Coldplay: Lost in the 2000’s

Beyoncé stole the band’s Super Bowl 50 half-time show and rejected its offer to collaborate on one of its new songs. Bruno Mars outshone its lead singer Chris Martin, showcasing a more accurate pitch and commanding stage presence. “A Head Full of Dreams”—the band’s latest album released on Dec. 4—continues to receive accusations of cultural appropriation with its songs unheard and ignored. Coldplay is crystallizing one of its recently-coined, regrettable reputation as “a band stuck in the 2000s.”

But Coldplay was not always like this.

The band’s music in the 2000s was perhaps the best. In 2000, the band released “Parachutes”—an internationally acclaimed album that the public still cherishes today; it raised the bar of the recently-created alternative rock scene with songs such as “Shiver” and “Yellow.” “A Rush of Blood to the Head”—the band’s second studio album released in 2002—quickly became an international hit with a slightly bolder sound, one defined by ample electric guitar and piano.

In the late 2000s, the band guarded its place in the world of music. Although “X&Y” was not as successful as its predecessors, the public still responded positively. From “A Message” and “Fix You” to “X&Y,” songs combined vague lyrics veiled in second-person singular with an even more electric sound. And in 2008, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” became an instant commercial and critical success.

By the end of the 2000s, Coldplay stood at the top of the alternative and pop scene, alongside bands like Radiohead and R.E.M. Its reputation was recognized by music-lovers across the globe.

But since the end of the 2000s, Coldplay’s sound transmuted with time. Evolving—or perhaps devolving—into electronic rock, the band gradually lost its original alternative rock sound.

Perhaps as Rolling Stone’s Feb. 8 issue points out, “all the highs and lows that have shaped [Chris Martin’s] recent years, as well as...the haters” influenced the band’s sound. Perhaps the band is too old now, with less vitality than its competitors. But whatever the reason is—as the band demonstrated in the half-time show—Coldplay isn’t the same anymore.