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Lady Gaga The Fame on my way to school, 17 years later driving to work blasting Mayhem, hell yeah.
le sigh
I think the biggest problem Coldplay had was getting big. If they’d stayed about as famous as their contemporaries like Travis, then they’d probably be hated a lot less.
However, and I say this as a fan of Coldplay from back in the day*, Chris Martin’s lyrics are not good. Seriously, give them a read! They’re just meaningless strings of words. They do however sound great when paired up with the music. Yellow is fantastic.
That marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t help their credibility much either.
*I didn’t want to play the “I liked them before they were cool” card but here we are
Coldplay isn’t my jam but I highly recommend their fans see the documentary about Camden or “Camdentown” in London where the band and many other good British acts played regularly, including Madness as a house band back in the day. Camden is a part of London that is a live music mecca that has long been a training ground where many great acts were discovered and almost all of them played on their way up, including Oasis, Amy Whitehouse, etc. Amy Winehouse lived there and the Producer of the movie Dua Lipa actually grew up there while her parents worked in the bars and in the area. Before watching the doc, I knew virtually nothing about her; though, I had heard my kid say she grew up in the former Yugoslavia. Apparently, she was only there for small part of her childhood. The area is also a place for self described “misfits” to be themselves and amongst their peers. Yungblud even made a music video there.
A lot of heavy hitters(Questlove, Nile Rogers, Chuck D) appear in the movie and Chris Martin is effusive about the impact the place had on him and the band. You just don’t see areas like that on this side of the pond much anymore, including in Manhattan, on Sunset, and the old Rock Block in Nashvegas. Lower Broad damn sure doesn’t count!
Sorry for music nerding out but it was a cool doc for an old live music fan and former music biz pro/band manager that spent too many nights is venues like those- including seeing Widespread at little ole Main Street club in Murfreeboro, TN and Dave Matthews Band at the Floodzone in Richmond, VA.
All that talk of Camden and no mention of Jack the Ripper?
I thought he was active in Whitechapel but perhaps not. “All that talk” was spot on because I was definitely verbose about the subject matter. Great handle and profile pic. What is it from?
LoL, thanks! It is an AI-generated pic of Dolly Parton in corpse paint. With horns.
LOL! That is spectacular(with a Manchester accent)!
Please post a link to the full pic so I can screenshot it for a friend and my mother. They’d both get a kick out of it and Dolly probably would as well.
Sadly it was a time waster at my last gig…and it went away when I changed positions and computers.
And I could be wrong. My Camden memories are now 20+ years old, but I thought that was a prime location.
In case I wasn’t clear about it, Coldplay features heavily in the doc, including several interview moments.
Every artist listed in that thread is a hard pass for me. Well, I did like the song Viva la Vida and Paradise (that’s the name right?)is pretty good. But other than those two Cold Play isn’t my jam.
I know I’m late to this debate, but the only acceptable version of Call Me Maybe is the Cookie Monster version.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8
Thank you for adding some levity to my day and the poor souls I sent it to. The production really kicks in with the chorus. I can’t help but wonder if those are the actual staff of the Sesame Street production in the video.
It’s my pleasure to share the insanity!
Triumph is still cool, right? I don’t want to have to find a new key ring for my Acclaim.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53878507202_7aed4899af_c.jpg
As long as you still lay it on the line!
Most millennials and younger probably remember Michael Jackson only for his weird pedo baby dangling phase but in the 80s he was untouchable. Swift and Coldplay as pop goat over him, nah.
Don’t forget that he basically invented the modern super bowl halftime show
Music gatekeeping is the worst, but, David, Coldplay is not in the same conversation as the Beatles.
I am an avowed non-fan of the Beatles, and even I will state that the Beatles are so far out of Coldplay’s league that it’s almost adorable anyone could think otherwise.
Coldplay is a band for people who are afraid of anyone judging their opinions. They are the celery of music. Wholly inoffensive, totally insubstantial.
The good name of celery doesn’t deserve the egregious disservice of comparison to Coldplay!
Celery is a key part of both mirepoix & Louisiana cuisine’s holy trinity. Coldplay is entirely non-essential to anything, at best.
Splendid take!
Okay, you got me. Maybe they’re like Bay leaves? Ubiquitous, but no one really knows what they’re for, or why everyone insists on throwing the things into everything under the sun.
If people are just tossing in bay leaves willy-nilly, well, that’s not unlike a million other cooking habits – or countless habits in the automotive world, based on “because that’s how it’s done”. But to claim that no one knows what they’re for is reductive nonsense.
eta: One of the things that makes the Autopian amazing/insane is that debating the merits of celery & bay leaf isn’t nearly the least automotive-related discussion that happens here.
DE, it’s funny that you should say that about the Cajun. Years ago, we went to a place way out in the country outside of Nashville named Uncle Boudreaux’s. I’d had jambalaya a million times before but there was just something special about theirs. Then I realized that not only did the celery add texture and flavor to their sauce but it actually had absorbed the flavors into the big celery pieces that really popped flavor wise when you bit into them. I don’t know how they prepared it differently but it was spectacular and I haven’t come across it since.
Hey hey hey I’m with Dead Elvis here. Celery is an essential kitchen staple. God damn, dude.
I will formally apologize to Celery. But never to Coldplay.
Totally fair as Coldplay sucks.
I saw your comment about bay leaves and totally agree. They are also apparently really bad for you to consume whole. So … probably a joke in there too.
Can we setup an Autopian Music League and go to battle already?!
https://musicleague.com/
David, it has already been mentioned in the comments, but “old school” Coldplay is pretty well written, massively popular, and very very vanilla. And that’s OK, because sometimes good vanilla ice cream is all you need.
David is, of course, wrong about much of this. But Michelle Branch is actually underrated. However, my big takeaway is that it’s time to listen to some more Skinny Puppy.
I love me some Michelle Branch even if she is the patron saint of Safeway. Literally, if you shop at Safeway the likelihood that you hear something from The Spirit Room approaches 100% after 15 minutes or so.
The way to look at Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Nickelback, the Toyota Camry, et al is they are like vanilla ice cream. They are RARELY anyone’s favorite. Most of us like Rocky Road, pistachio, cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, or whatever.
But if you’re having a birthday party, you’re gonna buy a couple gallons of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. Why? It’s nobody’s favorite, but everyone will eat it. Throw out a bottle of chocolate sauce, some sprinkles, and a can of spray whipped cream, and it’s REALLY a party!
That being said HAIR METAL FOREVER!!!!
They’re also very carefully marketed, like some flavor of the month ice cream that is everywhere suddenly. It can be difficult to separate the people who really like it vs those who like it because everyone else must because why else is it everywhere?
Back when, you had to mainly, say, like Pearl Jam’s sound; you had no real idea what Stone Gossard was like, who he was dating, etc.
If the Swift Army gets wind of this slander, say goodbye to the Autopian! They are not people to be reasoned with. (One of your offenses is that et al, simply suggesting that there’s anyone else like her!)
/s, but only kinda
Agreed, I don’t think many people would go to the barricades for Coldplay, but when Taylor Swift went on tour you could literally track it on seismometers.
Taylor Swift is in the same cultural category as Elvis, Coldplay are more like Cliff Richard.
Don’t do Cliff Richard like that!
Harrumph.
I’m just going to sit over here and crank _Eliminator_.
As in ZZ Top? I’ve got Under Pressure on my weightlifting mix and it still thumps like a locomotive barrelling down the tracks, with Frank’s driving beat. Him and Phil Rudd of AC/DC had a real and often under appreciated gift for it.
Taylor is a GOAT package, but definitely not exceptional in music. And I won’t touch Coldplay because that people already made valiant points, but Beatles they ain’t.
David, David, David, you sweet summer child. This is just one more example of why you should not be allowed any input when it comes to the subject of popular culture and references to said culture. Please, do The Autopian a favor and recuse yourself. Leave it to the professionals like Matt and Mercedes, in particular, but pretty much anyone else on staff.
I don’t have a sub, but have an big opinion on music, and agreed, Coldplay is a huge meh. They are playing at the local college stadium by me and it sold out in minutes. Does not compute. My thoughts are people just want to watch a concert in the stadium. They coulda put almost anyone out there and it woulda sold out.
Love some Coldplay! But to each their own.
Wife is/was a big Coldplay fan. Seen them 3 or 4 times, they put on a good show. That said the first two albums are the ones that I can listen to, but the rest, especially the last album, are crap. She even thinks so as well.
But Siouxsie & the Banshees Tinderbox is one of the best albums of the 80s and I will fight about this.
Sure musical taste is subjective and all. But David! At this point if someone tells you your pop culture instincts are incorrect, you need to understand that you are in fact incorrect! I love you man, but you need to remember that you do not have your finger on the pulse when it comes to movies, TV shows, music, celebrity culture, etc. That’s ok, it’s charming! But it’s true!
Music is probably one of the most subjective things that exist. There are bands or musical artists that I love on paper, but I don’t care for their music. Conversely, there are great bands out there that are generally considered to be liked by everybody I just can’t stand. And the funniest thing is when people seem offended that you don’t like the band that they like. A lot of it comes down to associations with the music. There are songs I hated as a kid that were in heavy rotation on the radio when I spent my summers up in Maine at the beach. Now I love those songs, even if they might be shite.
Also, Coldplay is one of those bands that I would always 100% turn off if it came on the radio. Just not my thing.
That’s me with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was a teenager when they were at their peak. Everyone loved them. My friends went to their concerts and had all their albums. But I hated them and still do. There is not a single song of theirs I can sit through without getting angry. On paper it should all work perfectly as I like a lot of bands from that era but they just don’t do it for me at all.
I’m usually on XMU (“college radio”) when listening to Sirius in the car but once in a while I’ll jump over to Lithium (’90s alternative) or Spectrum (rock). RHCP will reflexively cause me to change stations. Can’t. Fucking. Stand. Them. The musical equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.
Vindication!
Funny, I was listening to Lithium the other day and man, the 90s had some really shitty music all over the radio towards the end of the decade. There was a reason I drifted heavily into Metal, Pop punk, and electronic music around 97 or so.
“…the greatest band of our era…” Low bar.
Not a Coldplay fan but they do a song with Jacob Collier and he’s cool
Coldplay? Coldplay?
What’s next, Radiohead?
I will fight you over Radiohead.
You’re willingness to fight over Radiohead betrays your ability to fight over Radiohead. Sorry.
Adrian absolutely perfectly nailed as well as it could be nailed when said “If beige were people.” However I might paraphrase that to ‘If beige were music ‘ about Coldplay. I tried, I really tried to like Coldplay but the rage it induced was too much to take. Like when you’re about to finally lose patience and start screaming at someone or something. That’s how Coldplay makes me feel.
That said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with loving them and thinking they’re the greatest. I personally prefer not to intentionally make my ears bleed, but to each their own.
I thought that all of Coldplay’s fans had died of boredom *years ago.*
This. They’ve got a couple good tunes, but the majority is meh.
The big question is where DT stands on “Friday” by Rebecca Black.
I made the mistake of playing this for my kids once and now they want it every Friday.
Play them “Friday I’m in Love” and see if it sticks? Bonus points for the Yo La Tengo version!
Just don’t lead off the YLT introduction with Sunsquashed.