From Adele to Coldplay, ‘Hello’ to bland British pop

 

 

Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

Music from the UK aims for maximum palatability, writes Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

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The UK trade deficit is the hole that can never be filled, but one sector of the nation’s export economy is doing its best. A world that long ago stopped dressing in Lancashire textiles and eating with Sheffield cutlery cannot stop singing along to Adele’s “Hello”.

 

The song is from the artist’s new album 25, which sold 4.5m copies in its first two weeks in the US and has topped iTunes charts in 110 countries. She leads a generation of Britons who are exporting music to all corners of the globe. UK acts were responsible for one in seven of all album sales last year and half of the top 10 best-sellers. When it comes to pop, the nation truly punches above its weight.

 

As a patriot, I salute the success of my warbling compatriots. But as a music fan, I confess to being left cold. Or rather, tepid. For British pop is not only phenomenally successful — it is also dispiritingly bland.

 

A risk-free approach predominates, with every edge smoothed off. “In this world so cruel/I think you’re so cool,” Chris Martin flutes on Coldplay’s new album, customarily eager to please. Songs by Sam Smith or Adele plod along at a careful mid-tempo. One Direction’s tunes fizz with the precise calibration of a product by their sponsor, Pepsi. Ed Sheeran, the most-streamed artist ever on Spotify, is probably the riskiest of the bunch, but that is a bit like saying hamsters bite.

 

The comparison is not only with more colourful epochs, such as the original British Invasion of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, or the 1980s glory days of Duran Duran and Culture Club. The blandness also contrasts with today’s North American stars. Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber inspire many adjectives. “Dull” isn’t one of them.

 

An ingenious nationalist might argue that boring UK musicians tap into Britannia’s celebrated but unexciting virtues of calmness and phlegm. That cannot be right, though, not when you consider Adele’s emotive singing style or Coldplay’s touchy-feeliness.

 

The reason lies elsewhere. Actually, to be precise, it lies everywhere. British pop has tailored itself for global consumption. It aims for maximum palatability, a melodic but unexciting style that translates across multiple territories. The old US vaudeville phrase “Will it play in Peoria?” has become “Will it sell in Singapore?”

 

Ed Sheeran, the most-streamed artist ever on Spotify, is probably the riskiest, but that is a bit like saying hamsters bite.

There is an economic rationale for making easily digestible songs. The UK music market is the fourth largest in the world. At a time of shrinking sales, however, it pays to look abroad. Too much local flavour tends to diminish exportability, hence the existence of Mumford & Sons, named as though they were a firm of Wigan butchers but whose music is pure mid-Atlantic pabulum.

 

Like UK car manufacturing, much of this export success is driven by non-British-owned companies. Adele is an exception, signed to the London-based independent XL Recordings, but her peers are almost all on the rosters of foreign-owned major record labels, such as the aptly named Universal Records.

 

There was a time when the British had a major label, EMI. But that was brought to its knees after a fateful acquisition by the private equity firm Terra Firma, leading to the company being split up and sold to overseas rivals in 2012.

 

Oddly, the demise of the label that brought us The Beatles and Pink Floyd passed without the outcry that took place two years earlier when the confectionery firm Cadbury was sold to the US multinational Kraft Foods.

 

That is not to say that the country lacks patriotic pride in its success at pop. The opposite is true — but there is no matching pride in the companies that built it. We reap what is sown: an agreeable but unadventurous style of music, performed by nice but unchallenging individuals, the very sound of a successful service economy.

 

the FT

A risk-free approach predominates, with every edge smoothed off. “In this world so cruel/I think you’re so cool,” Chris Martin flutes on Coldplay’s new album, customarily eager to please.

eager to please, they always have been. but what a way to diminish the beauty of probably the best song we've gotten from coldplay in 7 years.

There is much to be said about the state of music nowadays, a lot of it undoubtedly influenced by the ever-growing power of multinationals who like own all the labels now (and a lot of movie studios as well). If you release art mainly as profit, its bound to affect the output you get and to the negative. :/

 

That said, I think it was unfair to throw Coldplay in the bunch. They never write music to please anyone but themselves. And yes Adele, Sam all make agreeable music, but maybe that is what people want to hear. Sometimes you find solace in some agreeable calm non-controversial music when the world is in tumult as it is now probably more than ever since 2nd world war :/

They never write music to please anyone but themselves.

Surely, you can't be serious??

Surely, you can't be serious??

 

Nothing I´ve seen or heard from their interviews and albums that have made me believe otherwise. Anyone who brands Coldplay as sellouts have in my opinion completely misunderstood the band.

 

However I can see why people would think they are sellouts as they have delved more and more into popular music, which they clearly like and wanted to explore for a while but were hesitant to do so. Maybe it´s easier to believe that they are sellouts than they actually also enjoy the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna and that style of music ? hehe :) But I absolutely believe its the latter case yes. They are versatile and not everyone understands or embraces that.

I want to add that I believe a big motivation behind the style of music they choose to release now is the live shows though...I think they enjoy seeing people jump up and down and spread a happy vibe hehe

Good article, there's little difference between Adele, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay these days, all quite bland and manufactured for the mainstream and aimed at the mass audience. A sad state of affairs for the music industry and sad that Coldplay have decided to go in this direction.

Nothing I´ve seen or heard from their interviews and albums that have made me believe otherwise. Anyone who brands Coldplay as sellouts have in my opinion completely misunderstood the band.

Hardly, let's be brutally honest here and not look through the Coldplayer lens.

1. They write music to keep their label happy
   
2. They write music to keep radio stations happy
   
3. They (now) write MOR music to keep the masses happy
   
4. They write music they think their 1% hollywood friends will like
   
5. They write music they think their kids will like (at the age they are now anyway)
   
6. They (used to) write music they thought critics would like.
   

It seems the only people they are not writing for are the fans who enjoyed their alt-rock sound and made them who they are today. To say they are only writing music for themselves is incredibly naive.

Hardly, let's be brutally honest here and not look through the Coldplayer lens.

It seems the only people they are not writing for are the fans who enjoyed their alt-rock sound and made them who they are today. To say they are only writing music for themselves is incredibly naive.

 

Dont we all look at the world through our own lens? No one excluded :) But no I am not the kind of fan who blindly supports whatever a band does, hardly. It just so happens Coldplay have done really nothing "wrong" in my eyes so far.

 

To say that all old Coldplay fans only enjoyed their early alt-rock sound is also quite a presumption :) Ultimately you dont know Coldplay the people, I dont know them either. We can only draw conclusions from what we feel/see. You seem clearly quite upset and disappointed they dont play the music you like and I get that. But I stand by what I said: I believe they keep playing and releasing what they want and the only person they need to desperately please or they won't release a thing is ultimately Will *LOOL*

Hardly, let's be brutally honest here and not look through the Coldplayer lens.

1. They write music to keep their label happy
   
2. They write music to keep radio stations happy
   
3. They (now) write MOR music to keep the masses happy
   
4. They write music they think their 1% hollywood friends will like
   
5. They write music they think their kids will like (at the age they are now anyway)
   
6. They (used to) write music they thought critics would like.
   

It seems the only people they are not writing for are the fans who enjoyed their alt-rock sound and made them who they are today. To say they are only writing music for themselves is incredibly naive.

 

I agree with this comment

Hardly, let's be brutally honest here and not look through the Coldplayer lens.

1. They write music to keep their label happy
   
2. They write music to keep radio stations happy
   
3. They (now) write MOR music to keep the masses happy
   
4. They write music they think their 1% hollywood friends will like
   
5. They write music they think their kids will like (at the age they are now anyway)
   
6. They (used to) write music they thought critics would like.
   

It seems the only people they are not writing for are the fans who enjoyed their alt-rock sound and made them who they are today. To say they are only writing music for themselves is incredibly naive.

Agreed.