Coldplay has been named the most played British group of the 21st century by music licensing company PPL, which has released its list of the UK’s most played bands to mark National Album Day 2024 on 19th October, which this year celebrates Great British Groups.
Coldplay’s music has been played 40,000 more times across UK radio and TV than rock legends Queen, who came in at number 2. Viva La Vida leads the way as Coldplay’s biggest track, being played an average of 27 times each day since its release in 2008, followed by Paradise, Clocks, Something Just Like This and Adventure of a Lifetime. In total, the band has notched up 400,000,000 seconds – or 13 years – of airplay this century.
PPL licenses the use of recorded music on radio, TV and in public places such as shops, bars, restaurants, gyms, offices and warehouses in the UK and receives extensive airplay reporting from these broadcasters and public performance venues.
National Album Day is organised jointly by labels trade body the BPI and digital entertainment and retail association ERA in partnership with BBC Radio 2 and the wider music industry to celebrate the ‘art of the album’. It aims to promote engagement around the album format, particularly by younger music consumers. Now in its seventh edition, the theme this year is Great British Groups.
90s boyband Take That, The X Factor’s Little Mix and Liverpool Fab Four, The Beatles, complete the top five. Oasis’s recent surge in airplay after Noel and Liam’s long-awaited reunion came just too late as the band ranks just outside the top five in sixth place.
# GROUP
1 Coldplay
2 Queen
3 Take That
4 Little Mix
5 The Beatles
6 Oasis
7 The Bee Gees
8 The Stereophonics
9 The Eurythmics
10 The Rolling Stones
11 Clean Bandit
12 Duran Duran
13 Sugababes
14 The Police
15 Simply Red
16 Snow Patrol
17 Electric Light Orchestra
18 Keane
19 Wham!
20 Texas
The staying power of Britain’s most iconic bands is on show, with the chart dominated by groups who rose to prominence before the turn of the century. Going back to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 60s, many of them have been wowing fans and gracing our airwaves for decades. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was released in 1975, while the Bee Gees exploded in popularity on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever in 1977. Wham! first had worldwide success in the 80s, a decade which also produced Duran Duran and The Police, while The Eurythmics continue to be a mainstay on our airwaves four decades on from their timeless 1983 hit Sweet Dreams.
With the 1990s also contributing giants like Oasis, Take That and Simply Red, the list reflects the enduring power of the great British bands of the 20th century, who continue to soundtrack our lives decades after their arrival. Take That, the Sugababes, the Stereophonics and Simply Red are all releasing albums on National Album Day itself, while Coldplay’s latest album ‘Moon Music’ comes out next Friday (4 October).
