Music, Power and Performance
By: Hadie Artiel
Tags: Power, Coldplay, Music, Essay, Performance

This is what defines a performance. Music. And power.

Artists are presented outwardly in such a way as to make clear social, economic and cultural messages that all intertwine into one complete greater meaning. Through the use of the example Coldplay(band) one can see that this is so…various messages all come together to make a clear statement. This clear idea is the ultimate purpose of the musician. A performance is a way of expressing this idea.

The outward physical look of Coldplay presents them so as to look like one of us; an everyday person. They wear t shirts and jeans. Lighting is a significant part of their performance (usually dim lighting with colorful lights). The fact that they are sometimes unkempt(rugged) is significant to their performance. Furthermore, their mannerism is sincere, yet colloquial. Any Coldplay performance is very audience inclusive “how are we today?” “are we well?”, they ask the audience, I think this is done on purpose. It shows that there is a little bit of Coldplay in all of us: big ideas in things that appear at first ordinary. This is a significant part of the bands authenticity; their appearance and the way in which they endlessly explore their emotions make them very easy to relate to. The way Coldplay present themselves is as inclusive of the audience as possible.

Coldlays lineup, The band’s members are vocalist/pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bass player Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion.

Coldplay’s middle class British roots further add to this ragtag look the group has. They provide a simple cultural message in this regard; you don’t have to stand out, you don’t have to appear different. This is intertwined with their economic message, that earthly possessions should not be all that we aspire to attain. In fact, the band feel so strongly about this that they refuse to sell out their music for use in product commercials and endorsements. Being international public figures, we are also inclined to listen to them (in accordance with the concept of hegemony), because that is just “how things work”. As public figures, the rest of the world is inclined to hear them, simply because of societal expectations, and the way that their opinions and thoughts are much more accessible to the consumer than any random opinion…they are capable of exerting significant influence. This means therefore that their opinions are given much more weight than just any opinion. The band also has received much credit for their donation of 10% of earnings to charity, which they have done since they first began. Techniques such as chronological albums, and every appearance is selected so as to portray a narrative. Every public act is being monitored and as such the musicians life BECOMES a performance. Coldplay had shown that they understand this, and tailors every album to follow on from the next. Their front man Martins is the one most under scrutiny. Martins ability to speak for the entire band has been shown on numerous occasions. As with many other bands a front man will represent the entire band. Essentially this front man may or may not contribute to the success or failure of a performance, or to the band as a whole. the leader of the band is always the one who is portraying the main idea of the band, and hence his views on majority of political or social views will be the one most under scrutiny

In entirety this all contributes to their ultimate message. That is that big, powerful ideas can be found in things that appear outwardly ordinary. A secondary message that the band seems to advocate for is that worldly and physical things “do not speak as loud as the heart” (the Scientist, Coldplay). Thus, I can conclude tha the way in which Artists are presented outwardly, making clear social, economic and cultural messages, all intertwine to create one complete greater meaning. These ideas support and are supported by Ranciere and Foucalt, et al. Ranciere’s ideas that it is ‘necessary to blur the boundaries between” (Ranciere, 2006) different areas is very clear here. Only by the blurring of the social, economic and cultural messages is one able to understand the complete depth of Coldplay or any other artist… in other words, without any of these particular messages, one cannot understand the final message. Only when this is done can one have the full picture “of a unitary body of theory which would filter, hierarchise and order them in the name of some true knowledge and some arbitrary idea of what constitutes a science and its objects.” (Foucault 1980: 83) in other words it all comes back to one single unitary body of theory. Everything an artist says or does is to highlight that single message. As Foucault says, power is dispersed throughout social life. A person’s position on any one topic becomes a “stance” that others will judge us through, and if an artist so desires to portray a message then they must specifically tailor every aspect of this “stance” to portray that message. Power is an essential part of that message. As Ranciere states. It is not individuals that are equal. Nor are individual’s ideas equal. Rather it is the idea that becomes the individual. In other words, the idea defines the individual. Essentially this is what music is. It is an assertion of an idea. For any idea to be taken seriously a musician must have power. This is what defines a performance. Music. And power.

Reference:

En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Coldplay. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldplay#Activism_and_commercial_endorsements [Accessed 28 Nov. 2018].