Coldplay Details
With its distinctive brand of melodic anthem rock, British group Coldplay has dominated the airwaves for all of the 21st century. While students at the University College of London in 1996, vocalist/keyboardist Chris Martin and guitarist started a band by the elegant name of Pectoralz. The group underwent one more name change (Starfish) and the addition of two new members (bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion) before adopting the name of Coldplay in 1998. After signing to major label Parlophone a year later, the band released its debut studio album Parachutes in the year 2000. It was an overwhelming success, debuting at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and ultimately selling nine million copies worldwide, with “Yellow” becoming the group’s first hit single.
If Parachutes was the group’s introduction, then sophomore album A Rush of Blood to the Head was its magnum opus. It is Coldplay’s best-selling album to date with 20 million copies sold worldwide, and it spawned three top-ten singles in “In My Place,” “The Scientist” and “Clocks.” The band went on to win the 2004 Record of the Year Grammy for “Clocks.” The band topped the singles charts for the first time in 2008 with its smash single “Viva la Vida,” and then repeated the feat in 2011 with “Paradise.” In 2016, the band joined fellow superstars Beyonce and Bruno Mars on stage at halftime of Super Bowl 50. In 2017, Coldplay released “Something Just Like This,” a collaboration with red-hot DJ duo The Chainsmokers.