Coldplay's global impact: 2000-2009 vs. 2010-

[gai]

now that half of the second decade of coldplay's official recording career is done, let's talk about the averall impact coldplay has had during these times. for me, it feels like the first decade had more global influence/impact with era defining gems that would probably last far beyond coldplay's recording career:

 

parachutes - yellow

a rush of blood - the scientist, clocks

x&y - arguably fix you

viva - viva (there are so many more from this era that should be included... but not in terms of global impact)

 

but i can't think of any song from the second decade that i would include in this group. some may argue for paradise, but that doesn't do for me. the only other song that showed some potential from the GS era is midnight.

 

so for me, coldplay has some catching up to do to keep up with their previous record (which i don't think is high up on coldplay's list of priorities. but it is fun to talk about!). but being well-established artists with their "coldplay sound" well recognized, it becomes much more difficult to be impact-full as when you were fresh, novel. so i'm hoping for a left turn in their recording career soon. we can argue that won't happen with lp7, based on what we've heard of it so far. but as most of you, i'm hoping for a strange turn with lp8, no matter how crazy it would (could) be.

 

having said all this though, the longevity coldplay has had so far is just amazing! specially when you consider how popular they still are.

 

p.s. as are most of the posts these days, this too ended up being somewhat about lp7 and what is to come next.. my apologies.

[Jonny and the cake]

i think asfos had a great global impact

[Dexynboy]

Viva - Viva

MX - ETIAW

GS - ASFOS

 

ohh these song are brothers and sisters!!! :D

[jeremyy]

to be honest,

 

MX- Paradise (I don't like that song... but everyone including my 12 years old sister and her friends can singalong that song-btw they were just 9 at that time-)

GS- A sky full of stars or magic (they are not big hits if you compare them to yellow or viva la vida, but most of the people who unaware of coldplay can sing chorus at least. )

[gai]

yeah, they were hits. but i doubt they will be remembered in 10 years' time. but the earliest songs have already endured.

[Jonny and the cake]

yeah, they were hits. but i doubt they will be remembered in 10 years' time. but the earliest songs have already endured.

 

don't worry, they will, they are just too "fresh" to us to notice it but if you play paradise to someone who doesnt know coldplay they will recognise it even if it was released almost 4 years ago, for us 4 years may seem a short time (it was an era ago!) but that's almost half decade

[gai]

don't worry, they will, they are just too "fresh" to us to notice it but if you play paradise to someone who doesnt know coldplay they will recognise it even if it was released almost 4 years ago, for us 4 years may seem a short time (it was an era ago!) but that's almost half decade

 

maybe you are right. sure do hope so.

[lennyrott1]

This is an interesting conversation to have and I wonder if they can stay AS relevant in the future. Looking at the band-scape of the 2000's, I don't think that anyone can argue Coldplay wasn't the biggest. They were the most successful commercially, critically, and on the radio compared to most other groups in pop music. Now, Radiohead might rival that argument, but I wouldn't consider them entirely pop music, nor were they as commercially successful (much of this has to do with Coldplay's label and more accessible nature, however, but that is another discussion entirely.)

 

I don't think they have had as big of an impact thus far, but of course there is still time. Paradise and ASFOS have been big, but as far as the rest of pop music and radio of this decade, they don't stand out as strongly as Viva, Clocks, Yellow, etc. I think this has to do with the shift of their last two records to more pop oriented singles. I personally believe that songs like Magic and ETIAW are incredibly underrated singles that had the potential to stand out as "different" modern pop songs, but that didn't really happen. MX and GS were also overall received more poorly than Viva (which I think was the height of their career).

 

Music has really changed over Coldplay's career, and it feels like big bands on the radio are hard to come by anymore, so it is hard to answer your question. Imagine Dragons, Bastille, and Maroon 5 come to mind, but in my opinion each hardly sound like bands anymore and make generic tunes that are hardly revolutionary by pop standards. Most successful artists nowadays are singer/song writers, pop divas, or electronic dance gurus, so Coldplay would have to really do something really big to reclaim their former glory. I don't know what that could be though.

[Jonny and the cake]

Maybe if the used Midnight as main single and not ASFOF... but then it wouldnt have been as much popular as ASFOS and would have failed as a single

[Captain Crieff]

Paradise and ASFOS certainly have a global impact and they will be remembered in ten years' time... but just as hits. I don't see them ending up in those "best songs of all time" lists that radio stations do. Clocks and Viva were big hits and they are in those lists.

 

I think Midnight is 'timeless' and deserves to be in those lists but of course if Coldplay don't release it as (main) single it will never happen. So yeah what has changed is that their singles are more mainstream and poppy

 

But as cakey said Midnight wouldn't work as a single (except that maybe those stupid idiots who think Coldplay only write shitty pop songs these days would finally find out that isn't true)

Midnight is also less catchy than Clocks of course, hmmm...

[gai]

from time to time, there are more left-field songs making it in mainstream. but i also think midnight wouldn't work as a single just because of how ambient the song is. i've heard that the scientist was sped up by certain pop radio stations when that came out and was popular. so midnight would have a hard time finding a place in such stations.

 

anyway, on being relevant, one measure would be the amount of sales of the albums. x&y and viva were both the best selling album of their respective years. i think mx was in the top 10. and GS is the 4th best selling album this year. this is without major touring or as much promo as in the previous releases. that argues for their current relevance. but another metric could be the awards. and i think coldplay haven't won any awards for songwriting since viva. they have won for touring, live. but not for songwriting. this is somewhat indicates what the industry types think of their recent work. but again, this is just one aspect of it.

[Jonny and the cake]

from time to time, there are more left-field songs making it in mainstream. but i also think midnight wouldn't work as a single just because of how ambient the song is. i've heard that the scientist was sped up by certain pop radio stations when that came out and was popular. so midnight would have a hard time finding a place in such stations.

 

anyway, on being relevant, one measure would be the amount of sales of the albums. x&y and viva were both the best selling album of their respective years. i think mx was in the top 10. and GS is the 4th best selling album this year. this is without major touring or as much promo as in the previous releases. that argues for their current relevance. but another metric could be the awards. and i think coldplay haven't won any awards for songwriting since viva. they have won for touring, live. but not for songwriting. this is somewhat indicates what the industry types think of their recent work. but again, this is just one aspect of it.

 

they ended 2014 without winning an award, that's a new personal record for them ahahah

[MidnightSpies]

Paradise and ASFOS certainly have a global impact and they will be remembered in ten years' time... but just as hits. I don't see them ending up in those "best songs of all time" lists that radio stations do. Clocks and Viva were big hits and they are in those lists.

 

I think Midnight is 'timeless' and deserves to be in those lists but of course if Coldplay don't release it as (main) single it will never happen. So yeah what has changed is that their singles are more mainstream and poppy

 

But as cakey said Midnight wouldn't work as a single (except that maybe those stupid idiots who think Coldplay only write shitty pop songs these days would finally find out that isn't true)

Midnight is also less catchy than Clocks of course, hmmm...

 

well.. I have been listening to the Dutch Top2000 on radio 2 this last couple of days (3.8 million people voted). 19 places for Coldplay in the list, Paradise, Magic and even Sky (nr. 667!) are in there (ETIAW too..) but I do think Sky will leave in a few years. Paradise will (from 71 last year to 221) drop further down the list I think.

 

Intersting is that Fix you is now their highest track (15). I didn't even vote for it lol. Before it was always Clocks or Viva in the top 20 and even top 10. And then the Scientist/fix you. Also interesting is Atlas. It went from 763 to 701. Hasn't been forgotten :)

But Politik just won't enter our top 2000, which is a real shame :(

 

As for Midnight. Not sure, at first it doesnt sound like an ideal single type of song.. but I suppose everybody knows Teardrop from Massive attack?

Midnight is an interesting and unique song for the feels, and it surprised many people. It reached many people/radio stations. So I guess it could work as a single.

 

But yes they need more real classics. Many people even forget about the old good stuff like Politik/trouble, they're general opinion about Coldplay is influenced by songs like sky/paradise/poc. This seems to be happening now more than before.

[lennyrott1]

:laugh3: Fixing double post

[lennyrott1]

Midnight is my favourite track on GS, but being an American, I know it wouldn't have made the radiowaves ever. Even Magic, my other favourite track didn't make it on mainstream stations in my city for more than a month, which is really surprising. People only want to hear those pop bangers or pretty songs that are fast paced: Stay With Me, All Of Me etc. ASFOS is now consistently on repeat, but only as remixes on dance stations along with a lot of other similar sounding tracks, so I just don't see it being very impactful by the end of the decade unfortunately, but I could be wrong since I just am not a huge fan of it.

 

What would a Coldplay song sound like in 2015 that would have immense staying power? I still hear Clocks, Viva, Yellow, Talk on a variety of stations. I am wondering how they could make an artful, serious song like those that will top the charts in an EDM dominated scape...

[MidnightSpies]

What would a Coldplay song sound like in 2015 that would have immense staying power? I still hear Clocks, Viva, Yellow, Talk on a variety of stations. I am wondering how they could make an artful, serious song like those that will top the charts in an EDM dominated scape...

 

I think we know.. It has to be a pure/raw song. Guitar/piano/real drums. That's when the band is at it's best. Drop the decoration. And they should not think about how to fit in that popular sound scape. They should step out of that box.

[lennyrott1]

I agree with the rawness. It absolutely needs to step outside the box and be "unique" to pop music. Of course, it will still follow a pop formula as all their hits do, but it has to be different. Honestly ASFOS was their first track that just isn't different imo, so that is why in 2020 when they look back at the decade in best singles, it won't fall on the list. It has to push some musical boundaries... Explosive and beautiful like only Coldplay can do.

[Cobalt]

but another metric could be the awards. and i think coldplay haven't won any awards for songwriting since viva. they have won for touring, live. but not for songwriting. this is somewhat indicates what the industry types think of their recent work. but again, this is just one aspect of it.

 

Interesting

 

I think they could manage something with elements of EDM to be a classic but it depends on the quality of the songwriting, which I don't think has been anything amazing so far. Maybe they tried that with MX and it kinda went everywhere, idk

[Blue Nails]

I wish Moving to Mars had been on MX. Could have gone places.