Coldplay: The Most Boring and Overrated Band of All Time?

2009-04-23T07:54:00.001-07:00

First an introduction: The following is my opinion, it is here to be an opinion, not a fact, even though I think it is the truth. Ever since I was a youngster I have always gone against popular thought, most notably Pop Culture (Television, Music, Fashion, ect). I think most everybody is following everybody else in some sense, even myself to a certain degree. This starts with Pop Culture, which has brainwashed people into being superficial and liking mediocre stuff. In this blog I will go to war with: Kanye West, Hipsters, Douche Bags, Sex in the City, The Hills, and the list goes on.

A few years ago I made a comment to some of my friends who were raving about Coldplay's new album, X & Y. I had listened to the album and thought it was not great, but not bad either. I did not consider myself a fan of the band at the time. I told them, "I don't think they are anything that special, it's just another pop band from England." By that comment, I think I lost some friends that day. It started becoming a running joke that, "Benson hates Coldplay," and even more funny is that it followed me to Chicago when I moved to the city back in 2006.

Kind of by my own comment as well as my friend's comment, I started to actually hate the band, even though I could not articulate why I had this dislike for them. Even further I could not understand why the world had fallen in love with these dudes until I read former Spin Magazine writer Chuck Klosterman's book, Sex Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Here is his take on Coldplay, "Coldplay is] a British pop group whose success derives from their ability to write melodramatic alt-rock songs about fake love. It does not matter that Coldplay is the shittiest fucking band I've ever heard in my entire fucking life, or that they sound like a mediocre photocopy of Travis (who sounds like a mediocre photocopy of Radiohead), or that their greatest fucking artistic achievement is a video where the blandly attractive frontman walks on a beach on a cloudy afternoon. None of that matters. What matters is that Coldplay manufactures fake love as frenetically as the Ford fucking Motor Company manufactures Mustangs. . . "For you I bleed myself dry," sang the blockhead vocalist, brilliantly informing us that stars in the sky are, in fact, yellow." (Pardon the lanuage, his words not mine...why should I even apologize for this haha). Klosterman had in fact captured the exact thoughts and opinions that I could not articulate for the longest time.

Here are some more thoughts on Coldplay:
1) I laughed hard when I saw them at the Grammy's this year with those matching (very Gay) outfits.
2) I think they should forefit all album sales to Radiohead, because they are a watered down more market friendly, less-creative version of them.
3) I hate when bands put, 18th Century Art on their Album covers.
4) I would rather listen to Smash Mouth or Creed than Cold Play.

This is a challenge to knock something after to try it and to open your minds to awesome and thoughtful music.

Please let me know why you like or dislike Coldplay, this is not a one-sided argument. Laters!

Against the Grain: A Satire on Pop Culture

Coldplay: The Most Boring and Overrated Band of All Time?