U2!
I got this from here:
U2 and Others Get Inducted
In a raucous, sentimental ceremony, U2 was officially bumped up to legendary status as the Irish quartet and other acts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night.
U2 was the star of the night, inducted by Bruce Springsteen and honored by their peers for their groundbreaking musical achievements over the past three decades.
In a pop-music world increasingly fragmented into smaller and smaller niches, U2 is one of the last truly big rock bands.
Everything about U2 is huge: its sound, its following, its concert spectacle...P>
The band that would become U2 -- singer Paul "Bono" Hewson, guitarist David "the Edge" Evans, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. -- traces its roots to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland. Starting in 1976 as a covers band with only the most rudimentary of skills, by 1978 the group had won a local talent contest and had a manager.
U2's first album, "Boy" was released in 1980 and immediately attracted notice for its passionate intensity and Christian imagery. Many consider it one of the band's finest albums. Its first single, "I Will Follow," was a minor hit in the United States.
"October" followed in 1981, and then came "War" in 1983, a critical and commercial hit on both side of the Atlantic. Memorable for its passionate engagement with politics, particularly the conflict in Northern Ireland, it produced the U2 staples "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day."
The band's fame mounted with each succeeding album throughout the 1980s, but it was 1987's widely acclaimed "The Joshua Tree" that turned U2 into superstars. By then the band's signature anthemic sound was well-established: Bono's urgently keening vocals and righteous lyrics, the Edge's chiming guitar chords and the rhythm section's lockstep, martial pounding. It was a sound destined for arenas.
Some believed U2 would not survive the '80s, but in 1991 the group shifted directions with "Achtung Baby," which moved away from passionate anthems toward a quieter and more experimental sound. The album went to number one.
U2 maintained its superstar status throughout the 1990s, releasing "Zooropa" in 1993 and "Pop" in 1997. Both made it to the top of the album charts, but the band's continuing experimentation, especially with trendy electronica, put off many fans and critics.
To some, U2 was becoming a bombastic dinosaur act, and Bono's increasingly high profile as a globe-trotting social crusader fueled complaints he was strident and self-righteous. Still, the band remained beloved by millions around the world.
U2's world tours in the 1990s were at least as memorable as its recordings. They were gigantic, self-conscious spectacles -- featuring props such as a 35-foot-high lemon -- that both celebrated and mocked the pop-culture excesses U2 itself was being accused of.
As the band geared up for the 21st century, it signaled it was ready to leave such ironic musings behind and return to the more earnest sound of its earlier work. "All That You Can't Leave Behind," released in 2000, was its most straightforward album in years.
It was followed in 2004 by the equally unadorned "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." The album was praised by many as a triumphant return to form by a band destined to be remembered as one of the most successful and enduring in rock history.