Radiohead | A Band That Changed My Music Taste From So On
Radiohead. At this point, everyone heard of their name. Radiohead. Is it a grunge band? Is it a hard rock band? Is it an experimental band? Well, they are more than that, at least in terms of the genres.
Radiohead defines my music taste. How could I say that? Are there any other bands that also define your music taste? Well, they are the starting point to where I am now. A kid that always says that you’re music taste is shit and stated proudly that Radiohead is the best band in the world. Believe me, all Radiohead fans will agree with me, sort of.
So who is this Radiohead for those who don’t explore too much in the music industry? Radiohead is a British ‘rock’ band, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They were formed in 1985 under the name of ‘On A Friday’. Why? Well, of course, they always had rehearsals and jamming sessions on Fridays. The band consists of 5 members; Thom Yorke as the vocalist, Colin Greenwood as the bassist, Ed O’Brien as the rhythm guitarist, Phil Selway as the drummer, and of course the last member and also the youngest to join, Jonny Greenwood as the lead guitarist of the band. For the record, that’s the furthest knowledge of me knowing part of their history. Thank you, Wikipedia.
People will start questioning, “What’s so special about Radiohead?”. Well, nothing really, in terms of their music. There are not many people who listen to their songs, by their songs I mean other than their hits, *ehm* Creep *ehm*.
What I’m trying to say is, it’s only a matter of perspectives of people liking music. I understand why not much people listen to Radiohead, because, to be honest, I don’t like them from the start, I have the same backstory as you guys who don’t listen to much of their music.
But the funny thing is, in the end, they are, will probably, be my favorite band of all time. Do I like all of their songs, not really, but what I like about them is the transformation from the band who follows the trend at that time, into a ground-breaking, innovative, and an idealist band who kept their sounds throughout the years of them making an excellent music.
The story of me, knowing Radiohead, trace back since I was in high school. It was in 2015, I invited my friend to come over to my house and have a chat about school and others. During our conversation, he suddenly asked me about this particular song that I don’t know about. It goes like this,
Friend: “Dude, I have this really good song I think you’re gonna liked it”
Me: “What is it?”
Friend: “It’s from a band called Radiohead, have you ever heard about them?”
Me: “Oh yeah I think I heard them before, isn’t that the band who sang Creep?”
Friend: “Yeah, but this one is from another album, it’s called High & Dry”
Me: “Let me have a listen to it”
I listened to it. I listened to it. I listened to it 3 times. I liked it.
I’m in love with the intro of the song, the strumming of the guitar at the beginning of the song really helped me continue onwards deep into the song. The vocals, it’s so soothing, especially during the chorus where he sang in a high-pitched sound, it gives me goosebumps, I’ll never forget that moment.
That is the very first exposure of me to Radiohead, next thing is I listened to Creep, and surprisingly, I didn’t like it.
It’s so, depressing. That’s it. But that’s the point of all Radiohead songs right? It needs to be depressing. But again, I listened to it for the first time, and it’s really hard to get attached to the song itself, I try and I try for a few times and still, I can’t. But again, that’s the point of listening to a new band right? It’s hard to get attached to their songs, especially in this case, Radiohead. I finally gave up listening to Creep and moving forward to their famous album in 1997, OK Computer.
A point to remember that I just heard their song High & Dry, and here I am, listening to one of the best albums that they made, OK Computer. Also, a point to note that I will not discuss their previous 2 albums because that’s the basic level entry of Radiohead, most of their hits are in those albums, so I’m going to tell my experience from OK Computer and onwards because everyone can agree, especially the fans, that it’s the defining moment of their career, as a band.
This, this album. It really changes my perspective on music in general. This band helped me redirect my viewpoint of music, into a much deeper consciousness of music and how I can appreciate music from a wider point of view. From the very first track until the last track of this album, I love it all. I listen to this album on a repeat for the rest of the year and still hasn’t managed to bore the fuck out of me yet. This is a masterpiece, it’s with “No Surprises” that this album won a Grammy for the Best Alternative Album the year after its release.
From what I can get from its lyrics, I can imagine that this album is set on a dystopian world where there are far more greater reality than hope that you had been thinking. What I’m trying to say is, this is where reality smacks the fuck out of you. I can give you an example, Track 10, No Surprises. From what I can get, this song is giving a message that we live in a system that always repeats, starts from our grandfather to our grandsons, and so on. Imagine getting up in the morning, realizing that you have to go to work, go home, go to sleep, and do it again for the rest of your life until you drop dead from a deadly disease or a freak accident. It’s like telling how pointless your life is, your life is dedicated to the corporation who lives longer than most humans in this world, and you feed your energy to them. It’s getting a bit political, isn’t it?. I’m not good at discussing politics but that’s what I get from the song itself, or the album itself.
How could a band that creates a song like Creep, into more critical songs that really define what the band shapes?
That’s one of the reasons why I really liked the band, maturity. In terms of the member, the maturity came from the viewpoint of the band during its time, during the 90s. The time where the Internet is a thing and every country and nations in the world are influenced by it. The perfect time for the band to release their third album, which again, conveys the message of a dystopian world full with information that is critical and depicted in the world nowadays.
That’s what I like from OK Computer, the band finally exposes themselves that they are not a one-hit band, rather than a solid band who produces good music and critical message. Maturity is their ‘USP’, and I really appreciate a band who kept on to their ideality and kept making music according to their preferences. That brings me to other reason why I like Radiohead, the next album that is perfect to bring is no other than, Kid A.
What’s the connection with maturity and ideality with this album? All I can say is that Radiohead really shocks a lot of their listeners with this album. Why? Their 3 previous albums, the songs in it, have a hard strumming guitar, a fast tempo drum beats, and high screeching voice of its vocalist, Thom Yorke. This album, well, most of the songs, are more to electronica. I can say that there are only 2–3 songs that have guitars in it, other than that, nuh.
The band has taken a major diversion from the previous sounds that they made. From anthemic rock strumming guitar, into a more complex rhythmic beat, such as from the song Idioteque. Be remindful that not all band have its successful transition from their previous sounds into a new one, and amazingly, Radiohead has achieved it.
From myself, while listening to the album for the first time, It’s kinda a love-hate relationship with this album. I don’t like all the songs in the album but again, there are some good songs in the album that I kept on repeating the song again and again, such as The National Anthem and the title track, Kid A. Then I listened to it again, again and again, and again. Until finally, from all Radiohead discography, this is my favorite Radiohead album.
I thanked Radiohead for this album. This is also a trigger moment where I started to other similar songs like in this album. The reason that I said this is my favorite Radiohead album amongst all albums that they released, is because of this particular word, experimental.
I crave for experimental songs, not all people liken experimental songs because sometimes it’s weird and edgy, but the thing is, that’s what makes the genre’s good about, some artists have the courage to create their own sounds and genre and managed to have people like their songs, that’s a bold thing to do, it took some balls to take a risk where not all people are able to listen to the songs. If I put it in an analogy, it’s like giving Gordon Ramsay an instant noodle, it’s good but we don’t know whether if he’ll like it or not. To put things in a nutshell basically, Radiohead introduces me to experimental songs.
And they don’t stop from there, the next albums that they produced are purely experimental, and the sounds kept on changing, such as the album Hail To The Thief in 2003, they bring back the guitars, but put some a few electronic instruments in there too, like the song Myxomatosis and Backdrifts. It continues until their latest album A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016, where they’ve taken a mellow approach to this album.
The question still remains, why Radiohead?
I think Radiohead is more than a band for me, Radiohead helped me through many things in life. I mean almost everything in my life, even as I’m typing this article, I’m listening to their songs. They helped me to understand their point of view of the world and compared it to mine, they helped me through my hard times, if I’m feeling down and not really want to talk to anyone, How To Disappear Completely helps me to cool it down and kept repeating the mantra
“I’m not here, this isn’t happening.”
Radiohead also helped me making new friends, imagine meeting a new friend who listens to their music and asked the very first question that every Radiohead fans musk ask,
“What is your favourite Radiohead album?”
Really, It’s a fun thing to do actually.
Radiohead also helped me broadens my music taste, like previously mentioned, it introduces me to experimental music and I really fucking thank them for it. It helps me to appreciate more music in the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s in different language, different instruments or sounds that they produced, or even a simple lyrics. I don’t really give a fuck any single of it since then, if it’s good to my ears, then it’s good for me.
You might think that this article is biased towards Radiohead, saying that Radiohead is the best band in the world and your band is a piece of shit. It really doesn’t actually, this article only helps me describe and explain why I love Radiohead more than any other bands that exists or existed.
But do give it a listen though, I really appreciate it if you listen to their songs.
And one more thing, if any Radiohead fans reading this article, this is my list of my favourite album to the least favourite ones.
- Kid A
- OK Computer
- In Rainbows
- The Bends
- A Moon Shaped Pool
- Amnesiac
- Pablo Honey
- Hail To The Thief
- The King Of Limbs
Above all, I thank you all for those who read this article until this last part. I really appreciate it.