Coldplay (GB)

About

Also known as: Cold Play, Coolplay, The Coldplay, コールドプレイ, 콜드플레이

Few bands have managed to go from a 500 copy self released EP to the most attended tour in history, but that's roughly the arc Coldplay have carved out since forming in London in 1997. Built around Chris Martin's piano driven songwriting and the guitars of Jonny Buckland, with Guy Berryman on bass and Will Champion on drums, they broke through with "Yellow" on their debut Parachutes, and then kept scaling up. Their fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends made history when its title track became the first song by a British act to hit number one in both the US and UK simultaneously in the 21st century. Over the years their sound has stretched well beyond the post Britpop piano rock of their early records, pulling in electronica, gospel, funk, ambient and disco across albums like Mylo Xyloto, Ghost Stories and Music of the Spheres. That last record brought another landmark: "My Universe" was the first song by a British group to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. With over 160 million records sold and the first group ever to hit 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify, they remain one of the most listened to acts on the planet.