Great news: Coldplay has announced a North American tour. While I celebrate, my mind turns also to the music industry as a whole. In certain ways, the commercialization of beats and tunes has turned music-making into a competition - if you want to make money. Let's face it, most people do. (Oh capitalist! My capitalist! Spring forth, and let notes of divinity flow from the lips!). The evolution of record labels and the demanding (and in some ways limiting) contracts which come with them have changed artists' perspectives. Can one still make "good" music while staying competitive?
Let's look at Coldplay. The dashing British foursome have enjoyed a steadily rising audience since their first stab at glory, Parachutes, and have since then released a series of best-selling albums. Their reputation among critics is perhaps described most accurately by Pitchfork's Ian Cohen, who declares that they "explore the tension of wanting to be one of the best bands in the world and having to settle for being one of the biggest." In simpler terms, they are viewed by critics as being competitive but not artistic, best-selling but not best-sounding. (As you probably can tell by now, I'm not among this crowd). Here is my question: do these people criticize Coldplay's music simply because they are popular?
A friend of mine once listed out to me all that he found revolting about the band: cheesy lyrics, simple instrumentals, "overly mainstream songs." He argued that they were in fact, just another sold out pop act, releasing complete crap just to rake in money. To me, the first two are both undesirable qualities in an artist, but they do not necessarily go hand in hand with being mainstream. A band like Coldplay releases full albums, not endless lines of singles. They create themes for each album. They let their creativity dictate their writing, not their revenues. The best part is, they do all that while being immensely popular. They are forging a narrative which seems to be rare today: achieving massive "mainstream" success while maintaining artistic integrity. In this manner, they are indeed one of the best bands in the world.
A song off their latest album, performed live.
I also tend to get very angry when people say that they don't like Coldplay because they are popular. You can criticize their music (which I will disagree with, obviously), but not their success. Something to think about is: are people critical of them because Coldplay is popular and they, themselves, are not? Does jealously play a role?
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