Members Only: Band Members That Don’t Actually Play Any Instruments
Pondering the surprising number of musical acts that have official members that don’t actually play an instrument or sing. You know, like Coldplay.
“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and all the things that you do, non-performing band member …”
I personally gained a major distaste for Coldplay sometime in the early naughts, when I failed to understand the appeal of “Clocks,” despite having enjoyed Parachutes.
Perhaps it’s for that reason I never realized that Coldplay has five members, that I assumed they were a quartet. Certainly there are four members on stage actually playing the songs, right?
But there’s something weird about this situation that I think deserves discussion. See, the fifth member kind of crawled into place under everyone’s nose, in a way that only Coldplay superfans would actually be aware of.
Read on as I ponder the unusual, novel role of the non-playing band member.
