Mark

Or Us Against the World? Or UFO? I'd quite like it if they packed away the ballads and went a bit more ambitious. I felt the weakest songs on MX were UATW and UIF. Oh and Major Minus, which used an acoustic. I liked how there wasn't an acoustic track on Viva, it seemed less forced.

Fiver says LP6 features a Will-on-lead-vocals song.

What does it mean?

Answered straight away! Maybe my friends are just slow :\

@countingtincans First one to tell me the reference in my user name gets a 'thanks', no one's ever got it.

Oh we've clarified that he had a black and white take on rock music when he was categorising guitar music into rock and synth music into pop. But as for this claim that his favourite band aren't even the genre he thinks they are... were the Beatles always a pop band? I could understand if he had Please Please Me or Help! on his list, but... ...by my reckoning that's three rock albums, two of them psychedelic, one of them a bit baroque.

He's probably being sarcastic and what happens in World of Music is one thing, but I don't see the need for someone as clearly intelligent as him to look down on anyone in a Coldplay-related section of the forum for their taste in music.

:lol: I'll follow everyone back by the way :D

Are you seriously asking his opinion, or being ironic? Just curious, that's all.

Bloody well hope not.

Please follow me? I've spent about three days glued to my laptop coding and shit. http://speculationspectrum.tumblr.com

If I'm not mistaken, I'm sure something else we agree on is how good There Is Love In You is.

I do totally get you, and I don't like Lady Gaga, because I think she's music for people who don't like music; it's never enough to just sit and perform a well-written song, she's all about upping the shock factor or looking like a dick, just to get attention. And then claims it's about the art, when it clearly isn't. There is great pop music around - can safely say I'll enjoy a couple of Rihanna songs a year - and a lot of the music I listen to verges on the commercial side... but nearly all music is just people in a room throwing things and seeing what sticks. What makes pop music special is that everyone starts there. No one will ever buy Four Tet for their first record. I have a special place for pop music in my heart because it got me into the music I love today. But as Kingzilla pointed out, can pop music ever match the depth of alternative? I guess I feel more connected to a band like Blur, for example, because it's one man's feelings on a song like No Distance Left to Run or Caramel. Take a song like Best Thing I Never Had; it's not nearly as powerful and it probably took six or seven people to write. As for Bieber... people should really stop hating, it's getting old, and he's actually one of the more talented people in pop. If you don't like him, be indifferent to him, same as you are for every other two-bit teen popstar.

I feel bad that no one's commented on this in two days, so I'll try and give you feedback. Remember to watch your tenses. They slip a lot early on. Don't use adverbs like monotonously. Seriously, they're just not needed. Why say canine when you can say dog? Or do you use the word "canine" in your part of the world? I don't know. Maybe set the scene a little bit more. Maybe write a little bit more succinctly. What happened in five chapters - I'd ditch chapters too, but that's just me - could probably be said in one or two at the most, but it feels like it's being stretched out a lot. Some of the characters like Mary work well because they're realistic and you can picture them. Mr Whirly seems like an unrealistic caricature of a man with no motive to properly slap a kid round the face, and Mylo and Tim seem a bit... undeveloped. Maybe base characters on people you know. Give them traits. If they're there as plot devices, give them a reason to be there. Finally, I'll say that the dialogue is very naturally flowing, and it's probably your main strength, which is good. Maybe try writing a tv/film script or something, and that'll play to your strengths, but work on the other things I've pointed out; at the moment, your stories are alright, but they could be great if you really work on your writing. A great writer can write about a mark on the wall and make it compelling and brilliant. It's all about how you write, not what you write.

I'm sorry if I've really offended people (mostly Kingzilla) for my dislike of labelling Coldplay into different genres, but I'd just like to back this opinion up ^ All bands and artists defy genres; it's much nicer to just think in a wider space than just "rock like Politik" or "ballad like the Scientist", because it leaves you excited when you hear something new and wonderful. "Genre-thinking" limits your mind, and as I said before, a song is not better or worse if it uses synths. Take Blue Monday, for example; a grey, synth soundscape and it's beautiful. That's all I wanted to put across. I love rock music, but it's not the be all and end all; there's a world of genre waiting to be explored and integrated into a guitar-based sound. It's what killed bands like Oasis, feeling like they had to move in one direction. It shouldn't kill Coldplay.

I don't like her, but I didn't bring Lady Gaga into this discussion. I wasn't talking about pop music being artless, I was talking about the music of certain musicians being artless, and the first three I thought of just happened to be shit popstars. There are many popstars who do music simply for the art of it, I'm not sure Gaga is one of them, but she's certainly more respectable than will.i.am, who would frankly sell his kidneys to score a number one. And for the record, I would drag several bands into the "artless imo" bracket, not to mention David Guetta, who's not a popstar at all.

If you want to label things and box up your favourite artists into categories, be my guest. Music's more exciting when there are no boundaries, though. I don't find it inappropriate, I just don't think it could be considered art. I think that's partly because of my white middle-class culture, but I think it's also because I have a clear opinion of what art is, and that sort of thing doesn't fall into it. Like I said though, that's just my opinion; I'm sure Nicki Minaj won't lose any sleep over it. will.i.am's worse because he clearly cares more about business than anything else. I don't think music should be judged that way.

This. I'm sorry if it offends anyone that I don't appreciate her music, I'm just struggling to find the message that she wants to convey with lines such as "starships are made to fly" and "Bitches ain't shit, and they ain't sayin' nuthin', a hundred muthafuckas can't tell me nuthin'".

To a degree, yeah everything is about the connection, but some care about the expression more than others, is my point. Quite a simple point really, I'm sure there wasn't much to be confused over. And I'm sure Nicki Minaj, One Direction and will.i.am will be fine even though I think their music is artless. It would be more ignorant to say that when I hadn't heard it. I'm calm, I write in caps when people blatantly ignore what I say; because at least three times you said you wanted a rock album, and at least three times I tried to tell you that there will be a rock album regardless. "Progressing" means moving forward, and a band is not moving forward by going back to what they've done before. That's a straight-up fact that can't be denied, so I'm sorry, there is no "opinion" here. I respect your tastes nonetheless.

Ironic for the forum's main thread for looking forward.

It does sometimes go a bit further than that, to be fair. This thread should be used for intelligent discussions about what's worked well in Coldplay's past, what we'd like to see expanded upon, and what the popular reaction is for all possible different future styles of Coldplay. This thread is a speculation spectrum but its at its weakest when people just say "I want Coldplay to do a rock album because I like the old stuff." As one of the more frequent posters in this thread, I apologise on behalf of those who say that.

There are some great songs on Quadrophenia, like 515 and Love Reign O'er Me, but as usual with the Who, Townshend would rather knock out some pretentious storyarc bullshit, rather than make a quality album like Who's Next.

Coldplay are one of the most interactive bands I've seen. I watched them in the pouring rain at the Emirates and Chris kept apologising for it, thanking us for going anyway, and even sung Singin' In the Rain before Don't Let It Break Your Heart. It was really nice that he actually cared, and it whenever I've seen them, I've always felt like they're performing to me and me alone.

It's weird, everyone says this, but I've never felt particularly included or wanted at a Muse gig. They don't seem to acknowledge the audience much, in gesture or setlist to be honest, but that might just have been the gigs I went to :\