The Rosary and the Microphone explores U2 as a politically engaged band that manifests a particular brand of Christianity through the band's mediation in a global context and for a global audience. Through the primarily semiotic study of U2's various mediations, this book maps the band's strategies for negotiating its place in the world as a global band--and mediated brand--and as a proponent of a kind of cosmopolitanism, or global care. U2's brand is heavily informed by Bono's own personal religious formation. This religious viewpoint is expressed in a global concern--a Christian cosmopolitanism--that looks outward and draws others to do the same.

As an artist, David Bowie is widely considered a ""chameleon,"" shedding one persona to create a new one and thus staying popular, relevant and compelling. In reality, Bowie is able to work with the resources around him to create something new, causing many to see him as a sort of lone artist rather than a collaborator in the creation of his own celebrity. Since mid-career, Bowie has presented himself as a figure in darkness, progressively more hidden. He requires an audience for his continued celebrity but works against that audience in the creation - or rather the destruction - of his star image. This tension is made clear in his 1995 album 1. Outside, which has him performing for an audience while simultaneously shunning them. This book explores Bowie's negotiation of his celebrity during his later career, with particular focus on 1. Outside, an album symptomatic of deep-seated societal and personal anxiety.

The Rosary and the Microphone explores U2 as a politically engaged band that manifests a particular brand of Christianity through the band's mediation in a global context and for a global audience. Through the primarily semiotic study of U2's various mediations, this book maps the band's strategies for negotiating its place in the world as a global band--and mediated brand--and as a proponent of a kind of cosmopolitanism, or global care. U2's brand is heavily informed by Bono's own personal religious formation. This religious viewpoint is expressed in a global concern--a Christian cosmopolitanism--that looks outward and draws others to do the same.