When a band gets as big as Coldplay—and no group to emerge this century is bigger—it is tempting to attribute the achievement to some form of artistic compromise. So cynical have we become that we think it nearly impossible for artists to reach the top of their field strictly on their own terms. Judging by the critical consensus on such current megastars as 50 Cent, Norah Jones, and, yes, Coldplay, a person might reasonably conclude that each of them is holding something back, consciously repressing some vital artistic streak for the sake of sales. In short, you might be convinced that these folks are charlatans.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is a lot of things—a magnetic frontman, a one-man hook-writing machine, the least-threatening rock star on the planet—but he hardly seems like a fraud. If his band’s hits seem like they were designed to convince us that life’s not so bad after all, it isn’t because Martin is coldly manipulative. Really, he’s just being himself.
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