Meaningless twaddle

Meaningless twaddle
Watching Glastonbury on the tele reminded me why I don't generally like festivals as a way to experience music. Only the bands later on in the day get the benefit of darkness to show off their lighting rigs - the rest seem strangely out of place in the daylight. Echo and the Bunnymen looked particularly sad and tired. Songs that seem emotional and affecting played at home on the hifi, become flat and unengaging. Nobody appears to be listening, distracted by other things. The bands themselves no longer appear to have any purpose, other than to sell product and make money. Chris Martin thanks the audience for giving the band "..the best job in the world...". He almost implies that they wouldn't be doing it if their college education had resulted in proper day jobs. Only Brian Wilson is driven to make music, finally overcoming his demons and achieving some sort of personal redemption. OK, it has long been the case that many pop artists have been either careerists or chancers (take your pick from Kylie, Robbie, Crazy Frog) and dance/dj culture has never made a point of anything other than hedonism, but...

" But the underlying question won't go away: if Coldplay are now the paradigmatic international rock band, clasped to the hearts of millions across the planet, what have they come to tell us? Might their vague thoughts about self-doubt and the healing properties of optimism embody some of the defining currents of our age? Or could their music actually be devoid of much meaning at all; a pallid Esperanto, maximising what people who work in marketing departments would call their "reach"? "

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