Whither the spiritual? A Content Analysis of Reviews of “No Line on the Horizon” in Magazines and Newspapers in the United States, the
United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland
John A. Ballard
College of Mount St. Joseph
Anjelika Gasilina
Wittenberg University
ABSTRACT
The music of U2 combines the secular and the spiritual. Books have been written about the spiritual and biblical themes in U2’s lyrics (e. g., Scharen, 2006; Stockman, 2005; Whiteley, 2003). Both “October” and “The Joshua Tree” have been listed among the 100 greatest Christian albums of all time (Granger, 2001). U2’s latest offering, No Line on the Horizon (NLOH), has been called “the most thoroughly Christian thing they’ve done” (Kimball, 2009, para 2). The religion editor of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “ the Spirit feels like the unnamed fifth member of the band on this album more than any other” (Falsani, 2009, p. 22). These perceptions of the album are consistent with comments made by Bono, who, according to Daniel Lanois (Hiatt, 2009), conceived NLOH as “hymns for the future” (p. 54). This study sought to determine to what degree, if at all, this spiritual and/or Christian perspective in NLOH was acknowledged in 54 album reviews in magazines and newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. Our content analyses found over 85% of the reviews contained no suggestion of any spiritual or Christian aspects in U2’s music; over 70%, no indication of spiritual or Christian themes in NLOTH. Reasons suggested include the separation of the secular and the religious in journalism, lack of expertise to comment meaningful, the consumer context of reviews, and the nature of the critical aesthetic.
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Paper presented October 3, 2009, at U2: The Hype and the Feedback, a Conference Exploring the Music, Work, and Influence of U2, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC. Address comments to
Whither the spiritual? A Content Analysis of Reviews of “No Line on the Horizon” in Magazines and Newspapers in the United States, the
United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland
John A. Ballard, Ph.D., College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, Ohio
Anjelika Gasilina, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio
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The music of U2 combines the secular and the spiritual. Books have been written about the spiritual and biblical themes in U2’s lyrics (e. g., Scharen, 2006; Stockman, 2005; Whiteley & Maynard, 2003). Writing in the Irish Times, Stuart Bailie (2008) stated that spirituality is “the engine that drives the U2 machine”, the “lyrics are rich with the Psalms and the Gospels.” Wrathall (2006) put it this way:
U2’s music has always been suffused with Christian themes and thick with scriptural references. When the audience at U2 concert sings along to songs like “40” or “Yahweh,” they are literally joining the group at prayer. (p. ix)
Both “October” and “The Joshua Tree” have been listed among the 100 greatest Christian albums of all time (Granger, 2001). Some have called U2 a Christian rock band without the label (e.g., Lemmons, 2006). While U2 do not consider themselves a Christian band (and many fundamentalist Christians would agree), Christian themes of doubt, struggle, grace and redemption pervade their music (Perusse, 2005). Mattingly (2002) cited The Rev. Steve Stockman, Presbyterian chaplain of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and, author of Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2:
I think they have been clear -- for nearly 25 years now -- about the role Christian faith plays in their music. They're not hiding anything. At the same time, they have always left big spiritual questions hanging out there -- unanswered.
Inducting U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen (2005) echoed this belief: “In their music you hear the spirituality as home and as quest. How do you find God unless he's in your heart? In your desire? In your feet?” Bono addressed this yearning, this quest, when he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 2006:
I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us are here -- Muslims, Jews, Christians -- are all searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God . . . I am certainly searching. And that, I suppose, is what led me here.
Writing in the Toronto Star, Stuart Laidlaw (2009) shared the perspective of Greg Garrett, author of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2:
(U2’s) willingness to ask troubling spiritual questions appeals to the non-religious. The theology of U2 is a yearning for answers and a relationship with God rather than claiming to have found any such thing. . . . The faith of U2 is questioning and unsure, yet hopeful that a better world is possible. It is Christian-based, but its messages of peace and love are common to many religions.
In a Rolling Stone interview in 2005, Jann Wenner asked Bono directly, “How big an influence is the Bible on your songwriting? How much do you draw on its imagery, its ideas?” The answer was equally direct. Bono replied, “It sustains me.”
You do not have to be Christian or spiritual to enjoy the music of U2. Indeed many people who consider themselves Christian or spiritual probably have little or no awareness of these influences in U2’s music. Laidlaw (2009) suggested that “few outside the most devout of Christian families” have “paid much attention” to Bono, the Edge, and Larry’s faith (Adam apparently is still a “spiritual free agent”.)
Steven Harmon, a Baptist theologian at Samford University, has called U2’s latest offering, No Line on the Horizon (NLOH), “the most thoroughly Christian thing they’ve done” (Kimball, 2009, para 2). The religion editor of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “the Spirit feels like the unnamed fifth member of the band on this album more than any other” (Falsani, 2009, p. 22). These perceptions of the album are consistent with comments made by Bono, who, according to Daniel Lanois (Hiatt, 2009), conceived NLOTH as “hymns for the future” (p. 54).
Listening to lyrics involves voices, rhetoric, and words (Frith, 1996). Hiatt (2009) noted that “the lyrics of No Line on the Horizon are full of characters who have lost track of themselves” -- lost souls in “Moment of Surrender” and “Unknown Caller”, a traffic cop in “No Line on the Horizon”, a dying soldier in “White as Snow”, a war correspondent in “Cedars of Lebanon.” And yet on “Breathe” the narrator finds grace inside the sound. Christianity Today called “Magnificent” U2’s “most transparent worship song” since “Gloria” (Whitman, 2009). With lyrics rendered in haunting musical rhetoric such as “who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not, only the lamb as white as snow,” it is easy to see the conclusions about No Line on the Horizon reached by reviewers in Christian media.
On the other hand, what do mainstream reviewers see and hear? Do album reviewers in popular magazines and newspapers acknowledge a spiritual or Christian aspect to U2’s music? Do they acknowledge spiritual or Christian themes in No Line on the Horizon? We were also interested in overall reactions to No Line on the Horizon. Finally we were curious to see if reviewers’ comments about Bono correlated with reviewers’ ratings of NLOTH. To answer these questions, we conducted content analyses of 54 reviews of No Line on the Horizon in magazines and newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Method
Sample
We began our search for album reviews by examining We excluded webzines and blogs that were online only (e.g., No Ripcord) as beyond the scope of this study. Next we conducted a Google search in English (using “no line on the horizon” u2 review). We also conducted Google searches in several European languages other than English. We had intended to assess ratings of NLOTH from across Europe. These searches yielded very few reviews we could use. Consequently we decided to focus on English sources. Last we searched library databases (e.g., OCLC Electric Collections Online: First Search; Gale Cengage Learning) using the same search words.
Our search identified 66 reviews. A few of these reviews were from Asian, Australia, and Canada. We examined and then eliminated these reviews from our data set because of the small numbers. Likewise we eliminated U.S. newspapers from smaller cities and towns. Table 1 shows by type and country the distribution of the reviews included in the data set for the content analyses. For U.S.-European statistical comparisons, UK and ROI results were combined.
Table 1
Number of Magazine and Newspaper Review by Country
Origin / Magazines / Newspapers / TotalUnited States / 8 / 22 / 30
United Kingdom / 4 / 14 / 18
Republic of Ireland / 2 / 4 / 6
Total / 14 / 40 / 54
For most of the newspapers and magazines, the online version of the print version was used for the analysis. Appendix A lists the 54 sources.
Content Analysis Form
To code the results from the content analyses of the review, we developed a survey instrument. We pretested using several reviews and then revised. Appendix B is the revised form used in the study.
We counted the number of words related to spirituality (excluding those specifically referring to Christianity), e.g., “spiritual”, “spirituality”, “transcendence”, “divine revelation”. We then coded words related to Christianity, e.g., “salvation”, “sin”, “redemption”, “biblical”, “Christianity”. We recognized that some of these terms could also be associated with other Abrahamic religions, and perhaps other religions. Consequently, we summated the two counts for a third variable, number of spiritual/religious words.
Essential to content analysis is the importance of framing, which is identifying the contextual meaning. Words we identified as relating to spirituality or Christianity depend on the context of other words for their meaning. Entman (1993) cautioned to avoid treating all terms as equally salient. One must consider the “cluster of messages”, the frames. To do this, we developed four items with four-point responses to assess the framing of spirituality and Christianity we perceived in the reviews.
We were also interested in the overall rating of No Line on the Horizon in the reviews. We coded using five response choices from “well above average (Best, one of the best)” to “well below average (time to quit)”. We also recorded some of the phrases used to describe NLOTH in the U2 pantheon.
Last we constructed four categorical items concerning the critic’s comments about Bono or other people’s comments about Bono, both positive and negative.
Procedure
Using the revised content analysis form, we individually coded several reviews and compared results. Thus trained, we then separately read and coded the 54 reviews. Interrater reliabilities showed significant variability across the spirituality and Christianity items (Spearman rho = .304 to 1.00). Interrater reliabilities for the four Bono statements ranged from .379 to 1.00 with a mean Spearman rho = .557. Only the overall rating of NLOTH was acceptable (rho = .802). Given the variability in ratings of several of the items, we elected to discuss each of the 54 reviews. Using consensus, we accomplished a joint content analysis for each review. We used these values thusly obtained in our overall analyses.
Results
As shown in Table 1, about 25% of the reviews in our sample came from magazines; 75% from newspapers. We found no significant differences between magazines and newspapers in any of our analyses. Reviews from the United States were 56%; United Kingdom, 33%; and the Republic of Ireland, 11%. The earliest reviews were in February 2009, mostly from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Reviews varied considerably in word length ranging from 101(an outlier; the second lowest was 206) to 2203 with a median of 557.
We discovered, as Entman (1993) suggested, that counting words was problematic. For example, the word “gospel” can refer to a style of music or the “good news” of Christianity. In our word counts, “gospel” would be counted as a Christian word. Using this method, 63% of the reviews did not contain any spiritual words; 20%, 1 word; 15%, 2 or 3 words; and less than 2%, more than 3 words. For Christian words, 67% contained none; 18%, 1 word; 11%, 2 or 3; and 4% over 3 words. Overall over 60% of the reviews contained no spiritual or Christian words.
More important to our content analyses were the framings or contexts in the reviews where we perceived the critic’s awareness of spiritual or Christian meanings. Table 2 summarizes these results. Most of the reviewers did not acknowledge any spiritual or Christian aspects in U2’s canon or in No Line on the Horizon. However, about 30% did acknowledge spiritual or Christian themes in NLOTH in some way or another. As J. Freedom du Lac stated in the Washington Post,
Table 2
Percents, Means and Standard Deviations For Spiritual and Christian Content
in Reviews of No Line on the Horizon
Statement / No / Slightly / Moderately / Strongly / Mean / SDThe review acknowledges spirituality in U2’s music / 85% / 11% / 4% / 0% / 1.19 / .479
The review acknowledges Christianity in U2’s music. / 87% / 9% / 2% / 2% / 1.19 / .552
The review acknowledges spirituality in NLOTH. / 70% / 19% / 7% / 4% / 1.44 / .793
The review acknowledges Christianity in NLOTH. / 72% / 20% / 6% / 2% / 1.37 / .681
“Thematically, No Line on the Horizon is about love and war, about feeling disconnected and discombobulated, about redemption, religion, and the ridiculousness of being Bono.” Sean Daly in The St. Petersburg Times described “Magnificent” as “so good, so incredibly U2, as shaky Christian Bono tries to make right with the Lord.” [Underlines are ours.]
Table 3 suggests there may be differences in acknowledging spiritual and Christian content by country. Reviews of NLOTH from the United States had the highest percentage of framing of spiritual content (37%) whereas Ireland had the least (17%). Reviews from Ireland, on the other hand, mentioned Christian aspects in both U2’s music (33%) and in NLOTH (50%). Reviews from the United Kingdom had the least Christian content.
Table 3
Percent of Reviews by Country Acknowledging Some Spiritual
and Christian Content in No Line on the Horizon
Statement / United States / United Kingdom / Republic of IrelandThe review acknowledges spirituality in U2’s music / 7% / 11% / 17%
The review acknowledges Christianity in U2’s music. / 13% / 6% / 33%
The review acknowledges spirituality in NLOTH. / 37% / 22% / 17%
The review acknowledges Christianity in NLOTH. / 27% / 22% / 50%
After examining the correlation matrix for the four items acknowledging spirituality and Christianity in U2’s music and NLOTH, we summed the four items to create a spirituality index. We then computed a t-test comparing the means for the United States and UK/ROI. When the results of the UK and ROI were combined, there were no statistically significant differences between UK/ROI and the US. Similarly we found no statistical relationship between our spirituality index and the overall critic’s rating of NLOTH.
Reviews of No Line on the Horizon were very positive. 78% indicated NLOTH was one of the best U2 albums or above average. Table 4 shows the results by country. Ireland and the United Kingdom rated NLOTH well above, one of the best, 66% and 44% respectively. Reviews in the United States were less enthusiastic (only 20% at the highest rating) but 60% indicated it was above average. Among the accolades were: “an eclectic and electrifying winner”, ”U2 still inspires flashes of elation, awe, and yes, hope like no other rock band”, “brushstrokes of great beauty”, and “spiritual electricity”.
On the other hand, 11% of the reviews found NLOTH well below average (interestingly, we deemed that no review found it just below average). Comments included: “restless, tentative, and confused”, “giant failure”, and “load of overblown rubbish”. Appendix C is a list of review of notable positive and negative comments with sources.
Table 4
Ratings of No Line on the Horizon in Percents by Country
Album Rating / United States / United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland / OverallWell above average
(Best, one of the best) / 20% / 44% / 66% / 33%
Above average / 60% / 28% / 17% / 45%
Average
(OK, worth a listen) / 10% / 17% / 0% / 11%
Below average / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Well below average
(time to quit) / 10% / 11% / 17% / 11%
The last part of our content analyses focused on comments, both positive and negative, about Bono’s personality or political activities. For example, a positive
Table 5
Comments about Bono’s Personality or Political Activities in Reviews
of No Line on the Horizon by Country
Statement / United States / United Kingdom / Republic of IrelandReview mentions other people’s positive views of Bono (i.e., personality, political activities). / 13% / 0% / 0%
Review makes positive comment(s) about Bono (i.e., personality, political activities). / 3% / 22% / 17%
Review mentions other people’s negative views of Bono (i.e., personality, political activities). / 23% / 17% / 0%
Review makes negative comment(s) about Bono (i.e., personality, political activities). / 17% / 11% / 33%
comment from a reviewer was Alan Morrison of the Sunday Herald, Glasgow: “Bono
is, however, the model for what a politicized modern-day rock star should be.” Examples of negative comments would be Bono’s insufferable or self-righteous or hard to bear. Comments about Bono’s singing or lyrics were not part of this analysis (although we should note that several reviewers praised Bono’s singing on “White as Snow” as perhaps his best ever).
Table 5 shows the percentage of comments about political and personality comments about Bono. In the United States critics were more likely to be more indirect by referring to other people’s impressions of Bono. On the other hand, in the reviews from Ireland, critics were more likely to make their own statements about Bono. Although the number of reviews from Ireland is small, 2 of 6 critics made negative comments.
We also computed an overall index using the four items concerning Bono. This index was then used to determine if impressions of Bono’s personality or political activities was correlated with overall ratings of NLOTH. We found no relationship.
Discussion
A frequent comment in the media in that No Line on the Horizon has received mixed reviews. Our review of 54 newspaper and magazine reviews found nearly 80% were positive (above average, one of the best). Table 6 shows Metacritic.com ratings for the last three U2 albums. NLOTH’s average Metacritic.com critics rating is only slightly below How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and All That You Can’t Leave
Table 6
Metacritic.com Ratings of U2 Albums
Album / Critics / UsersNo Line on the Horizon / 72 (30) / 8.2 (275)
How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb / 79 (26) / 6.9 (309)
All That You Can’t Leave Behind / 80 (17) / 7.0 (59)
Behind. Interestingly, the average rating by users is significantly higher for NLOTH than for the previous two albums. Blogger Grant Wentzel (2009) has suggested “those critics who love it (NLOTH) are pretty comfortable when the focus is on God, and the reviewers left cold have their doubts about the whole thing. ”