The Alternative Number Ones: U2’s “The Fly”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

In November 1991, Billboard ran a cover story on the marketing push behind Achtung Baby, the U2 album that was about to come out. The article, written entirely in music business-speak, contrasted the Achtung Baby rollout plan with the big, flashy campaigns for other big superstar records coming out around the same time, like Michael Jackson's Dangerous and 2 Legit 2 Quit, the latest from the newly renamed Hammer. (He'd just dropped the "MC" from his name; it would return later.) Unlike their fellow megastars, U2 weren't going for a full-on monocultural blitz. Instead, their label's efforts were "aimed squarely at the band's longstanding alternative base."

Given that U2 had already been a stadium act for years, one might wonder what the phrase "longstanding alternative base" might possibly mean. The answer, more or less, is "not Michael Jackson or Hammer fans." Island Records, U2's label, wanted fan excitement to push Achtung Baby, rather than any over-the-top ad campaign, even if "over-the-top ad campaign" was basically the ironic aesthetic that the band adapted. In the article, longtime U2 manager Paul McGuinness says, "There's nothing on this record except bass, guitar, and drums and U2... That's what always excited me about rock 'n' roll when I was a kid -- the idea of four guys onstage making an enormous noise."