3. They're Too Derivative
Some say that any given Coldplay song owes too much of a debt to an existing song to be worthy of being judged on its own merits. They refer to Joe Satriani's assertion that Viva La Vida included substantial original portions of one of his own compositions, omitting the fact that this matter has since been dismissed out of court. Or perhaps they'll shriek about how Talk ripped off the riff from Kraftwerk's Computer Love conveniently forgetting that full permission was granted for the riff's inclusion. Essentially, to make this point is to fundamentally ignore how music works. There's only a limited number of notes, chords and instruments out there, you know. Yet every day millions of musicians worldwide are endlessly hammering away at their own songs. It's inevitable that, sooner or later, a band will stumble upon a chord progression or a compositional element by that's been used before. Whether it happens by design or accident, it's going to happen. The important thing is that a band takes this familiar element and, rather than using it as a crutch, uses it as a foundation to create something new. If a song succeeds in reaching out to someone, then it doesn't matter at all to what extent its composition is unique. And Coldplay's songs do reach out to people. Millions of them. They must, therefore, be doing something right. So by all means think of Coldplay as a bunch of derivative charlatans with nary an original idea between them. Just remember, though, that the work of such cool and acceptable musicians as
Radiohead,
Nick Cave and
Bob Dylan has also been singled out as containing certain elements that have been previously deployed. But it doesn't make them any less worthy of the praise they receive. All musicians are drawing water from the same well, and in every instance they've used the familiar elements in their songs as a springboard for exploring their own ideas. Coldplay are no different. If you want to attack them on these grounds, far be it from me to stop you. But, like with the aforementioned lyrical argument, in doing so you're creating a set of conditions for yourself in which the only acceptable music is that which is totally and utterly unprecedented. And because that's absolutely not how music works, you may as well stop listening entirely if you truly see this as a problem.