Post by Mustang Bass on Dec 11, 2015 15:37:36 GMT
As Coldplay release their new album, Chris Martin and the band tell us why rock has had its day.
'We felt like rock music has been done,” says Chris Martin, apparently dropping the lid on 60 years of swaggering guitar bands. Contemplating the zesty pop tones of Coldplay’s new album, A Head Full of Dreams, Martin suggests “the future of music is in new sounds and new ways of treating vocals. We wanted to add those colours to our palette.” His bandmate Guy Berryman agrees: “There’s an awful lot of rock music already out there. I’m not sure there is anything left to add.”
Forming the band in 1996, at the tail-end of Britpop and arguably the beginning of the end for rock music, Martin thinks “an advantage for our generation is that we see how things turned out for other musicians. The old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll lifestyle thing is great, but does it really make for great music? Does it make people happy? I don’t feel we’re embarrassed about being successful, but we don’t need the perm and the gold Rolex.”
There has always been a sense of mission to Coldplay. “We would like to be behind the idea of togetherness and acceptance, rather than finger-pointing and against-ness,” Martin says. “My manifesto is to not give up on the idea of humans working together.”
Coldplay seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. “It’s a very happy ship,” insists guitarist Jonny Buckland. “It’s practically a hovercraft!” jokes Martin. But after seven albums, selling more than 80 million copies, there has been talk about this being their final offering. “I think there’s a sense of a journey nearing its completion,” says Champion.
“We live in a world where you don’t know whether you are going to make it to tomorrow,” says Martin. “So it makes sense to approach whatever we are doing as if it is the last thing we are going to make.”
He admits to doubts about what the future could hold for the band. But it could just be creative exhaustion. “It’s like asking someone to do 10 more push-ups when they’ve just done 100. If this was our last album, we’d be OK with it. At this point, we’ve said what we have to say.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/coldplay-rock-music-has-nowhere-left-to-go/
'We felt like rock music has been done,” says Chris Martin, apparently dropping the lid on 60 years of swaggering guitar bands. Contemplating the zesty pop tones of Coldplay’s new album, A Head Full of Dreams, Martin suggests “the future of music is in new sounds and new ways of treating vocals. We wanted to add those colours to our palette.” His bandmate Guy Berryman agrees: “There’s an awful lot of rock music already out there. I’m not sure there is anything left to add.”
Forming the band in 1996, at the tail-end of Britpop and arguably the beginning of the end for rock music, Martin thinks “an advantage for our generation is that we see how things turned out for other musicians. The old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll lifestyle thing is great, but does it really make for great music? Does it make people happy? I don’t feel we’re embarrassed about being successful, but we don’t need the perm and the gold Rolex.”
There has always been a sense of mission to Coldplay. “We would like to be behind the idea of togetherness and acceptance, rather than finger-pointing and against-ness,” Martin says. “My manifesto is to not give up on the idea of humans working together.”
Coldplay seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. “It’s a very happy ship,” insists guitarist Jonny Buckland. “It’s practically a hovercraft!” jokes Martin. But after seven albums, selling more than 80 million copies, there has been talk about this being their final offering. “I think there’s a sense of a journey nearing its completion,” says Champion.
“We live in a world where you don’t know whether you are going to make it to tomorrow,” says Martin. “So it makes sense to approach whatever we are doing as if it is the last thing we are going to make.”
He admits to doubts about what the future could hold for the band. But it could just be creative exhaustion. “It’s like asking someone to do 10 more push-ups when they’ve just done 100. If this was our last album, we’d be OK with it. At this point, we’ve said what we have to say.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/coldplay-rock-music-has-nowhere-left-to-go/
Quo in their different incarnations have already rattled up a half century. 
for example - who saw Thrash Metal coming? P.s. a friend once told me, for the sound of Coldplay tune your top E down a fret and play as usual - LOL. Nah - I'm kidding. But declaring Rock is Dead is pretty passé since we've had bands like Sigur Ros for over ten years now. There will always be visionaries and we can look forward to their artistic expressions, and some of it, I'll wager, will be a bit rocky! 