Many musicians are dissident, but few use their dissidence to evoke change. Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, is one of those few. During the twenty-two years U2 has claimed its existence, he has used both his music and his fame to “rebel against the idea that the world is the way the world is and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.” Bono’s efforts transcend the common act of incorporating political and social commentary into his lyrics, though songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Mothers of the Disappeared” display his unremitting political beliefs. Bono’s efforts transcend the common act of performing at benefit concerts, though he has played at numerous charity events including Amnesty International’s Live Aid, NetAid, and the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Bono’s efforts to evoke change are most accurately seen in his ability to inspire thousands, from ordinary civilians to world leaders, to act now. Most recently, he has been on top of a crusade to relieve third world nations of their debts.

Bono once explained simply in a 60 Minutes II interview, “Poverty leads to instability and war, which is bad for everyone.” This logical statement was the basis for the start of a campaign known as Jubilee 2000. Moved by the fact that, as quoted by Newsweek, “African nations are servicing their loans by paying $200 million - the entire amount of money raised by Live Aid - a week to the richest countries of the world,” the idea behind Jubilee 2000 was that all the debts owed to First World nations by Third World nations should be cancelled in the year 2000. Attempting to achieve this goal took Bono all over the world. He was seen everywhere from the United States Congress to the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy. Bono joined forces with world leaders Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Kofi Annan, as well as United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, Harvard University economist Jeffrey Sachs, World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn, and even Pope John Paul II. As reported in Newsweek, Jamie Drummond, one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 campaign said, “We expected that [Bono’s involvement] might be concerts and records. But it turned out that Bono’s a very brilliant political lobbyist.” Because of Bono’s persistency to eliminate the debts that are partially responsible for the deaths of 20,000 children each day, President Clinton promised, according to Rolling Stone, that he would do everything in his power to “make it possible to forgive 100 percent of the debt” that is owed by the Third World to the United States. In order to put the issue into perspective, Bono offers, as stated in Newsweek, “When you think about the contributions of music culture, like helping stop the Vietnam War - this is that big. This is a billion people. How many lives are being lost in Africa each day?” It was with this heartfelt, yet rationally lucid, attitude, combined with countless hours of lobbying, that Bono was able to help persuade the United States Congress to eliminate $435 million of debt. Along with the $100 billion of debt that was cancelled by other rich nations, Bono’s Jubilee 2000 campaign can be considered one of the greatest uses of dissidence within the music community, though it was only one of his efforts to evoke change.

Headlining the Conspiracy of Hope Tour, a subdivision of the Amnesty International Live Aid concert to fight world hunger, was just part of his dedication to using music to advocate change. Indeed, Bono’s devotion to the cause did evoke a response that was directly responsible for encouraging many to make a difference. As U2 guitarist The Edge recounts in Carter Alan’s book, The Road to Pop, “That was amazing - to be able to help an organization as great as Amnesty International, [which] doubled its membership after that tour.” By being a part of such projects as Live Aid, Bono was drawn to work in Ethiopia, where overwhelming famine existed. According to the socially conscious rocker in The Road to Pop, “I was very taken up with the Band Aid and Live Aid thing, and I felt that U2 was part of the change in temperature that allowed Live Aid to take place. So I wanted to see it through in a way and I went [to Ethiopia].” In Ethiopia, Bono helped to teach many who would otherwise have been left uneducated about health, hygiene, and farming methods. In doing so, he showed the world that compassion can go a long way to initiate change. Though this was a life-altering experience for Bono, the seeds of new political endeavors were only beginning to sprout.

Insisting that his fans make an effort equivalent to his own is something that Bono does often. On U2‘s Elevation Tour, he made sure that spokespeople from organizations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International were present at the concerts to educate the fans. Included in each show just before the anti-Reagan song “Bullet the Blue Sky” was a short film that criticized members of the National Rifle Association. More specifically, the video attacked “NRA-phile,” Charlton Heston, who was, as recounted in an Internet concert review, “talking about how ‘guns are good in the hands of the right people,’ followed by footage of a young child picking up her father's gun.” Bono also took it one step further by personally pushing fans to take a stand against the injustices of our society. To provide his audience with a deeper understanding of the rage he feels because of the lack of AIDS relief in Africa, he explained at a Boston concert, “It was reported in the Boston Globe a few days ago … a man named Andrew Natsios [the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development] described the AIDS epidemic in Africa as being untreatable because Africans have no sense of time; they don’t have wristwatches.” Finding this outrageous, Bono urged fans to send wristwatches to Mr. Natsios and other members of the AID. Because he confronts such issues with undying bluntness, proving himself both educated and highly concerned, people respond.

While much of his political commentary and perseverance to provoke revolution is seen at all of U2’s concerts, the heart of this discourse is best observed in the band’s lyrics, the earliest signs being evident on U2’s third and definitive album War. In “Like a Song…,” Bono uncompromisingly asserts, “And if you can’t help yourself/Well take a look around you/When others need your time/You say it’s time to go.” His lyrical commentary can be directly linked to his commencement speech for Harvard University’s class of 2001. He asks, “What are we rebelling against now?” He later testifies, “If I am honest, I'm rebelling against my own indifference.” Bono goes on to ask, “But fighting my indifference is my own problem. What's your problem? What's the hole in your heart? Is success your drug of choice or are you driven by another curiosity? Is missing the moment unacceptable to you? Is wasting inspiration a crime?” These sincere questions are the very basis for Bono’s ability to inspire change. He also reassures many that while changing the global community for the better is imperative, we must also look deep into ourselves to change our own problems and those of our own community.

Bono has always been a deep advocator of self-improvement, urging those who have submitted themselves to despondent lifestyles that might involve drug addiction to battle the demons. Songs such as “Bad” and “Running to Stand Still” depict the temptation and effects of heroin addiction as well as some of the poor social conditions of Dublin, Ireland. Biographer Niall Stokes describes, “In ‘Running to Stand Still’ Bono goes further [than depicting heroin addiction], empathizing with the central character who is willing to put everything at risk in order to transcend the crushing drabness and narrow horizons which blighted the lives of so many in a city of high unemployment and squalid living conditions.” By showing that he could identify with the temptation of drug addiction, Bono was able to motivate many to “surrender,” as the lyrics to “Bad” so poignantly advise. His politically and socially inclined lyrics have spanned the career of U2, and, according to Bono, “It would be wrong for me to say, ‘Yes, we can change the world with a song’ - but every time I try writing, that's where I'm at.”