I've Never Been A Big Counting Crows Fan, But Chris Martin's Documentary Interview Changed My Perspective

When I sat down to watch the new documentary about the Counting Crows, which was one of many music documentaries I watched in 2025, I wasn’t expecting to have my mind changed on the band. Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately, which you can watch now with an HBO Max subscription, is a great history of the band, and while they still aren’t my favorite or anything, I realized I was just being a snob about them in the past. It was an interview with another much-maligned singer by music critics, Chris Martin of Coldplay, that changed my mind.

I Admit, I Can Be A Music Snob Sometimes

In a past life as a writer, I was a music critic. When I wrote about music, I tried desperately not to be a snob about it, but when it came to bands that got big when I was a teenager or in college in the ‘90s, I remained a snob about bands I didn’t like. Counting Crows was one of those bands I was a snob about then, and remained so for years. I didn’t like them, and I was hardly the only one.

There is a significant portion of the documentary that speaks to the reaction the band garnered from rock critics in the ‘90s. They were basically hated by them, while at the same time, beloved by their fans. As the documentary goes on, one of the people interviewed throughout is Chris Martin, and I am an unabashed and unashamed fan of his band, Coldplay. That's a band very much like Counting Crows in that “serious” music people tend to dismiss them or deride them, but their fans love them. One perspective from Martin really struck home with me.

One Quote Really Stuck Out

Towards the very end of Have You Seen Me Lately, Martin and others are talking about the legacy of the Counting Crows and how many contemporary ‘90s bands that were lauded by critics have completely disappeared, while Counting Crows have remained very popular with their fanbase. Martin says this is because the band, and especially lead singer and songwriter Adam Duritz, stays true to himself. According to Martin:

So, while I had long dismissed Duritz and his band’s music, hearing this from Chris Martin, who gets the same kind of dismissive reviews, really changed my perspective. I’ll be honest, it should have changed years ago, but better late than never, I suppose! As someone who has often been defensive about Coldplay, explaining to their haters that they are a really great band that too many people dismiss out of hand, it turns out I was doing the same thing with Counting Crows.

Counting Crows will never be my favorite band, but that’s my problem, not Duritz’s or the band’s. I do understand how their fans feel, and that’s what is important here. Hopefully, there will be another music documentary on the 2026 TV schedule that similarly changes my mind on an artist I dismissed unfairly.