What kind of world is it in which Coldplay could become the most successful band? The Brits showed it on the first of four evenings in the Ernst Happel Stadium, with larger-than-life melodies to the point of excess.
How could a very good, pure pop music producing British band become the biggest band in the world? Just a few years ago it was unimaginable that Coldplay could become a stadium-filling act. What they produced seemed too conventional, the sound they served up too clinically clean. Pop fans with sophisticated taste consider their first album “Parachute” to be their best. However, you only become attractive to the masses when you win over listeners who are outside the raging debates about definition and distinction in pop music discourse. And Coldplay really did become a social phenomenon that slipped out of the narrow spheres of pop music. To determine what happened to the band, you have to ask the question differently: What kind of world is it in which Coldplay could become the most popular band?
Discreetly speaking, a damaged pandemic, the outbreak of wars and a feeling of the end times that is overwhelming, especially among young people, are the basis of Coldplay’s global success. Chris Martin has long since replaced Bono as the chief pathetic voice of pop. While the U2 singer only had to worry about Africa in the 1980s, Chris Martin’s agenda has expanded to the entire planet. Improving the world would be too small a goal. Coldplay is concerned with nothing less than saving the planet.
This focus was already evident in the opening act. On the surface, the local singer-songwriter Oska and the American country-pop crybaby (in the best sense) Maggie Rogers sang. In reality, however, the messages that came through the LCD screens played the main role. Here, detailed evidence was given of the environmental improvement measures to which part of the proceeds are directed.
Coldplay do good and sing about it
Everyone who bought a ticket contributed to something good. To the renaturation of the seas and oceans, to the reforestation of forests in South America, to the rehabilitation of wild animals in Africa and much more. If that wasn’t enough for you, you could generate electricity for the stage in the Ernst Happel Stadium on so-called kinetic dance floors and by cycling on power bikes. Coldplay do good and talk and sing about it. Their music has long been the soundtrack of a generation’s longing for harmony. By buying a Coldplay album or a concert ticket, you become part of a movement that is fighting against agony and resignation.
Chris Martin at the first of four Vienna concerts. APA
Message without surprise
When John Williams’ “Flying Theme” from the film “ET” burst into life as the opening music, many were already moved to tears by themselves and their commitment. And thus ready for two and a half hours of Coldplay softcore at its finest. The first act, “Music of the Spheres”, took off with the song “Higher Power” with a delicate melody to explore what holds the universe together at its core. And yes, it was no surprise when it turned out that it was love. This message came in a radio-friendly form, which is essential for the majority of Coldplay fans, who are something like the system maintainers of society. In the past, the fascination with pop music lay more in celebrating deviants and renegades; now it is forces that bring people together.
Coldplay celebrate the power of unity APA
When Coldplay rock, they do it with considerable intensity, as with “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face”, for example. Their speciality, however, is mid-tempo songs and of course the heart-rending ballads, which they played on a total of three stages. Always close to people. Fans are allowed on stage. What looked spontaneous was of course precisely planned. When Coldplay recently paid homage to singer Adele, who was also in town at the same time, with a song in Munich, they were of course aware of the huge hole that the cancellation of Taylor Swift’s concerts has torn in the hearts of many Viennese. And so singer Chris Martin plucked two Swifties from the audience to let them sing along a little to a spirited cover version of Swift’s “Love Story”, performed here as a duet with Maggie Rogers.
During “Everglow”, people outside the band were also allowed on stage to publicly marvel at the creation of the music. Coldplay themselves were also amazed. In the slurred choral singing of “Human Heart”, they marvelled at the resilience of the human heart. And then they got people’s pulses racing with the brutal “People Of The Pride”.
Concert in four parts – each with a highlight
Each section of the concert, which was presented in four parts, featured musical highlights. The first part was the optimistic, snappy “Adventures Of A Lifetime,” the second the woeful “Everglow,” the third the millennium ballad “Yellow” and, last but not least, “Fix You.” Martin was even forgiven for his attempt to “sing” the cover version of “Something Just Like This” in sign language or for his projected request that fans refrain from smoking in the stadium because it “improves the air quality for the artists.” In the end, the “Good Feelings,” which the penultimate song celebrated, was just too much.
A delicate, flowery feeling arose. A little like after quickly devouring a bag of sports gum at the cinema. An experience from which, paradoxically, you never learn. The human heart is truly unfathomable.
