My Love/Hate Relationship With Coldplay
I don’t believe in sell outs. I think the term, when applied to art, is completely bogus. I often think “Since when should an artist not try to make money.” I don’t think you know what an artist intentions are, and I don’t think you are assuming an artist did something specifically for money. But even so, what would be the big deal. Is a song writer who writes for Britney Spears a sell out? I mean he wrote an intentionally simplistic song only to make money? What about Jewel when she intentionally wrote a pop album? It’s too much of a gray area.
So when people call Coldplay sellouts, I never got it. Coldplay embraced the casual fan and Top 40 fans and made a lot of money. They were easily THE band of the last decade. But why is that bad? The Beatles wrote some intentionally catchy songs to get AirPlay and make money.
I first heard Coldplay around 2001 with Yellow, and at first listen I wasn’t blown away. But after about 6-7 listens I started to really like the song and got their album Parachutes. I actually can still go back and listen to this album. It was a great first start, and a great look into who they would become. Stand outs for me were Don’t Panic and Trouble. It was so good that I was excited for Rush of Blood To the Head. A great sophomore record and between God Put A Smile Upon Your Face and The Scientist, it may be their best effort.
But then came Clocks. Let me say right now that there may not be a catchier song in the last decade than Clocks. Great piano rift to open the song, great song all around. It’s instantly recognizable. But boy was it everywhere. You couldn’t escape it, and I grew a little tired of it. So I took a break and avoided them before X & Y.
When Speed of Sound came out, I kind of lost interest. It felt like the same old thing. And after sitting down with X&Y I really wasn’t impressed. It’s been ever since then that my strange relationship with the band has begun.
X&Y turned me away because it felt more like Coldplay wanted to capitalize on their success than create a new vibrant album. It was not long after that Keane released Under the Iron Sea and changed their sound dramatically, something that appealed to me. I was not in the mood for Rush of Blood Part 2. So the album wasn’t for me. And that’s ok, not all music should be.
But flash foreword, I see them on SNL and I start to get over it again. Viva La Vida (a rival to Clocks for the catchiest song ever) was a cool step for them with the Sgt. Pepper look and the whole revolution feel. But it felt more like a theme that they picked to be marketable. And now on SNL they are doing a tribal glow in the dark theme. Which is cool, but now they have their spiderweb logo on all their jackets and the intentional glow paint smears on their hands or faces. It just feels like something some think-tank marketing department came up with to sell more albums. It’s insists upon itself.
Then you hear Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall and Paradise, and you’re caught in the same trap. Man are those well written songs. Catchy, well written, good songs. And here we sit again, stuck between a rock and a hard place again.
I really want to like Coldplay, I am desperate to be a fan of theirs. It’s not their fault that their concerts are full of frat boy weirdos that just want to hear the hits. And it’s not their fault that they are finding the right formula to make money on quality work. It’s my problem. But I’m still allowed to have it.
