Coldplay frontman and Gwyneth boytoy Chris Martin has mixed feelings about his wealth, but not because of how he earned it. His label, megalith EMI, said its profits would fall below expectations because Coldplay took three years to finish its latest album, leading Martin to respond, “I don’t really care about EMI. I’m not really concerned about that.” Well, good for him! If only he could keep his mouth shut:
“I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world.” …
“It’s very strange for us that we spent 18 months in the studio just trying to make songs that make us feel a certain way and then suddenly become part of this corporate machine,” Martin said backstage.
He criticised what he called “the slavery that we are all under to shareholders”. However, having sold 20 million albums worldwide to date, their album release on 7 June and subsequent two-month tour of America in August and September will play a large role in determining EMI’s profits.
Reason’s Julian Sanchez wonders if “the next album will have tiny violins?” and says Martin’s recent mouthiness shows he “aspires to prove that he can be a second-rate Radiohead knock-off in the political arena too.” I happen to like Coldplay and think Martin is a musical honor student (not genius, of course), but all that hot lovin’ with Gwyneth seems to have left him a bit confused about exactly how his band got to the top. If Martin wanted to make a real difference instead of getting music fans to jeer his whining, he might highlight the restrictive contracts that unknown, naive artists can get stuck in when their big breaks with major labels don’t pay off. But it’s a situation he doesn’t seem to have ever faced, so maybe it never crossed his mind…
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.