ColdPlay Band

I am an anglophile. I love sitcoms from the BBC, even if the American versions most often expose how bad the show is minus the accent (some say that American producers just do not get what makes them funny, I disagree, obviously). I love girls with British accents 9much like my girlfriend melts when ever Colin Firth speaks). I love British music. I like their take on rock and roll. While the State’s popular musicians say they are influenced by the blues, few have that same desperate, hard edge (with the exception of the Black Keys and the White Stripes).

To me it just seems that even the most pop oriented groups like Coldplay have something that makes an otherwise overly emotional anthem bearable, and even enjoyable. I thought about the big British bands and what each of them means to me. In the end I found that Coldplay, Radiohead, and Oasis (I am a child of the ‘90s) fit together like a CW primetime soap.

Coldplay is the male lead. He is, or they are, the well meaning focus of the story line, pining after love or justice. At times his whining can be annoying, but deep down, it is his struggle that drives the show and, in this case, the music landscape. It is hard to argue that they do not hold that mantle in mainstream music. They are the clean cut group that play huge shows around the world and sell a ridiculous number of albums.

Radiohead is the secondary character everyone knows is cool. He can do what he wants with almost no consequence. The group put out huge albums with OK Computer and Kid A that went platinum, but albums since have struggled to get passed gold in the U.S. and in many countries around the world. Still the albums reached number one on the charts. It is this lack of commercial follow through, often due to their individuality and shunning of all things conventional that make them the second lead. Everyone knows them, but few find relevance with their struggle.

Last, but not least, is Oasis. He is the bad boy, the menacing character that likes to cause problems and attract attention for his antics and not his struggle. This bad boy has a couple of domineering, squabbling brothers (Liam and Noel Gallagher) ruining the moment every chance they get. Still, they make things interesting and that makes them, or him, a must at every party or in every discussion. Oasis’s sound, its simple stripped down guitar sound (I know they stray sometimes, but this is what we all remember) is symbolic here. That simple sound makes them a one-dimensional character on the rock scene, sure to throw a beer bottle into the crowd or throw fists amongst each other in between songs during a set.

Alas, here is the British music scene, a meta-music soap opera that this anglophile cannot stop listening to.