No they're definitly no pop band, their music is just popular but that does not mean they are a pop band. I do not see them as mainstream, they are no Britney or Justin. You need some time to get along with the songs, they are not going into your ear directly. They make music with heart and soul and that's not mainstream for me.

You need some time to get along with the songs, they are not going into your ear directly.

 

Viva la Vida is really catchy :p

Viva la Vida is really catchy :p

 

 

OK VLV but that's really an exception, I did not like Coldplay for years until I started listening closer to the songs...

 

If you asked me about Coldplay 3 years ago I would really say "how boring" and now I'm addicted to them...

I LIKE this very much!!well said!

 

I like they are openmined for all kinds of music. So they're not rock OR pop band. They are rock AND pop AND MUCH MORE:D and they are making such INCREDIBLE MUSIC :heart::heart::heart:

 

Aha! So YOU must be the "other" fan from Croatia I heard about!!:D

A nice way to put it Mark, but there are thousands of pop and rock acts that are unique, that wasn't the question I posed. That's a bit like saying that cornflakes are 'special' when asked whether or not it's a breakfast cereal.

 

 

Well "unparalleled" and "second-to-none" would be other appropriate "labels" if you prefer.:smug:

Or you could just stick with uniquely brilliant.:D

^ I absolutely agree with all that, but this thread's not about any of those things. It's about whether they are now pop or not.

^ I absolutely agree with all that, but this thread's not about any of those things. It's about whether they are now pop or not.

 

Well as pop generally = crap, it's clearly a rhetorical question, as they obviously aren't.;)

I prefer to refer to the music that the likes of Coldplay, Travis and Keane produce as "soulful rock", as that's exactly what it is - rock with plenty of soul.:D

It depends on what you classify as "pop" They're certainly "popular" but not "bubblegum"...you know what I mean?. And I agree with Spark22: they're not pop in the same sense as Britney and Justin, etc. Viva does have some elements in their songs that aren't rock but as a band, I wouldn't classify them as pop.....would alternative rock be a good word to describe them? lol

 

Regardless, they still rock my socks :P

Pop is not generally crap... that's a very lazy statement. Just because you don't like a style of music, doesn't make it crap.

 

I don't care for R & B, but I wouldn't brand it all crap... just not to my particular taste

If we're talking Pop in terms of how popular the band is now, in terms of album sales and the number of fans and the like, then yes, Coldplay have become progressively more popular with each album release.

 

But if we're talking strictly in terms of the genre of music they produce which I think was more what the question was implying, then I don't think it's nearly as straight forward. Firstly, when we think about "pop music", what kind of traits do we notice while listening to it? For me, its mostly the song structure and catchiness that define whether a song can be considered pop or not. Pop songs are usually the easiest out of all genres of music to learn and memorise, which is why i think, they are so successful on the radio and most music TV channels. They don't really require much attention to really enjoy them, and the melodies and / or lyrics usually get stuck in your head after one or 2 listens, whether you like it or not.

 

Taking that into consideration, I think that coldplay have always had some elements of "pop" in their music. But I find that they execute that quite differently to a lot of the radio friendly pop groups around these days - its generally more subtle, and I like that. People generally see Parachutes as being their least poppy record, which does make sense in some ways, but I still think most of the songs on there fit the pop genre quite well when taking into consideration the song structures, at least. Yellow got so much radioplay at the time it was released because it has a simple, catchy melody, with memorable lyrics, arguably more than the other songs from that album. And I think you'll find that if you look at which coldplay songs got the most radioplay, such as the scientist, clocks, speed of sound, Lost! and viva la vida, you'll see that they all have one or two very obvious "hooks", some more obvious than others - clocks is the most interesting one out of all of them, because there is barely even a chorus in that song.

 

But for clocks the hook has to be that ingenius, repeating piano riff - and personally for me, this is one Coldplay's least "poppy" singles, and its interesting that its also one of their most recognisable songs ever. I think that highlights the genius of coldplay - they really know how to blur the line between pop and alternative rock, while keeping the best elements of both genres in their music. I actually think they achieved this fusion of genres most successfully on AROBTTH, which its probably why I like it so much. With X&Y, I think they lost their charm a little, maybe, and for me that album feels a little less timeless because of it. In my opinion, I think the approach to that album was very different from the last two - while Parachutes and AROBTTH were primarily alternative rock albums with pop elements subtly infused into them, X&Y was probably made with more of a "big and catchy" mindset... something they do well, definitely, but I think they sacrificed some of their subtlety and I think thats really what makes their music special.

 

With VLVODAAHF, I definitely think they regained a lot of that charm and subtlety that I loved on AROBTTH, but in a slightly different way, I think. Nowadays, I think coldplay are very concious that they have very high standards to live up to, which is why they felt the need to be a bit more "big" sounding on X&Y. But on the new album, I think they have readjusted their sound so that its very much that nice blend of pop / alt rock that they produced during the AROBTTH era. And its interesting because I wouldn't call it AROBTTH part 2 either - there's a lot more going on here, more exploration here and there, more dynamics, I think - but only just. In terms of how poppy it is though, I wouldn't say any more than their last albums, apart from Viva La Vida and Lost!, and perhaps LIJ, I'd say they are very much where they were 6 years ago, only now with expanded horizons. If anything, I think the new album is less poppy than X&Y, maybe even AROBTTH, but its hard to say.

 

But I think the key difference between AROBTTH and VLVOD is something a lot more intangible. As much as they've tried to make their music more subtle and less straight forward again after X&Y, well, I think that's just it - with this one, they were conciously trying to be more expansive, or however you would like to put it. Not that they were trying too hard, per se, but I think they were definitely more relaxed on AROBTTH - it seems to me that they weren't thinking too much about how this and that song should specifically sound, it was just more, I don't know... natural. So I think this might be why I and a lot of people don't think that VLVOD is quite as good as AROBTTH is, just because its slightly lacking a very subtle ingredient - Coldplay doing what they do best.

 

Just to say that I love all their albums regardless :D. And sorry for such a long and drawn out post - bad habits die hard :rolleyes:

 

[/needs a blog]

Pop is not generally crap... that's a very lazy statement. Just because you don't like a style of music, doesn't make it crap.

 

I don't care for R & B, but I wouldn't brand it all crap... just not to my particular taste

 

Quite agree. The Beatles defined pop music, and this is actually what I was trying to drive at with this thread - that in my opinion Coldplay have become pop, but are actually redefining and reinventing the genre as we speak.

 

I have nothing against pop music, and would never write it all off as being rubbish. After all, if we did that we would never have enjoyed Gary singing Back For Good with the band last night. Gosh, we probably woudn't have had Lovers in Japan either!

I don't think Coldplay is pop, but there are some pop-influences tho..

That's not a bad thing at all, although you get that strange group of people to like Coldplay.

All the "cool" kids and stuff.

 

I love that CP has so many sorts of music. There is a song for almost every mood that you are in. Sad, happy, joyful, etc.

A great post Zemy with some fascinating points which i shall get back to, but I don't think 'pop' really means 'popular' anymore, it's become much more than that over the last fifty years.

I don't really know, and I am not really that bothered to be honest!

A great post Zemy with some fascinating points which i shall get back to, but I don't think 'pop' really means 'popular' anymore, it's become much more than that over the last fifty years.

 

Yes - in recent years it's generally come to mean garbage, which Coldplay aren't. Therefore it's case closed.:smug:

I'm not too bothered either bellynelly, it's just something interesting (for me at least) to talk about regarding the best band in the world (again, for me at least!)

I'm not too bothered either bellynelly, it's just something interesting (for me at least) to talk about regarding the best band in the world (again, for me at least!)

 

Indeed they are, which is all that matters at the end of the day!:D

^ I take that as your final comment then, and look forward to your continued absence from this thread from here on in.

^ I take that as your final comment then, and look forward to your continued absence from this thread from here on in.

 

Guess again!!:rolleyes:

Yes - in recent years it's generally come to mean garbage, which Coldplay aren't. Therefore it's case closed.:smug:

 

 

the good thing about music is that there are lots of different genres...and in each one of these we can find good and bad songs/musicians... just because you don't like a certain music genre, doesn't mean it's bad

 

 

 

oops, I just read this

 

Pop is not generally crap... that's a very lazy statement. Just because you don't like a style of music, doesn't make it crap.

 

:P

Guess again!!:rolleyes:

 

You're a fucking tool???

You're a fucking tool???

 

Language, language................................ :rolleyes:

Pop means mainstream music to me, and I still don't see them as a mainstream although they are so successful.

 

Of course they have pop-elements in their music, if they would always do it in the Parachutes-Style they would not have that much success.

Nevertheless I do not think Viva la vida or death and all his friends (sorry for writing it out but I love the title :D) is just a pop album. Viva la vida is very much pop but there are still 9 other tracks on the album:

 

Life in technicolor - not pop, not rock something in between, I don't know if it's just me but has it some irish music elements in there?

 

Cemeteries in London - again something in between , very much Coldplay - Style, a mix of several styles

 

Lost! - more Pop than Rock, I do not hear any Rap influences in there ( of course I'm not talking about Lost+)

 

42 - this song is very hard to classify, at first you might think it's pop but than it changes to rock, a bit of electronic and a mix of other styles, and that's the great thing about the song

 

Lovers in japan - pop, some electronic and again for me at least :D irish/english music elements in there, and of course it's very much U2

Reign of love - Pop in the unique CP-style, I also see the piano as a classical influence

 

Yes - similar to 42, a mix of a lot of styles: classical, oriental, rock and pop - elements in just one song

Chinese sleep chant - rock/pop song, except of the singing, that sounds very alternative to me

 

Viva la vida - as I said a pop song with some variations in the instruments, some classical elements

 

Violet hill - that's just rock for me, with typical CP balladic elements

 

Strawberry Swing - not pop, not rock - world music, country influences? I don't know...

 

Death and all his friends - I'm not able to classify this song, classic elements, rock elements, choir and of course a lot of Coldplay...you know what I mean

The escapist - a lot of electronic style in there

 

And now at the end I do not come to an conclusion :D, all I can say that it is a gorgeous album no matter if it's pop, rock or something else. It has won the Grammy for best Rock album so I don't think we have to care a lot about Coldplay seen just as a Pop band.

^Which is why "Alternative" is as good a description as any.;)

^Which is why "Alternative" is as good a description as any.;)

 

 

Of course we could just take this expression but to a lot of people "Alternative" means punk, metal, gothic and so on that's why I'm not using this expression for Coldplay, that would be an insult to their music :smug:

 

And to add another point X & Y was more pop than any other album of them, so this phase is over :-)