- Coldplay recently announced their new single "Higher Power" will be released on Friday.
- The band has adopted an "extraterrestrial" aesthetic and changed their Twitter location to "Kaotica."
- Fans think the campaign is eerily similar to Lady Gaga's pink-and-purple "Chromatica" era.
Coldplay is in the midst of launching a new music era, and Lady Gaga fans say they're experiencing deja vu.
The Grammy-winning band recently announced that their new single, "Higher Power," will be released on Friday.
"Higher Power is a song that arrived on a little keyboard and a bathroom sink at the start of 2020," the band wrote on Twitter. "It was produced by Max Martin who is a true wonder of the universe."
The cover art is a circular formation of neon-pink symbols, apparently meant to be letters in a made-up language, set against a black-and-blue ombré background.
—Coldplay (@coldplay) April 29, 2021
For this rollout, Coldplay has adopted a pink, purple, and blue aesthetic to match a galactic, otherworldly theme.
One tweet promoting the single reads, "SIGNAL FOUND. EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMMS ESTABLISHED." In another, the band referred to "our friends on Kaotica."
Coldplay's location on Twitter has also been changed to "Kaotica," which some fans believe will be the name of their forthcoming album.
Some of the band's new merchandise features a pink-and-blue sphere, suggesting that "Kaotica" is the name of an imaginary planet.
Gaga fans online have taken notice of the band's new artistic direction.
The singer's 2020 album "Chromatica" also leaned heavily on the colors pink, purple, and blue in promotional materials.
The album's symbol was a circle with the sine wave inside, and the title refers to a sort of inner planet that Gaga says she created to escape trauma.
"It's right here. I might sound silly, but I'm on it right now — I'm not on another planet. If you see and listen to 'Chromatica,' and you want to live there, too, you're invited. But I do want to be clear that it's not a fantasy," she told Paper magazine, explaining that she "deleted Earth" and "replaced it with 'Chromatica'" in her mind.
While there's no indication yet that Coldplay's new album will be called "Kaotica," some fans have accused the band of "ripping off" the "Chromatica" concept.
In response to Coldplay's new billboards, artwork, and promotional images on Twitter, many have been responding with aesthetically similar images from Gaga's album rollout.
"Gaga didn't invent the concept of imaginary planets, we know that," one person wrote. "The only issue I have is the name of the planet + the aesthetics, particularly the colour palette. They must've known it was going to be compared to chromatica."
—mustafa (@mustierich) May 3, 2021
—juan (@redrumjuan) May 3, 2021
—Lady Gaga Charts (@charts_lady) May 3, 2021
—𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀 🧪 (@madeofouterspce) May 3, 2021
Other fans have reacted with jokes and memes.
—tade~ 👾 (@BlondeFeministe) May 3, 2021
—(^._.^)ﾉ (@yaaasgugu) May 3, 2021
—Queer-Coded Villain (@mister_meaners_) May 3, 2021
A representative for Coldplay did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.