U2

With their flame burning brilliantly through three decades, U2 is a band driven by a calling — to capture the souls of true believers in rock's power to change the world. Even when they were just four scrappy kids from Dublin, breaking down America's door with the punk-schooled, repeat-until-fully-rocked riffs of "I Will Follow," U2 had World's Biggest Band written all over them. Soon they were ravenous seekers on a search to feed their spiritual hunger, with the gospel-soaked rock revival meeting of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Cut to 2009 — mountains of albums sold, countless sold-out stadiums rocked, the world's heart long since won, and the reigning rock gods ring in change for America, blasting out their hope-fueled victory cry "Pride (In the Name of Love)" for Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration. We've gathered all of these classics and more — much more — in our U2 Essentials Basics. In Next Steps, follow the rock pilgrims' progress, from electric hymns of glory to blues blasters with the old masters.

U2 has always been a band on a mission — more a gang than a group, with no time for solo projects or anything else that might delay their destiny as rock 'n' roll saviors . . . except maybe their sideline as global goodwill ambassadors. Back in the day, Bono came on like a choirboy drunk on communion wine as the Edge blasted the congregation with six-string sacraments on "Gloria." By the time they traded licks with B.B. King on "When Love Comes to Town," they were toppling the barriers between heart, mind, and soul — not to mention blues and rock. And when they proved their superhuman staying power with 2009's No Line On the Horizon, they were still making the "darkness squeeze out sparks of light" on the beacon-through-the-blackness "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight." In Deep Cuts, move further into U2's universe as they move from war-torn wails to peaceful dreams.

In this fickle world of fleeting pleasures, Bono, Edge, Adam, and Larry pour everything they've got into making music that endures — music that matters. They've spent their entire adult lives proving that rock can pack as much depth and drama as anything from Shakespeare's pen, in the process making us care about the world we share. Their 1983 Under a Blood Red Sky tour is the stuff of legend, Bono waving a white flag that signified much more than "surrender" as he insisted, "This is not a rebel song" while leading the crowd in a rabble-rousing chant on rock's ultimate peace plea, "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Those shows came to a climactic close with the band shouting its faith from the rafters on the Psalms-based "'40'," the spirit-stirred crowd singing along even after U2 left the stage. But when Bono croons, "May your dreams be realized" on "MLK," U2's requiem for Dr. King, it feels more like a promise than a prayer.

Being rock gods is a calling of which few are worthy; staying on top of rock's Mount Olympus through the '80s, '90s, and '00s is a feat accomplished by only one band, U2. Between vocalist/visionary Bono, guitar antihero the Edge, and the heart-pounding rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr., U2 set the pace for the rest to follow in the '80s, and the biggest bands of the next two decades had the Dubliners at the top of their I.O.U. list. But achieving elder-statesman status at the end of the '00s didn't mean they couldn't still come blazing out of the gate with a stunner like "Get On Your Boots," one of their most undeniable tracks ever. Which is why — 30 years, a dozen crucial albums, and a greatness no numbers could measure — we give you U2, their career rolled out over a playlist that tracks their journey from '80s Boyhood to men of the new millennium.