COOL COLDPLAY

Coldplay is one of my lifetime favorite band in the world for its music, lyrics, style and stage act. Their songs sound like soundtrack of my life or anthem for years and their smart, unique and fashionable music video are always the reason for me to put them into my forever playlist.

This British rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed under the nama Pectoralez, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a drummer, backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, completing the line up. Manager Phil Harvey is often considered as an unofficial fifth member. The band renamed themselves Coldplay in 1998 before recording and releasing three EPs : Safety in 1998, Brothers & Sisters as a single in 1999 and The Blue Room in the same year. The latter was their first release on a major label after signing to Parlophone.

They achieved worldwide fame with the release of the single Yellow in 2000 followed by their debut album released in the same year Parachutes which was nominated for The Mercury Prize. The band's second album A Rush of Blood to the Head in 2002 was released to critical acclaim and won multiple awards including NME's Album of The Year. It has also come top of The BBC Radio 2 poll of the favorite album of all time. Their next release X&Y, the best selling album worldwide in 2005, was met with mostly positive reviews upon its release, though some critics felt that it was inferior to its predecessor. The band's fourth studio album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends in 2008 was produced by Brian Eno and released again to largely positive reviews, earning several Grammy nominations and wins at 51st Grammy Awards. On 24 October 2011 they released their fifth studio album Mylo Xyloto which received mixed to positive reviews, topped the charts in over 34 countries and was UK's best selling album rock album of 2011.

The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career including 8 Brit Awards as winning Best British Group three times, 5 MTV Video Music Awards and 7 Grammy Awards from 25 nominations. Coldplay have sold over 60 million records worldwide. In December 2009, Rollling Stone magazine readers voted the group the fourth best artist of the 2000's.

Coldplay have been an active supporter of various social and political causes such as Oxam's Make Trade Fair campaign and Amnesty International. The group have also performed at various charity projects such as Band Aid 20, Live 8, Sound Relief, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, The Secret Policemen's Ball and The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin once proclaimed the band's music as limestone in comparison to hard rock. The band's music has been called meditative and blue romantic. It reflects in their emotions and Martin endlessly examines his feelings. Martin's lyrical wordplay has been called feminist, similar to Andrew Montgomery of Geneva.

  

The tone of the band's first studio album Parachutes was described as melodic pop with distorted guitar riffs and swishing percussion but also being exquisitely dark and artistically abrasive. It has been compared to bands like U2, Radiohead and Travis. The band acknowledges the Scottish alternative rock band Travis as a major influence on their earlier material. 

In their second studio album A Rush of Blood to the Head the band draws inspiration from artists like Echo & The Bunnymen, Kate Bush, George Harrison and Muse. The songs in it were considered to contain lush melodies and a heartbreak and that they had a newfound confidence.

The music on their third release X&Y has been considered to be ruminations on Martin's doubts, fears, hopes and loves. It was particularly influenced by the artists Johnny cash and Kraftwerk.

In Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends the group's style was moving towards art rock, being influenced by the bands Blur, Arcade Fire and My Bloody Valentine. The band experimented with different instruments including orchestras, honky-tonk pianos and further so.

Mylo Xyloto carries the concept album format from the love and war-induced Viva la Vida and expands the spectrum to include electronic and acoustic elements. Lyrical influence were taken from grafitti and the German resistance group White Rose.

Regarding their international wide success, the band's president at Parlophone, Miles Leonard has stated that one of their secrets is that they have never sounded like a parochial UK artist by saying "Some bands are very proud to be British but sometimes come across as being very 'British'. Coldplay never aspire to that, on one hand they sound British but on the other they sound like a huge  global artist". Coldplay were hailed as 'Rock Statesmen' in 2011.