Coldplay set the direction of mainstream rock

With the end of Britpop, British music struggled to define itself. Domestic festival crowds were in thrall to the nice-guy rock of Travis, while Radiohead were taking over the international scene with the sour, gnashing rock of OK Computer. But it was a new band – initially compared to both – who would go on to colour the turn of the millennium. Was it something to do with how vulnerable a rain-soaked Chris Martin looked in the video for Yellow? Was it the romance of his lyrics, allied to the dramatic sweep of the music? Whatever it was, Yellow ushered in a fresh timbre of songwriting: yearning melancholy, buoyed by a sense of uplift. Who could have forecast that this soppiness could be so potent? Certainly not Oasis, whose own fortunes had plateaued after their failure to crack America. Coldplay went on to be a massive export, begetting Keane and Snow Patrol at home. We still haven't fully recovered.