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
2 Responses
Radiohead.
I have to agree!