What is the appeal of Radiohead?

Everybody's going to have a seminal band they can't digest. For me, it's Pink Floyd, in any incarnation. Impenetrable for me, sorry, beyond the Dark Side Of The Moon staples that wore me out via FM radio in the 70s. That said, I don't hate Pink Floyd, they're just not to my tastes. So it doesn't piss me off that there are people who don't like or "get" Radiohead, which I love. There are so many great things to listen to. Some are idiosyncratic. Don't like 'em, move on. Why question your own judgment, which is going to be subjective anyway when it comes to music?

Oh yeah, Grateful Dead. Also dead to me. But don't hate 'em. Some of my best friends are Deadheads, and besides, Jerry Garcia could really play.

 

This is a super interesting take to me, mostly because I usually see so much focus on the albums. There have been some great non-album singles since the Kid A era, though, especially surrounding the King of Limbs

 

Up until and including year 2000's Kid A they used to make great groundbreaking albums. On Hail to the Thief (EMI 2003) they still seemed to make an effort to find their Mojo, but after that they lost their major label (EMI) and lost their focus totally.

 

If we want to discuss a band whose appeal I don't understand, there is Muse. I couldn't believe it when I read of this band being described as "progressive". Progressive bands don't do songs that are basically copies of Blondie.

 

I have no idea, all I know is that I found an Original pressing of Ok Computer on Vinyl for 10$!

 

You didn’t find In Rainbows to be focused? That’s their tightest album of all IMO

 

Hail To the Thief, IMO, has one great song (There There), and the rest sounds like noodling, much like most of Kid A and Amnesiac.

In Rainbows was an album that I heard once and I kind of let it wash over me without it making much of an impression. I probably need to revisit it.

I have not read much good about King of Limbs, and have not heard it, but Moon Shaped Pool is definitely a return to form.

 

One thing though is you have to include promotional singles in the case of Kid A, which would be:

Optimistic
Idioteque
National Anthem
How to Disappear Completely

I need nothing else from that album, not even the much hailed opener.

 

I knew Optimistic had at least been released to radio, wasn’t aware of the others. That’s basically half the record!

 

If one doesn't like a particular aspect of an artwork, one isn't obliged to try and like it. Fook it.

 

It wouldn’t last 5 minutes before it got chopped.

Radiohead, along with U2 are the forums top hates, if you ignore Yoko, so it obviously brings out the trolls as soon as their name is mentioned.

 

It must be understood that Radiohead are brilliant. They excel at what they do. They do it to perfection. Definitely one of the greatest bands of their generation. If one doesn't like them, it's no big deal.

 

Recognizable.... quite few friends are "into" Radiohead and I've read the reviews...I even bought the Uncut issue about this band and all their releases. I sometimes like the melodies, appreciate the 'feel' of the odd track, but nothing yet is clicking with me. Many tracks seem to have the angst and the "Weltschmerz" of the most world weary Lennon songs (A Day In The Life, Cry Baby Cry), but with added minor chords.....

 

Yes. Big leaps from album to album.

Smaller leaps from Kid A to Amnesiac/Hail To The Thief to In Rainbows to KOL. To me, A Moon Shaped Pool is isolated.

 

I'd argue the leaps stopped with In Rainbows, though in that case, I think the evolution had more to do with the manner in which they presented the record. Still a great album, though. It's been progressively less appealing and more tedious ever since.

 

I love Pink Floyd, up 'til the split with Roger. '80s Floyd was just OK to me.

I don't get The GD at all, but Jerry, Kreutzmann, and Hart were cool. I just can't get past Weir.

 

Quite right. Just as I now like many foods that I thought I didn't like as a kid, I now enjoy a lot of music that I didn't quite know how to approach when I was younger. Years of new experience and patience in the meantime have opened up a lot of doors that would have remained closed if I hadn't put in the effort to open them. And behind every new open door is some perspective that can help open other doors. Now, not everything new turns out to be worth the time and effort to crack, but enough of it is that it's worth the investment to me.

I have a number of friends who have spent their lives putting things in the "I like" and "I don't like" categories. Once it's in the box it's there forever. I sometimes used to try to get them to revisit certain music and other things, but it rarely took. I don't bother any more unless they seem truly curious.

 

This is true. Sadly, most music listeners have a very narrow focus, usually within the borders of their 15-25 age group. Moreover, they'll stay stuck within a genre and never push the envelope, or even only listen to a single artist or two (Springsteen/Petty, for instance, and nothing else). I guess that's fine. But when friends of mine list their favorite albums and they're all from the 1970s, it's internally dispiriting. We all know somebody who says, "There hasn't been any good new music in years."

Um, maybe because you don't listen to any?

 

healthy?

 

Have you Radiohead fans ever heard this song from 1968? I think it's much closer to their sound than the other older bands that have been mentioned.

J.K. & Co - Fly

 

Oh look, another thinly disguised “hate” thread

It seems as though a few of you are still holding onto a 20-year grudge

 

What's the problem? Lots of people don’t like Radiohead, despite the critical acclaim. My wife doesn’t like them at all (she loves Sting).

Life’s way too short to have to “learn” to love music you don’t like.

 

Unique arrangements especially guitar wise. Unusual song structures and harmonic devices. Brilliant use of tension and release in some of their songs. Great instantly recognizable melodies in some songs and yet angular hard sounding melodies in some songs. Their unique approach to recapitulation (or lack thereof) and repetition is brilliant as well.
Do I like everything they have produced? Nope. But I think I recognize their greatness on a technical basis and it's uniqueness.

 

Listen to what they do with the intro guitar line thru this song. How it morphs harmonically and rhythmically.
Then how it used in harmony with a standard chord progression rooted in Rhythm and Blues in the verse. How it is used as a 5 vs 4 dissonance in the verse.
One of the few bands over the years that made me think "what is this"?
Yorke's vocals are unusual as well..kind of dreary as you said.
Give OK Computer another shot. It took me a while but I gradually got into it.

 

Well said. I did that for the longest time. While I still dabbled in various genres, I kind of ignored several. And I regret it. Lots of bands/artists I now love that I wish I would have been more open minded to earlier and maybe had the chance to see them in concert (REM, Crowded House, Paul McCartney being perfect examples)