Coldplay

[Sussexbythesewage]

Just watching Chris Martin prancing around the stage at Glasto singing his pop music and can't help feeling annoyed that they started off as one thing and completely sold out to pop. AIBU to say that their parachutes album was and always will be the best.

They were obviously always a pop band.

@Sussexbythesewage I saw them with about 20 other people in 2000 when they released their first EP, supporting a band called Terris. They were pop then, they’re pop now. I couldn’t have predicted how massive they’d become, I thought they sounded like they’d listened to too much Grace by Jeff Buckley.

Blandness is in the ear of the beholder though isn't it. If music makes you feel good, there should be no shame in it.

In the early days they were pop in the sense of Rolling Stones, Beatles were pop/rock but they weren’t pop as in Madonna.

I actually think he has a good when he sings, ‘Shiver’, I wouldn’t label that pop but they are poppy now and for most of his subsequent career.

But they were always pop - what else? Soft rock?

They’re utterly awful anyway and always have been. Utter cringe, toe curling self serving awfulness. Chris Martin is an absolute pretentious douche bag.

Glastonbury is the epitome of bland now, this year is awful. Music that doesn’t carry well at all in a massive outdoor space. I went in lat 90s and 00 and I got in for next to nothing and the people there were young like me. It is so corporate and bland, people bringing all the gear for cooking elaborate food when camping. I think the music sadly reflects the ticket prices. My eldest teenager wouldn’t even contemplate it as completely unaffordable and full of people the same age as his Parents!

If he isn't a scientologist, I reckon he will be in the next couple of years. There's something oddly fake about him.
All the preaching about the environment then wasting resources on giving everyone a daft flashing bracelet.
I think the man has a God complex.

Never knew why they became soooo huge 100 million each huge.
Compared to other very popular pop/ indie 2000s bands.
Maybe if Coldplay s first album was in 2005 rather than 2000 they might not have been as mega mega big.
Cos loads of others were massive in UK then just not crazy worldwide big.
People mentioning Travis. Stereophonics, Keane, Killers, etc etc so many pop indie back then and huge CD sales.

2004/ 2005 was loads for pop indie also
Oasis were 90s obv but again not huge as coldplay.

That's part of the beauty of it though, all ages.

I know next to nothing about Coldplay and always thought CM was probably up himself from the press coverage, but Game of Thrones:The Musical for Comic Relief is bloody hilarious and I can't believe he takes himself too seriously after that.

Yeh I may be wrong but Glastonbury doesn't exactly prioritise the popular 80s pop bands.
I love 80s music

I cringe when i see people my age done up like teenagers at Glastonbury. There's something desperate about it. They seem to have no self awareness. Of course i will get pelters for saying that on mn. I imagine most of the 50 something ravers at Glastonbury are middle class mn users. With kids with ridiculous names.

Shiver is literally this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A3adFWKE9JE

I did buy it, but it’s a bit of plagiarism really.

But what harm is it doing anyone? None! The place is full of nutters and that's part of the charm. It should be welcoming to everyone (naff as they may be) but the vibe is just about going to see the acts, do what interests you etc.

He was v funny when he appeared in Modern Family as himself, really took the piss out of himself!

Modern Family clip

Lol!!!! Haven't seen that in a long time 😍

@AngelsWithSilverWings i saw them in 2003 and they played with a backing track then.

considering how much his singing annoys me so deeply I’m always rather irritated to hear Chris Martin interviewed because he seems like a nice bloke. 😬

I've never been arsed about the cool not cool thing with bands. I've liked a lot of bands who are very uncool. I bought Shiver when it came out and liked it. I saw them playing around then when no one else interesting and met Chris Martin a number of times.

Therein lies my problem.

As a band they are nice enough but I found them bland and a bit dull after Shiver. Yellow was nice enough and great for a singalong but that's as far as I go. They play well and I can't fault them on that.

I think a fair few people who saw them back in 1999/2000 thought they'd go in a different direction musically and I think that's also part of the problem. Music snobbery? Perhaps. Shiver promised more and after Parachutes that enthusiasm fizzled out.

Then theres Chris Martin himself. It's a long story which I'm not going into here and I stress we never bothered him nor approached him (quite the opposite) but yeah, prick.

I've met a lot of bands over the years as I was just into the music and we just got to know people. Plenty of idiots and unlikeables. However Chris Martin is the one that stands out as the total knobber and pissed me off with his ego.

So for me it's partly personal and partly just not getting the hype after Shiver. There were plenty of better bands doing similar at the time. I found Coldplay more bland and the least interesting. Then Chris Martin started to be Knock Off Bono. I love U2 but I find Bono irritating when he does his whole sanctimonious thing. That just killed Coldplay stone dead for me. It was too contrived and insincere. It smacked of Americanisation and commercialisation in a way that grated and took away from the actual music. Bono is genuine about it and didn't copycat. And U2 had an edginess as well as the wholesome Christian thing that appealed to the American market as well as the UK market, which Coldplay didn't. If it had been just about the music, I'd probably have been less turned off about it. It was something of a culture clash between the UK music scene which was edgier and the UK market which had to be squeaky clean. So I would say the biggest issue is the US / UK music scene culture clash rather than it being a cool kids thing tbh.

It was also clearly partly driven by Martin's ego and who he was hanging out with at the time. Our encounters with him previously said a lot about him and what happened subsequently. I don't have a lot of time for people like that.

I will happily talk about U2 when the cool kids say they hate them. People find them a bit MOR like Coldplay but I love them. But Coldplay? I'd say I was more indifferent about Coldplay musically. They are 'nice'. In that indifferent pleasant enough way without being offensive or too interesting way. Not my cup of tea, but I guess that has wide appeal with people who are not that into music and just happy enough with mass commercialised stuff. I don't get the worship of them. It's weird. I'd call them the coffeetable-book of music for people who don't really know or care about music but want to look like they do. That's fair enough. But you can hardly call Coldplay ground breaking in anyway and that's always going to be reflected in attitudes to them.

This.

Definitely this.

They have done computer analysis of pop music since the 1960s and have found a trend of movement to including everything but also moving to the average in musicality.

So it's not just a matter of opinion. There is also a scientific and observable trend towards averageness which I find fascinating.

That may be, but if it sounds good in people's ears and brains, then it is 'good'. It achieves it's objective of being pleasurable. This is obviously simplistic, but I think people are quite simplistic when it comes to music in general. I don't think people should be judging others tastes. I've been to take that, Westlife, Bruce, glasto, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen. It's a mix but who cares, I like it!

Lots of pop is the result of focus groups these days. It has to appeal to as many people as possible, therefore it would need to be bland/average, I guess (whatever this means in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, tonality, texture, structure etc.).

Interestingly, I tend not to like any modern music. The formulae aren't working on me 😂

Hell I can't say much in terms of taste. I bloody love Eurovision!

I think there is a certain amount of influence in terms of marketing rather than sounds being more appealing though. The whole thing with Coldplay was their marketability to the US which other bands in their peer group didn't have. It's the wholesome culture thing and choice of management that made the difference imho.