Chapter 8 Conclusions: A Cosmopolitan Christianity

Nicholas P. Greco is Associate Professor, Communications and Media, Providence University College in Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada. He is the author of David Bowie in Darkness (2015) and ‘Only if you are Really Interested’: Celebrity, Gender, Desire and the World of Morrissey (2011).

  • By (author) Nicholas P. Greco