Chris Martin has said that Coldplay had to work hard to avoid plagiarising other people's work whilst recording new album X&Y, and admitted having some difficulty generating material, saying "The things that changed are, we have more things to sing about and more people to plagiarise." The singer also rejected claims that the band have become bland: "The way we operate is still pretty similar: we go down one path at a canter then realise that really we want a bit more excitement than this - which might sound extraordinary, because I don't think people associate Coldplay with excitement necessarily - but, believe me, we could sound a lot more bland."
The Coldplay frontman has also been holding forth with his views on celebrity, saying that "Fame isn't all it is cracked up to be," adding that people ignore great books, music and architecture because they are more interested in celebrities. He continues: "Everything is subservient to this idea of celebrity. Great things get ignored because they're not famous enough but people can tell you who's dating who."
Which is what I'm always saying. But people listen to him, not me, because he's famous.