Coldplay vs Radiohead: Who Wins?

Coldplay vs Radiohead

Why do I even ask?

They’re two British bands who were wed

Drinking from the alt-rock flask

 

It all happened around the 1990s

Give or take a few years

At first their stuff had similarities

And the comparisons began to appear

 

Both bands had reasonably nice chaps

And attracted an intellectual crowd

They avoided the usual pitfalls and traps

There was no drug-addled black cloud

 

Radiohead had frontman Thom Yorke

And in ’93 broke out with the song “Creep”

Sure, the kid was a closeted dork

But his artistry, man it ran deep

 

Coldplay was fronted by the now-known Chris Martin

And in 2000 hit it big with “Yellow”

No way that dude would be a has-been

Save dancing, he was a multitalented fellow

 

Looking back at things

Their first three albums came from the same stock

By using then-ubiquitous guitar strings

They gave us “Paranoid Android” and “Clocks”

 

But then there appeared a fork in the road

When the death of rock seemed near

Music turned into a free download

And the need for something else was clear

 

Radiohead went the experimental route

With a dystopian and guitarless record drop

While Coldplay opted for another pursuit

Slowly shifting their sound to mainstream pop

 

The Radiohead album was called Kid A

And the sound was definitely a stranger

The critics were divided, you could say

But the work is considered a game changer

 

The Coldplay transition wasn’t as dramatic

It took a few albums to change what they gave us

Once there, though, it did border on drastic

Go ask Beyoncé—she made this track famous

 

Speaking of famous, that’s what Coldplay became

Working with Chainsmokers, Rihanna, and BTS

In that there really is no shame

They even did the Super Bowl, as you might have guessed

 

Radiohead on the other hand was under-the-radar

Making art for artists and a loyal following

They pushed the envelope, dabbling in the bizarre

This 2011 video is definitely, um, interesting

 

But who is better?, that was the question

It depends on the utilized metric

Everyone has an opinion, it must be mentioned

And talking about art is never geometric

 

In musicianship, Radiohead is in a different league

It’s fair to use the word greatness

While Coldplay’s best does bring intrigue

Generational it is not—just a radio-friendly playlist

 

But Martin in songwriting is clearly gifted

He makes it all look so easy

Yorke is too, though more tortured and stilted

And the angst can make you feel queasy

 

Coldplay’s music has been derided as simple

And they’ve received all sorts of venom

Mostly from those who’re much too cynical

Going nowhere in life with a lot of momentum

 

So if you’re a wannabe music critic

Then the answer could very well be Radiohead

But if you want fun tunes that are not acidic

It just might be Coldplay (or Right Said Fred)

 

They’re both nine albums deep a few decades later

Wildly successful in their now-separate spheres

So separate they may call me a clickbaiter

For answering a question outdated by 15 years