Bono: Steve Jobs Was "The Bob Dylan of Machines"

by Madalina Alexe on 13 Oct. 2011

Tags: steve jobs, u2, bono, bob dylan, beatles, tv spot, ipod, itunes

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the U2 frontman Bono talks about the revolutionary spirit that guided Jobs and helped shape his unique approach to design and to business.

"The children of the Sixties are seriously changing the world", Bono told Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt. "Steve Jobs is right up there, he is, in many ways, the Bob Dylan of machines, he's the Elvis of the kind of hardware-software dialectic. He's a creature of quite progressive thinking, and his reverence for shape and sound and contour and creativity did not come from the boardroom".

RS 1142 steve jobs cover

Jobs, as we all know, was passionate about Bob Dylan, The Beatles and other musicians prominent in 1960s counterculture. During a 2003 interview for 60 Minutes, Jobs famously compared Apple's management style to the dynamic shared among the four boys from Liverpool. "My model for business is The Beatles", he told 60 Minutes.

"They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people".

U2 and Apple even filmed a TV spot that promoted both the new device and the new album. Part commercial, part music video, the spot is shot in the style of Apple's iconic iPod silhouette ads, with faceless dancers rocking out in front of a neon backdrop as the band plays. "With iPod and iTunes, Apple has created a crossroads of art, commerce and technology which feels good for both musicians and fans", says an Apple press release in October 2003.

Author: Madalina Alexe