Radiohead

About

Radiohead^[1] is a British electronic alternative rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire that consists of singer and frontman Thom Yorke, guitarist Ed O'Brien, guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, bassist Colin Greenwood and drummer Philip Selway. Since its formation in 1985, the band has released a number of critically acclaimed alternative rock and electronic songs in their career spanning over three decades.

Online History

Pablo Honey

The members of Radiohead met in 1985 while attending Abingdon School at Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. In 1992, the band recorded and released their first and most popular single to-date "Creep," though it didn't become a hit until it was re-released as the lead single for their debut album Pablo Honey in 1993. Upon its mainstream debut, the song climbed to the 7th place on UK Billboards^[2] and made them an internationally famous band, though some members, including the frontman Thom Yorke, later remarked that the overwhelming success of "Creep" had cast a shadow on other tracks on their first album.

The Bends

In 1995, Radiohead released their sophomore album The Bends, produced by John Leckie and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band. The album was seen by some as the beginning of a shift in aesthetics and style of music for the band, marked by increased presence of keyboards and juxtaposition of abrasive guitar tracks with subtler ones.

OK Computer

In June 1997, Radiohead released their third studio and first self-produced album OK Computer, which reached number one on the UK Albums chart upon its debut and also became the band's highest album entry at number 21 on U.S. Billboard 200 at the time. In a bold, deliberate departure from the guitar-centric sounds and introspective lyrics of their previous Britpop works, OK Computer set itself as a major turning point for the band's shift in artistic direction towards more melancholic and atmospheric sounds. The album was also met with unanimous critical acclaims from the review circles; it won the Best Alternative Album and a nomination for Album of the Year at the 1998 Grammy Awards, the first Grammy Awards recognition of the band's career, and it is often cited by many as one of the greatest rock albums of the 1990s.

Kid A & Amnesiac

In October 2000, Radiohead released their fourth album, Kid A, the first of two albums from these recording sessions. Rather than being a stylistic sequel to OK Computer, Kid A featured a minimalist and textured style with more diverse instrumentation including the ondes Martenot, programmed electronic beats, strings, and jazz horns. It debuted at number one in many countries, including the US, where its debut atop the Billboard chart marked a first for the band, and the first US number one album by any UK musician since the Spice Girls in 1996. This success was attributed variously to marketing, to the album's leak on the file-sharing network Napster a few months before its release.

In Rainbows

In October 2007, Radiohead unveiled their seventh studio album, which was self-produced and initially self-distributed on a pay-what-you-want model through a website, followed by its retail release across the world during the last week of December that year. As the band's first release after the expiration of their contract with EMI, In Rainbows, along with its heavily grassroots marketing and honor-based distribution models, was met by overwhelmingly positive reaction from the critics and fans alike and garnered heavy attention from the news media, with some hailing the band's decision to release the album online as "a revolution in the way major bands sell their music" and "easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business."

Reputation

Radiohead has been a popular band on the 4chan music board /mu/, normally being classified as /mu/core (essential music for beginners of the forum) for their more experimental albums often for their groundbreaking use of electronics.

"Creep"

Being their most famous song to this day, Creep has reached 92,425,984 views and 403,283 likes (shown below), as well as inspired countless covers, remixes and parodies.

Parodies & Tributes

Thom Yorke

Also famous is the reputation of the frontman, Thom Yorke, known for his horrible temperament which one magazine on with "…acid sarcasm, tense silences, sullen grunts and Kevin The Teenager huff. And, just occasionally, violent outbursts. Later, he will threaten to break the legs of Uncut's music editor. And he will be deadly serious."^[3] The Sheer popularity of Creep often angers him, because fans often ignore their other songs making him temperamental "When fans inevitably request "Creep," Yorke has responded on various occasions by telling them to fuck off, storming offstage, and inexplicably calling everyone in the audience "anally retarded…[sic]"^[5] this has become a subject of jokes amongst fans, painting Yorke as an easily angered pedantic old man^[6] with a terrible disdain for his own song.

OK Computer Recordings Leak

On June 5th, the alleged entire recordings from the OK Computer recording sessions leaked online. They were brought to the attention of the internet in a thread posted in /r/Radiohead^[7] by user abalechichi. There are eighteen disks of leaked recordings, totaling roughly 18 hours of music. Several internet users compiled a Google Doc with timestamps marking that appeared and when on the discs.^[8] On June 11th, 2019, guitarist Jonny Greenwood tweeted about the leak, saying that a hacker had stolen the material and threatened to leak it unless paid a $150,000 ransom.^[9] In response, the band had decided to release all the material themselves on Bandcamp^[10] for the price of 18 pounds and for a period of 18 days, with proceeds going to Extinction Rebellion, a climate activist group.

Related Memes

"Lotus Flower" Dance Remixes

Thom Yorke Dance Remixes are a series of dubbed videos featuring the music video footage of Radiohead’s 2011 single “Lotus Flower” set to the background music of various genres. Similar to other dance dub videos like the Charleston Dance and The Single Ladies Dance, “Lotus Flower” remixes are typically paired with well-known contemporary pop songs.

Search Interest

External References