The world of mainstream music is constantly transforming as new artists, styles and trends are embraced with each passing year. In spite of these changes, some musicians have maintained their popularity across decades, reinventing their sounds and careers. Each week, A&E columnist Emily McCormick will discuss the evolution of ’90s artists who have carried the spirit of their decade into today’s music scene.
I recently proclaimed my excitement that Coldplay was releasing a new album in December to a group of friends. My statement was met with eye rolls and a snide, “Who still likes Coldplay?”
I was bewildered. I’d always loved Coldplay’s music, from the sweeping arpeggios of “Clocks” to the driving anthem of “Viva La Vida.” I couldn’t wait to hear more from the band with its latest and possibly final installation. When, since the start of its career in the late ’90s, had Coldplay suddenly gone lukewarm to fans?
As it turns out, my friends are not the only ones vocal about their distaste for Coldplay.
Pitchfork magazine listed 19 unflattering adjectives, including “adequate, benign, forgettable,” to describe Coldplay’s music, following the release of its 2000 album, “Parachutes.” In 2011, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote an entire piece in The New Yorker titled “Why Don’t I Like Coldplay? An Investigation,” which also called Coldplay out for being unexciting and unimaginative.
But for every Coldplay critic, there is at least one more Coldplay defender, and I fall into the latter category.
The qualities that put the band in the line of fire – namely, its meditative, simplistic melodies and chord progression – are also what make it great. I’m not looking for Coldplay to fuel a five-mile run or night at the club. But I will listen to Coldplay when I need a pick-me-up, a warm embrace, the musical equivalent of carb-loaded comfort food.
Coldplay also sometimes falls into the trap of being mislabelled as an alternative rock band. Because of this, the band is unfairly criticized for not living up to predecessors of the genre like U2 or Radiohead.
“We’re in such a strange position, I don’t even know where we fit in,” said Chris Martin, Coldplay’s frontman and lead singer, in a 2011 interview with Pitchfork. “Maybe it’s because of our Englishness or the pantheon of brilliant bands that have gone before us, but we always feel very small.”
Really, though, Coldplay is just pop with an alternative rock veneer: Yes, the members write their own music and play their own instruments like rockers, but their music is stylistically and sonically Top 40.
Take for instance Coldplay’s 2011 single “Paradise,” which features a catchy hook using just the syllables “para, para” of the word paradise. Using word fragments to grab attention is a technique commonly used in pop, like how Rihanna had famously done with “umbrella, ella, ella” in her own music.
Even more, Coldplay has proven itself a pop group by constantly incorporating other trendy artists into its music.
The band built its 2005 song “Talk” around a sample from electronic band Kraftwerk’s 1981 hit “Computer Love.” Coldplay’s entire 2008 “Viva La Vida” album was made in collaboration with Brian Eno, a famous experimental musician who has worked with the Talking Heads and David Bowie. Chris Martin also nabbed Rihanna for a duet on Coldplay’s successful 2011 single, “Princess of China.”
Now, for its newest album coming out Friday, Coldplay is joining forces with even more pop-culture powerhouses. The collection, “A Head Full of Dreams,” features vocals by Beyonce, Tove Lo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Noel Gallagher and even a sample of President Barack Obama singing “Amazing Grace.”
Listening to song previews on the band’s official website, the album is poised to be classic Coldplay, with music sonically as spacey, reverb-heavy and expansive as from previous albums, but with added edge thanks to more up-tempo tracks and hard-hitting beats.
The album release is bittersweet, however, since it might well be the band’s last. Martin mentioned in a BBC Radio interview that this seventh album is like the last “Harry Potter” book, the completion of an era. Listening to the new single “Everglow” and its nostalgic aura, the song does start to sound like a farewell, a pathos-tinged eulogy.
However, with other songs like “Adventure Of A Lifetime” and “Hymn For The Weekend” filled with uplifting lyrics, major chords and fun riffs, I’m convinced this album can sway even the Coldplay naysayers to change their tune before the curtain possibly closes for good on the Grammy-winning band.
As the band itself sang, viva la vida and long live Coldplay.
Thank you for tuning in each week with me to revisit the legacies of some of the biggest players in ’90s music. Although this is the final installation of “The Roaring ’90s,” it’s clear that the talent and creativity of each of the artists chronicled throughout these past 10 weeks will continue to evolve and inspire.
– Emily McCormick
What do you think of Coldplay’s new song “Adventure of a Lifetime”? Email McCormick at mccormick@media.ucla.edu.