“People of the Pride” by Coldplay, Saturday, December 14, 2024
We haven't heard a rock song from English Alternative-turned-pop act Coldplay since...ever, come to think of it. Even when the band was considered cool in the early '00s, they weren't exactly known for distorted guitars or thundering bass. And years of refining their sound in a time when rock music's cultural impact retracted into the underground solidified Coldplay as the 21st century's definition of pop-rock. But in 2019, the band decided to break with their established sound and put out something a little more experimental, a two-disc record titled Everyday Life. The album was released with only three sparsely promoted singles and no planned tour to support the record, which didn't really matter since all tour plans would be canceled early the next year, anyway.
THERE'S A MAN WHO SWEARS HE'S GOD. Coldplay's previous album, Music of the Spheres, doesn't hold to a set genre. Lead singer Chris Martin has called the invention of genre as a racist categorization of music, thus Coldplay now feels free to use genre as if it were a mood on their latest album. While the signature sound of the album lies in the two biggest hits, "Higher Power" and "My Universe,"--ebullient Max Martin produced electro-pop--Coldplay delves into what would be considered "World Music" in the '90s ambient and album-oriented pop/rock. Today's song, "People of the Pride," though is an angry rock song in the way Coldplay has never gotten in touch with that emotion. Martin says that the song started out as a demo during the Viva La Vida session. Originally titled "The Man Who Swears," Max Martin encouraged the band to revisit the song for their latest album. The band used some of the original lyrics, and if they had released it without modification, they would have become a band that swore earlier than 2019, as the song contains a rare use of the f-bomb. Lyrically, the "People of the Pride" uses purely figurative language, but given the current political climate of the world, this figurative language seems all too clear.
YOU GOT A LION INSIDE. The word pride in Coldplay's "People of the Pride" seems to imply three distinct meanings of the word. First, the song begins by addressing "People to the left" and "People to the right," most likely discussing political division. These people have a "lion inside" and can revolt against the "man who swears he's god." The first use of pride refers to the people who are lions that surround the "man who swears he's god." The "man who swears he's god" has too much pride to admit that he is wrongfully using his leadership by making the people "march around" his "homemade cuckoo clock." The song's speaker also talks about religion: "It's all work; it's not easy / And we could all be blown away / And Heaven is a fire escape / You try to cling to in the dark." Whether or not God is equated with the dictator mentioned in the song or if religion is merely his tool is up for interpretation. Certainly, religion, historically, has been a means of social control, and the promise of heaven and the threat of hell have been the carrot and the stick that has kept a certain social order as well as a few bad actors in power. But the song implies one more meaning of pride. The line "We'll be free to fall in love / With who we want and say" most likely refers to LGBTQ+ pride. And this is the message wrapped in the mixed symbols: love is love no matter what governments and religions may try to manipulate or force away. It's certainly a less radical message than when U2 started swinging a pride flag around at concerts or even making a music video telling the story of reconciliation between a father and his gay son in the 1991 video for "One." In 2021, the message wasn't radical, yet very little has changed in the political and mainstream religious landscape. So few realize that they are being manipulated by the powerful to keep themselves down. When will the people of the pride understand what's really going on?
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