What happened to Coldplay?

[nvdmm]

https://youtu.be/kL1j9igQSlE

I watched this today on the band's Reddit and thought to share it here. I think the guy perfectly sums up my own thought and feelings regarding how the band have evolved over the past 20 years and how the fans have reacted to those changes. His most resonating point was the lack or loss of a consistent fan base who follow the band, which would ultimately result in people not even noticing their greatest album since VLVODAAHF (Everyday Life) because the vast majority of their original following have moved on, and their new fans prefer their pop Disney sound. I think right now they're at a crossroads. They realize they can't reacquire the respect they once had but at the same time they can't get any bigger or more bombastic either. So where do they go from here? I would love to read your thoughts. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by nvdmm

[coldplaykb]

I agree with what he says but he brought out some frustration in me. People complained about Coldplay sounding the same, so they changed it up and then people complained that they didn't retain that original sound. Well what did you expect when you criticised them in the first place?!

It's frustrating because I do love classic Coldplay but I love their newer stuff as well. X&Y was their best selling album (and one of my favorites) so you would have thought they would have listened to the numbers and not the critics. Speaking of music critics, they are as pointless as a glass hammer. That NY Times headline is just ridiculous and you can tell it really had an effect on the band. In a way I am glad it happened because it gave us Viva La Vida (their best album imo) but I also hate it because it did start a course of change. I just hate that people called them boring/uninteresting and then when they changed it up, people called them sellouts. You complained about their original sound and you are now surprised they changed it?

At this point, Coldplay are past their prime/peak but I don't see that as a problem. They have hit all the milestones, won a bunch of awards, and have millions of fans around the world. I think now they just want to make the music they want and are not so concerned with pleasing everyone, which is great. I will always enjoy everything they do and don't get me wrong, I do miss some of that old Coldplay sound, but my music taste has evolved and grown because of them. I think Coldplay are one of the bands that do Pop the best. It's a shame a lot of people just write them off as boring/pop sellouts but at this point in their career, it really doesn't matter.

[The Jordanator]

I found that video to be accurate until it got to MX onwards. He pretty much trashes all the newer albums and then goes on to say “Coldplay have done nothing wrong”. Smh 

But this shouldn’t be surprising because the creator of that video is a massive Radiohead fan so it explains it all really. 

To me, the true fans of Coldplay are the ones that grow and evolve with them. I know longtime fans of Coldplay who’ve been with them right from the start of their career and absolutely love their new pop based singles. For example, these same ones who loved alt rock songs like Yellow, GPASUYF and Talk now prefer songs like Orphans and SJLT.  If Coldplay didn’t adapt a more poppier sound (or hasn’t explored more genres like in EL), they would become very boring in this day and age of music today. They would not be the biggest band in the world. Simple as that. 

[nvdmm]

 

On 12/7/2020 at 4:48 PM, coldplaykb said:

I agree with what he says but he brought out some frustration in me. People complained about Coldplay sounding the same, so they changed it up and then people complained that they didn't retain that original sound. Well what did you expect when you criticised them in the first place?!

It's frustrating because I do love classic Coldplay but I love their newer stuff as well. X&Y was their best selling album (and one of my favorites) so you would have thought they would have listened to the numbers and not the critics. Speaking of music critics, they are as pointless as a glass hammer. That NY Times headline is just ridiculous and you can tell it really had an effect on the band. In a way I am glad it happened because it gave us Viva La Vida (their best album imo) but I also hate it because it did start a course of change. I just hate that people called them boring/uninteresting and then when they changed it up, people called them sellouts. You complained about their original sound and you are now surprised they changed it?

At this point, Coldplay are past their prime/peak but I don't see that as a problem. They have hit all the milestones, won a bunch of awards, and have millions of fans around the world. I think now they just want to make the music they want and are not so concerned with pleasing everyone, which is great. I will always enjoy everything they do and don't get me wrong, I do miss some of that old Coldplay sound, but my music taste has evolved and grown because of them. I think Coldplay are one of the bands that do Pop the best. It's a shame a lot of people just write them off as boring/pop sellouts but at this point in their career, it really doesn't matter.

 

On 12/7/2020 at 10:26 PM, The Jordanator said:

I found that video to be accurate until it got to MX onwards. He pretty much trashes all the newer albums and then goes on to say “Coldplay have done nothing wrong”. Smh 

But this shouldn’t be surprising because the creator of that video is a massive Radiohead fan so it explains it all really. 

To me, the true fans of Coldplay are the ones that grow and evolve with them. I know longtime fans of Coldplay who’ve been with them right from the start of their career and absolutely love their new pop based singles. For example, these same ones who loved alt rock songs like Yellow, GPASUYF and Talk now prefer songs like Orphans and SJLT.  If Coldplay didn’t adapt a more poppier sound (or hasn’t explored more genres like in EL), they would become very boring in this day and age of music today. They would not be the biggest band in the world. Simple as that. 

I think you're both spot on. I think the gripe that perhaps some of the long time fans myself included had VLV onward wasn't the motion of change, but rather how they chose to evolve. EL was a testament to what they should have done to get it right. They could have explored all they wanted while retaining that signature Coldplay alt-rock sound, something that U2 for example has had a lot more success with.  

Edited December 9, 2020 by nvdmm

[merril]

20 hours ago, nvdmm said:

. I think the gripe that perhaps some of the long time fans myself included had VLV onward wasn't the motion of change, but rather how they chose to evolve. EL was a testament to what they should have done to get it right. They could have explored all they wanted while retaining that signature Coldplay alt-rock sound

You are right. EL is an album which shows their potential for creating new sounds and the great variety of styles they are capable of producing. But it is sort of unfinished, just a juxtaposition of great songs losely connected by the idea of 'sunrise' and 'sunset'. In several interviews Chris said that he was astonished the others let it all pass. They seem to have accepted all the new songs without discussing them fervently as was the case in former albums. I love EL very much and listen to the songs on repeat. even those which I didn't like so much when first hearing them grow on me. It makes me so sad that the album has virtually gone unnoticed, and when the band or Chris are asked to play on some occasions now it is mainly their old hits they are playing, Why did they not promote that great album better? Are they becoming weary of making music? Are their interests diverging? Guy at least is so preoccupied with new projects that I can't imagine he is keen on making music. And what are Will and Jonny doing? And Chris? Is he tired, too? They are in their early forties, they are not old, and yet the peak of their enthusiasm seems to have gone. I don't think they will produce anything like LP9 in the near future. Al this makes me sad, but perhaps they are just happy leading an uneventful life.

[Nikolette]

Would actually like to add thoughts about the overall consistent fanbase concept, as all great points about "Everyday Life" and band's evolution were made, everything will be just HUGE imho here, anyone could agree or disagree, these are not scientifically proven facts.

Fanbase as a general concept has shifted from its initial form for past, like, 5 years (when I actually could assume anything since 2010) for sure, and one of the factors is how people started consuming and interacting with the information: past several years from my own close experience are highlighted with just passive consuming of the content where people CAN and indeed notice something but scroll past and among these people could be true fans as much as some random people seeing information, you see that in the statistics, you can witness a mind-blowing number there of people seeing particular information or just scrolling past and you will see 0.5% of an actual interaction (comparing to that mind-blowing statistics, of course) where people would talk about certain album/event/etc themselves and involve another in this talk so something would really honestly boost to being trended. I do not take mainstream bands or super-popular musicians, I see that among Coldplay, among many other bands that are in alternative kind of vein. The social media changed up their rules and politics and many platforms are just nowhere near (well, and the rest that are and are still alive lost in their popularity, well, basically people left these platforms themselves even though they still function, people just come back, see interaction by one-two persons who stayed and leave, then this is repeated in circles so that no one stays among those who returned to see "whassup") to providing any fandoms a place with many different useful tools for creating some informative and nice to interact page because of that change of perception of the information. Long-term fans exist and not in a small amount, but where do they gather so that there should be the feeling of consistent fanbase that knows about "Everyday Life" with bearing in mind that mostly the aspect of people being aware of something lies within seeing people on social media talking about that in public, so to say? I know quite some people that became disappointed in that internet platforms shift with fandom as a concept massive shift and they didn't move on from the band, they moved on from platforms to preferring sharing thought and stuff in their messengers or some close-circle-can-see type of platforms, and I think that's not a case of just few people, it's a case for many. Yes, there are people who are disappointed and moved on, there are also those who saw something new and tried to give a band another chance, but it's not overall just a flat perspective about fans-not fans and visibility, there are way too many aspects. New fans during AHFOD era you could still see talking back in that era talking on socials, that's why you could conclude about pop sound preference, and there were quite a lot of them starting following the band and talking about music and now how? You can see some fans that came for AHFOD album and stayed still dedicated and appreciating the latest one in full, and exploring more and appreciating that as well. The rest of the not already so new and probably new as well fans are just in numbers: in statistics of view under the posts/uploads etc. 

There are still fans who interact on several different platforms, and you know that even people joking about fans promoting Kaleidoscope EP was just the bitter truth, that EP showed the songs where the band did something completely different and interesting and that was just completely drowned promotion-wise by the band/band's team, promotion can't live on dedicated fans and their absolutely heroic newspages who actually did a massive job with making an overall awareness for everyone. Was it enough though? For randomly lurking people and vast majority that doesn't categorize themselves as fans/stans/etc, musical critiques and etc people that certainly wasn't enough. Also with recent mindsets, shifts and etc it seems like people just prefer following musicians only and if their team on social media talks like once or twice about the release, there's a low chance for people going further / being actually interested in than just scrolling past or getting that post being lost and not seeing because some social media are horrible with displaying posts accurately and in chronological order. Also these songs weren't even performed properly, performing once doesn't mean introducing public to something new. So that was heartbreaking to see such songs as "All I Can Think About Is You", "A L I E N S" and "Hypnotised" being so doomed to such no real exposure destiny. Yes, performing big hits is good and stuff but not making that a major priority and dooming something new and actually more out of their own comfort zone? And overall what to be afraid of? Of just audience changing to another people with another preferences rather than some recent poppy hits? Maybe instead filling up the setlist more with really great and not sounding like the other recent songs, your huge/big/big-that-everyone-curses-you hits won't fly away from you and performing like 4 on the big setlist would be cool as well as performing like 1-2 big hits in a livestream and the rest filling up with something new from "Everyday Life", otherwise it leaves many non-fans people thinking that they didn't get anywhere far from mentioned hits and overall questioning about the album's existence, as we witnessed? I admire the way that "Everyday Life" got promoted aesthetically, it was one of the most if not the most touching and beautiful promotion but the highlight is that it was indeed an intimate small promotion for the fans only. So, kind of, no reasons to be surprised of vast majority of people not knowing about the release while tour was the tiniest, the exposure wasn't even as big as for "Ghost Stories" which had the absolutely kind of more-intimate-not-stadium flavour. 

So, as they say, these are things that I don't understand. There's too much to unfold from different aspects, too many questions, and I actually don't quite see which path they're going with giving their own works any broader audience exposure.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Nikolette

[nvdmm]

On 12/10/2020 at 12:28 AM, merril said:

You are right. EL is an album which shows their potential for creating new sounds and the great variety of styles they are capable of producing. But it is sort of unfinished, just a juxtaposition of great songs losely connected by the idea of 'sunrise' and 'sunset'. In several interviews Chris said that he was astonished the others let it all pass. They seem to have accepted all the new songs without discussing them fervently as was the case in former albums. I love EL very much and listen to the songs on repeat. even those which I didn't like so much when first hearing them grow on me. It makes me so sad that the album has virtually gone unnoticed, and when the band or Chris are asked to play on some occasions now it is mainly their old hits they are playing, Why did they not promote that great album better? Are they becoming weary of making music? Are their interests diverging? Guy at least is so preoccupied with new projects that I can't imagine he is keen on making music. And what are Will and Jonny doing? And Chris? Is he tired, too? They are in their early forties, they are not old, and yet the peak of their enthusiasm seems to have gone. I don't think they will produce anything like LP9 in the near future. Al this makes me sad, but perhaps they are just happy leading an uneventful life.

Your points are valid and I think naturally just like any ordinary person they all have other interests to attend to. It's a habit of theirs to go completely silent between major works and I don't believe they're distracted or have lost interest. You're absolutely right about EL. Of all their recent albums people should have noticed and listened to this was it. It's unfortunate they chose to keep it quiet. 

[driftaguy]

12 hours ago, nvdmm said:

Your points are valid and I think naturally just like any ordinary person they all have other interests to attend to. It's a habit of theirs to go completely silent between major works and I don't believe they're distracted or have lost interest. You're absolutely right about EL. Of all their recent albums people should have noticed and listened to this was it. It's unfortunate they chose to keep it quiet. 

Maybe it was the record label who didn't want to put a lot of money into promoting the album

[TealAppeal]

Watched that YouTube video a few weeks ago and haven't revisited it so my recollection of the details might be lost.

One aspect from the video's creator I disagreed with was his opinion 'Ghost Stories' wasn't a personal album for Coldplay. 

The band's personal life is their own- I shouldn't dig into those aspects because honestly it's none of my business however if they choose to disclose certain things I think that's okay.

I remember when Coldplay provided feedback/spoke with the press about the album.. at that time I recall  Chris described it as being personal like a journal-entry, something along those lines. Most of the general public were aware of his (now famous) "un-coupling".

When I heard, `All Your Friends Think` ..that sounds to me that he was expressing some real hurt, again with `True Love`.

Aspects in that video that I could agree with was with the Mylo album. 

On a personal-level for me when I bought the CD it was the only time I distinctly remembered this store clerk flashing a cringe expression when I handed her the CD during checkout at Target many years ago. I wish that moment didn't dwell in my mind... anyway, I tend to agree with him that the Mylo era in Coldplay's history was different from what came before.

For me the album seemed a little too commerical for my liking however I can't be to mad at what they were doing. They are artists by design and they should be able to change up musical genres if they want to, I don't expect them to be in this bubble. It's true that I feel in-love with their alternate musical style back in 2002 or so however now that I've been more accustom to their new songs.. I've grown to appreciate it also.

Also I'd like to believe (not 100% certain) that were was a big batch of new Coldplay fans after that albums success and for me that's a positive aspect. ♡