The U2 frontman has been making waves with his latest comments in an interview with Rolling Stone.
In the piece, Bono said that music “has gotten very girly” in recent years, with hip-hop serving as “the only place for young male anger at the moment”.
He expressed his belief that “rage is at the heart” of rock and roll, but this is a quality that has been lacking in rock music from this year.
The singer spoke about contemporary music tastes in relation to his children.
“Jordan is a music snob, an indie snob,” Bono explained. “Eve is hip-hop. Elijah is in a band, and he has got very strong feelings about music, but he doesn’t make any distinction between, let’s say, the Who and The Killers. Or, you know, Nirvana and Royal Blood. It is not generational for him. It is the sound and what he is experiencing. He believes that a rock and roll revolution is around the corner.”
Asked if he believed that such a “revolution” is on the way, Bono replied: “I think music has gotten very girly. And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that’s not good.
“When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me,” he continued. “You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don’t care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is fucking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde.
“In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it. Some great rock & roll tends to have that, which is why the Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage… It will return.”