Alex Rodriguez vs. The Newsroom: Who Used Coldplay's 'Fix You' Better?
By Kyle Koster
The New York Post's Page Six reported last month that Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez had broken up. The couple confirmed that they've gone their separate ways via an exclusive joint statement to the Today Show this morning. That's largely their business and The Big Lead is already significantly behind the Post, which has done 32 stories on the situation since first breaking the news.
But when Rodriguez posts a reflective Instagram story scored to Coldplay's Fix You, well, that just opens up the door for an important conversation about the song's place in sweeping and moving artistic enterprise.
Fix You is off of Coldplay's third album, X&Y, which was released in 2005. Per trusted source Wikipedia, it became immediately ubiquitous in pop culture with appearances in The O.C., the trailer for World Trade Center, Brothers & Sisters, and You, Me, and Dupree.
Conspicuously absent from this list is the ballad's star turn in the fourth episode of HBO's The Newsroom, which aired on July 15, 2012. It is, without a doubt, the most 2012 thing you'll have the pleasure of remembering today.
The Newsroom has been vilified for being too overly Sorkin and corny. There may be some valid concerns there but when in the right mindset, there is nothing better than being overcome with workplace inspiration and wanting to do Important Things. The music choice is appropriately over-the-top and self-important and all-around perfect.
So if forced to choose who did it better: Sorkin or A-Rod, I have to pick Sorkin. But it's close. What Rodriguez conveys in 10 seconds is quite powerful. There's something to be said about being secure enough to withstand the inevitable snark.