What is the appeal of Radiohead?

Honestly I can’t be bothered. Sorry. I "made a claim"? It’s just my impression. What will happen the day you finally read a bad Radiohead review? Kind of proves my original point.

 

Music that can be demanding and setting it's own pace and style, rare as rare can be in this day and age

 

I love the Velvet Underground too. Much better than Radiohead.

 

And what’s your point? Music isn't a popularity contest.

 

Go back a couple pages maybe, to see where I was coming from. And cheer up.

 

The point is that they’ve evolved extremely far from that “simplicity” since then, but I guess that point went “whoosh” over your head.

I couldn’t care less what the public deems “famous” and don’t see what that has to do with the complexity of their music, or not.

 

You mean this one?

My point about music not being a popularity contest still stands. Also, I think you’re off the mark in your comments regarding Radiohead and the reasoning for their radical departure after OK Computer. Thom Yorke has repeatedly stated that he felt the band needed to work from a clean slate, because he didn’t want Radiohead to become something that was stagnant. You’re also wrong in that Radiohead were critical darlings --- Kid A was widely criticized when it was released 20 years ago (wow...I can’t believe this much time has elapsed already). Of course, nowadays, as I have mentioned before, this album has gained a following and it is universally lauded as being an album that has broke new ground for them. I think Radiohead were genuine in their need for change and wanted to explore new musical avenues for themselves and it didn’t really matter to them what their fans/critics said as they did what they had to do and I applaud them for going with their gut. So, in short, it doesn’t really matter what you say negatively about them as they have earned their place in music history.

 

Ultimately, I think that Radiohead's appeal is largely based on their collective movie-idol/pop star good looks...

 

Everyone has their own tastes & opinions but for me, music doesn't get much better than this. There are a ton of pro-shot full concerts on YouTube as well. Fantastic live band.

 

Or this.

 

Nope. I meant this one:

 

In my opinion, no.

 

Idk, I don't read reviews.

 

Okay and as I said, they haven’t always been the critic darlings you said they were. Kid A was seen as a major disappointment at the time, although there was some good reviews as well. Anyway, critical success or not, Radiohead are one of the great rock bands, IMHO.

 

Life is too short to worry about why you don't like a band.

This Radiohead fan also loves King Crimson, Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Joy Division/New Order, David Sylvian, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, VDGG, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Prefab Sprout, XTC, St Vincent, Laura Marling, Supersilent, Talking Heads, Wayne Shorter, Andrew Hill, Vijay Iyer, Massive Attack, The Clash, Eberhard Weber, John Zorn, Myra Melford, Dave Holland, Jon Hassell, ...

Is there a pattern, I am not sure.

 

This. Remember too that the troll famously declared

"Thank God for Coldplay. It's where all we Bends and Computer fans went when Raidiohead went all 'art'."

in this thread. Click the link for more highly amusing quotes

Radiohead's drastic change in 1999-2000?

 

I can try to answer the OP’s question before this thread gets locked (and I just listened to In Rainbows):

What’s their appeal? They’re a musically adventurous band, Yorke’s vocals and lyrics are interesting, they have one hell of a great guitarist in Jonny Greenwood; their albums are often fantastic-sounding, and to me they were still making vibrant, intriguing, challenging and interesting music up to The King Of Limbs (A Moon Shaped Pool I thought was very good as well, but there are some overly-sedate moments on it).

They’re deserving of the critical plaudits thrown their way IMO—a band that’s highly revered but they seem to keep themselves down to Earth.

If they were to bow out now (as it’s been customary to suggest every time they put out a new record), they would go out leaving one of the greatest catalogs in popular music.

 

Well, actually music IS a popularity contest.
Go ask `ED` and `Taylor`, and then ask all those people on `Bandcamp`.

 

Sooooo... at the time of Pablo Honey and The Bends I was working in an open plan office where I didn’t have control of the CD player. The constant repetition of both albums, particularly the second, put me off the group for life. Or so I thought...

I binged s1/s2 of Ozark immediately before s3’s release earlier this year, and hearing Decks Dark and Daily Mail within a week of each other compelled me to give Radiohead another go.

I’ve skipped Pablo Honey because I know I don’t like it, and I’m taking things slowly: have just acquired Hail to the Thief.

Early indications are that they’re jolly good. I still haven’t found a ‘better’ song than Daily Mail, though...

 

“The Daily Mail” is a superb track IMO, and dare I say, a very Lennon-esque one. It really should have been included as track 2 on The King Of Limbs.

 

I’m still waiting for my Damascene conversion with Lennon, so can’t comment on that.

I got quite obsessive about Daily Mail, and after watching all the live performances I can find online I’m still unsure as to who is producing what sound. They’re all noodling away frantically when the NOISE hits, but to me it still sounds like half a dozen really angry tubas.

 

It is! Often more simplistic music structurally becomes the most popular. Which would be an interesting thread all on its own.

I think if most people can sing the song in the car or the shower, it has its best chances of being popular with the masses. Creep is one of these songs.

Radiohead kind of disowned Creep for a few years there, but then they seemed to start to enjoy playing it again (perhaps because of the response from the crowd).

Either way, it's a song they made when they were 23/24 years old. It was released in the fall of 1992.

It makes sense that their music was not as "complex" when they were just out of college and starting out. Also the music landscape and recording and mixing technology was just completely different 28 years ago.

 

What's the appeal? Grosso modo, I would describe it as a marvelous mix of great music and lyrics.