. I mean, how can they discard their fanbases' opinions? Where would they be if they loose their fans? For such an eager to please band, that wouldn't make sense.

 

I cant speak for Coldplay or any other artist, but I can say that I personally would always first create something out of my own instincts and whatever truthfully comes through to me with artistic integrity and then you hope that what you produce and put out resonates with enough people and has value :) More you cant really do as an artist. That is of course if your motivation is to express yourself through art, if your motivation is to keep a bunch of people happy by producing what they want well thats another matter entirely :)

 

My view is that you always care about how your work is received and you hope for the best, but if you let the audience dictate what you should create you have basically invalidated yourself as an artist and have practically turned into a "normal" business man hehe

I cant speak for Coldplay or any other artist, but I can say that I personally would always first create something out of my own instincts and whatever truthfully comes through to me with artistic integrity and then you hope that what you produce and put out resonates with enough people and has value :) More you cant really do as an artist. That is of course if your motivation is to express yourself through art, if your motivation is to keep a bunch of people happy by producing what they want well thats another matter entirely :)

 

My view is that you always care about how your work is received and you hope for the best, but if you let the audience dictate what you should create you have basically invalidated yourself as an artist and have practically turned into a "normal" business man hehe

 

well said man!

I cant speak for Coldplay or any other artist, but I can say that I personally would always first create something out of my own instincts and whatever truthfully comes through to me with artistic integrity and then you hope that what you produce and put out resonates with enough people and has value :) More you cant really do as an artist. That is of course if your motivation is to express yourself through art, if your motivation is to keep a bunch of people happy by producing what they want well thats another matter entirely :)

 

My view is that you always care about how your work is received and you hope for the best, but if you let the audience dictate what you should create you have basically invalidated yourself as an artist and have practically turned into a "normal" business man hehe

 

While I agree with you (about musicians creating music, then putting it out there, and hoping people like it), I think the band, and Chris particularly have always cared more than most what other people think, and in general how they are perceived, both musically/ artistically, and as people. I'm sure this is not the only / primary consideration for them with making music, but I do think they feel the need to connect to people, and they make an effort to do so more than the average guitar band (or pretty much any other band).

 

I think they do set out like any other band in terms of creating music (i.e. doing what feels right / comes naturally/ inspires them), but there is always that extra thought/ care, and I think they do constantly ask themselves whether they have achieved the goal of making music that moves people... So while they are not necessarily primarily focused on being chart-toppers for its own sake, topping the charts would logically be a natural by-product of achieving this goal of connecting / resonating with the masses - the more people who are touched by the music, the more likely they are to buy it, and the more likely the band will top the charts. I suppose sometimes it is possible for them to lose sight of the reason they make music as a band in the first place and just focus on the numbers and topping charts instead, but I think the original thought behind that was to make as deep an impact / difference to as many people as possible... And in essence, they still haven't lost that. ;)

While I agree with you (about musicians creating music, then putting it out there, and hoping people like it), I think the band, and Chris particularly have always cared more than most what other people think, and in general how they are perceived, both musically/ artistically, and as people. I'm sure this is not the only / primary consideration for them with making music, but I do think they feel the need to connect to people, and they make an effort to do so more than the average guitar band (or pretty much any other band).

 

I think they do set out like any other band in terms of creating music (i.e. doing what feels right / comes naturally/ inspires them), but there is always that extra thought/ care, and I think they do constantly ask themselves whether they have achieved the goal of making music that moves people... So while they are not necessarily primarily focused on being chart-toppers for its own sake, topping the charts would logically be a natural by-product of achieving this goal of connecting / resonating with the masses - the more people who are touched by the music, the more likely they are to buy it, and the more likely the band will top the charts. I suppose sometimes it is possible for them to lose sight of the reason they make music as a band in the first place and just focus on the numbers and topping charts instead, but I think the original thought behind that was to make as deep an impact / difference to as many people as possible... And in essence, they still haven't lost that. ;)

 

I follow your line of thought here and I agree about them wanting to connect with people through their music.

Though I think that it primarily means for them to be able to write music that translates well live: that is where I think Coldplay have that connection they so enjoy. So in that case I agree that it means a lot to them and they choose their songs accordingly (at least when the album is meant to be toured like AHFOD).

 

I'll say they used to care a whole lot of more about how their album was received and they used to worry sick too hehe. They also used to care about staying inside their original musical genre. That's why X&Y turned out to be so formulaic (using typical Coldplay tricks) and that's also why even after viva they tried to still retain some songs in their old style (like the acoustic one on MX). After MX though I think now all bets are off, they are not thinking about whether they please everyone any longer.

 

So in short I think they used to worry about pleasing and not anymore and they still care about connecting through live shows. It's what I garner from the interviews anyway :)

if they don't care about chart position they wouldn't have made paradise and princes of china and sky full of stars and now hymn for the weekend

because I think their old sound

won't top charts nowadays .

or they just got bored with making similar sounding songs and thought this was an avenue that they could explore? granted, coldplay are not the most musically gifted band there is (in order to venture into totally new territory). and they sure don't make better pop music than alt rock.