U2

After the break, and participation in outside projects (soundtrack «Batman Forever» and «mission impossible», as well as the title song for the movie about James Bond «Golden Eye», which is performed by Tina Turner) the band released a test album Original Soundtracks 1. Brian Ino, producer of three previous album, this time made a contribution and in writing, and execution of the songs. Due to the experimental nature of Original Soundtracks, a group decided to release it on behalf of Passengers, instead of U2, to separate this album from the traditional. It was not like a particularly marked by critics, although the song Miss Sarajevo, performed along with Luciano Pavarotti became a hit.

From the album Pop (album) 1997 U2 experimented again. Using loops glued pieces of film (tape loop), programming add album something of techno and disco. However, the album is as versatile as the others, and includes the usual ballads and songs. Released in March, the album won the first line in the charts in 35 countries and has received mostly positive reviews. Rolling Stone magazine even wrote that U2 have created «the best music in my life». But American fans of the album disappointing. Later, Bono admitted that the album finished in a hurry before the tour, planned before the work in the studio.

Popmart Tour ideologically continued Zoo TV Tour. The tour began in April 1997. Decorations included a 30-meter golden yellow arch, a 50-meter screen and a 12-meter mirror lemon. And Popmart, and the Zoo TV Tour were sent to the attention of those who accuse U2 of commercialization.

If you do not take into account the mixed reactions to the music and shows, Popmart was neither a success nor a failure. Of course, he was second on the return tour in 1997 (after the Bridges to Babylon Tour group Rolling Stones): its fees totaled 170 million dollars, but his organization had spent more than 100 million. Also at the first presentation, scheduled and organized prior to the release of the album, negatively influenced the decision of the group to reduce rehearsal time for the completion of retarded Pop. But Popmart was not without differences. U2 was the first widely-known group, who spent the post-war concert in Sarajevo. Bono said: «This is a [concert in Sarajevo] was one of the heaviest and sweetest nights of my life». And Larry Mullen, Jr.. described it as «the experience that I will not forget the rest of his life, and if I had to hold in the 20 years just to speak to show, that in doing so, I think it was worth it».

In May 1998, the band played in Belfast before the public two thousand, three days before had taken the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement. Later this year, U2 took part in the event to raise funds for victims of the terrorist attack in Omagh, where 29 people were killed and more than 200 were injured. At the end of the year minor song The Sweetest Thing of the single Where the Streets Have No Name has been rewritten and reissued as a single and the compilation The Best of 1980-1990.