Part 5 - What I am FOR - Not Being Popular

I got into Coldplay before you did. That is a fact. I heard their demo on XFM in 1999 and bought their first EP’s and told anyone who would listen how good this band was and how big they were going to be. Most people ignored me because I often get overly enthusiastic about new music and new artists that I fall in love with. Then ‘Yellow’ came out and everyone was coming up to me and telling me about this new band and their new song. They became big because they were good. But they wanted more. They wanted to become immensely popular.

I still think they are a good band capable of some great music, even though their predilection for epic stadium busting anthems is more than a little ridiculous. (If they are your height of cutting edge music then you REALLY need to get out more. No, seriously). You can see their internal struggle - between pleasing the grateful masses and making music that they love. I’m sure they feel like they achieve both, yet not for me. My problem is not that they are popular. But that they should try and be popular. As the new single proclaims “If you love me/Won’t you let me know”. They need to be loved by the masses and they need to know it.

And I just don’t think that makes for the best music or the best art or for a happy life.

I have never been cool and I never intend to be. Even when I had hair it never looked cool. No matter the cut or the product or the preening. Just didn’t happen. Even good jeans look rubbish on me because I have the legs of a Hobbit. I am currently lumbering ungracefully towards my 30’s with barely more credibility, fashion sense or social skills than I had as a clueless 15 year old.

My high school years were strange because in Harrow, you would join secondary school a year later than everyone else, when you were 12, and then there was also no sixth form so you would leave at 16. I’ve since realised it’s not until around sixth form age before individuality and uniqueness are appreciated at all in teenagers. Prior to that you are all working out your identity internally whilst externally maintaining a facade of total conformity.

At the London Comprehensive that I attended for 4 years, being in the choir wasn’t very cool. Neither was having Cica trainers. And going to church was like a invite for ridicule. I knew even from those early years that if being popular or cool meant being a vain fool or a mindless, monkey-like Alpha male, then I didn’t want it.

So I never got on with being popular and I contain a monumental suspicion for anything that positions itself in a place for being widely received. Generally this suspicion has served me well. I’ve managed to avoid reading The Sun, or watching ITV, or wearing Nike/Burberry/Von Dutch/Jack Wills/Bench/Superdry/insert bloodsucking brand here, or listening to Keane.

Now, by valuing ‘Not Being Popular’ I don’t necessarily mean valuing ‘Being Unpopular’. I think it has more to do with being unconcerned with popular opinion at all. There are many great examples of real quality and artistic integrity that are insanely popular; ‘The Beatles’ weren’t a small band; ‘Lost’ has huge ratings but deserves 10 times as many people watching it and I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes ‘Star Wars’.

Popularity is just not an accurate gauge of anything worthwhile. It is the most empty form of success and a sign of the upside world we live in; where we would rather have the fleeting attention of the hoards rather the constant devotion of a few loved ones. Or the eternal attention and devotion of the One.

"I'm not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God's love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God?” - John 5:41-44