Growing up, I didn’t really question why this band would be played along side Nirvana, Bush, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, etc. because my radio station of choice was not just grunge, but also “adult alternative.” So it would play pop shit, too, sometimes.
But I still, to this day, often find U2 listed among grunge artists, or their songs get played on grunge playlists. The fuck? How is this shit grunge? It doesn’t fit in any way! It doesn’t have the sound, it doesn’t have the style, shit it doesn’t even have the same emotional resonance. It’s happy and hopeful.
Genre identifiers are mostly nonsense anyway. U2 have been many things over the years. ‘Boy’ is a very different album from ‘Zootopia’.
I don’t think they are nonsense, but they better fit the work rather than the artist. Artists shift genres all the time.