What is the appeal of Radiohead?

Even going back to that 1994 London Astoria gig (released as a home video and now on YouTube) they had a great light show, tight arrangements, great energy onstage. I don't see any demarcation since then, just evolution from strength to strength

 

I think the problem with a lot of listeners is Radiohead have polarized and divided their own audience to the point where these fans who loved say The Bends and OK Computer simply scratch their heads and don’t understand why they changed their sound. What is not understood by so many of these earlier Radiohead fans is that this is a band that simply doesn’t lie still and each member had decided that they needed to move forward and the only way to to move forward is by embracing new influences and not rely on past glories. Many of their older fans simply haven’t accepted this and they still can’t. For me, I think Kid A is their best album and I welcomed the departure. I’m glad they went in this new direction and it was a bold move, but I think it paid off artistically for them.

 

I see Kid A in the same vein as Blur's 13. They broke away from guitars and evolved into a far more progressive, interesting band.

 

I heard all their music when it came out and enjoyed it and bought OK when it came out and that's their album for me, like many others.

Don't sweat not liking the band. You'll find, especially since the 2000s, there's a permutation of ever conceivable possibility of alty-angsty Rock (hell, every kind) in band-form out there. Endless bands, one of which will have the exact ingredients you dig.

 

No band has an obligation to its fans to do anything. Their obligation is to themselves and their art or creation. If you like the direction they're going, go along. If not, stop. Why would someone "resent" growth? For me, I can't imagine listening to a band that never changes, that doesn't produce challenging music with every album. I'm fine with a band reinventing itself with every release. I've been underwhelmed by some RH songs over the years, but still look forward to giving anything they put out at least a listen. Well worth it more often than not.

 

Agreed. I’m firmly of the opinion that no band ever made a great record by appeasing their fans.

 

Listening to too much Radiohead can put you on a downer.
Best in small doses.
Go careful.

 

Pink Floyd of the 90's 00's perhaps? Too 'middle class'?

 

As with any band, I recommend starting with their ‘greatest hits’. If those tracks don’t grab you, the chances of deep cuts doing the job are doubtful at best. Think about the Smiths ‘Singles’ or ‘Staring at the Sea’ by the Cure. There’s a Radiohead compilation similar out there called the Best Of, but that album doesn’t cover their entire career.

 

As opposed to the working class millionaires in Pink Floyd?

 

I agree, I have all the Radiohead albums, so you can`t say I never tried (suddenly i`m writing song lyrics!), but I just don`t get it. I will keep coming back to them every now and again, but every time I see `OK COMPUTER` near the top of an all time great albums list I just have to shrug my shoulders......why?

 

I've never understood it.

Granted, I was in HS/college during peak-bro Radiohead worship. I knew "Creep," which was awful, and the couple singles from The Bends that got US airplay, and I was more or less like "what is this sad, mopey crap?" (Little did I know it would eventually give birth to Coldplay, which is even worse)

But when '97 hit, the hype was unreal. People in my circles talked about OK Computer and Kid A like they were hearing the Beatles for the first time, and...I didn't get it? Maybe if they had a better singer, but really any chance of me getting past the warbly vocals and the music growing on me was kind of ruined by certain people not shutting up about them for so many years.

But I'll also hold against them the end of the last great era of British rock...I grew up a yankee obsessed with Britpop...Blur, The Manics, Weller, Oasis, the Verve, all that. Of course music had to evolve, and most of those bands did. But the good parts: the anthems, the big choruses, the attitude, largely died in a sea of mopey Radiohead clones, it seems. (Except for Muse, who after their first couple LP's evolved into something really great for a few years)

 

I can hardly understand that David Gilmour, his Cockney accent is that strong.

 

What's most interesting with these threads is watching a band fall out of fashion. There are a few bands here that are ok to take down a notch or two. Some bands/musicians are untouchable and others for whatever curious reasons have music fans turn on them. Is the singer too winey? Are they too rich? Demanding requests about MM's? Did they change their sound too often? Not enough? A band like Radiohead, despite whatever problems you have with them should be reasonably well liked here, there's something for everyone.

Mind you in another thread I'll take a swipe at them.....

 

I’m much more of a casual fan, but my eldest son is a massive Radiohead fan, especially since he became a musician himself. FWIW, he thinks In Rainbows is their best album, and Ed O’Brien is “Radiohead’s secret weapon”.

 

I don't know. I can't see it, apparently. Because I can't stand them

 

I am an “earlier Radiohead fan” and of course I understand why they did it. Doesn’t mean I have to go on the journey with them and enjoy it.

 

Frankly, I think the opposite happened. Instead of choosing the easy route and making OK Computer part II, Radiohead took a very daring step by following their muse, and opting for an abrupt left-turn, resulting Kid A. Even so, despite Kid A being less accessible, it topped the charts almost everywhere including in the US. Whereas OK Computer only managed to reach #21 on the Billboard chart. So the joke's on the naysayers.

But as an aside, what made Kid A so polarizing is that Radiohead with their first albums not only appealed to the kids but also connected to a segment of older music fans (there are unmistakably mild prog tendencies on The Bends and OKC). So when Kid A was released it was for many a break with the past too radical.

 

I was a student in the nineties so I couldn’t avoid them but they’ve never particularly resonated with me. There’s nothing wrong with what they do. I get why people like them and their constant reinvention is quite admirable, but very few of their songs thrill or move me.

 

I feel quite differently than this post when it comes to reckoning with Radiohead’s “appeal,” and I sympathize with people who dislike or don’t “get” the band, even though I adore Radiohead. For me it’s quite complicated.

Although Radiohead can make music of great euphonious beauty, the lyrics and music and Thom Yorke’s voice often go very deep into a dark, nightmarish, dystopian zone of neurotic mania and terror and horror. There are definitely songs of consolation and love in the catalog, but I sometimes find that praise for Radiohead assumes a weirdly cheerful laddish tone that completely ignores and suppresses the intense challenging unpleasantness at the core of their vision. I find in certain moods I can’t listen to Radiohead without feeling a sense that I’m being tortured with quite a lot of painful disorienting ugliness and piercing mental anguish and unwellness. That dark feel-bad courage is a big part of their greatness, and when I’m up for it it’s sublime, but it sure doesn’t put them in the fun category of popular music.

 

You’re not obligated to like anything that doesn’t appeal to you, but I do hope you kept an open-mind when approaching Kid A and everything they’ve done since this album.

 

if you’d actually read my initial post you will have seen I said In Rainbows was my favourite Radiohead album.

 

None whatsoever.

 

At times brilliant. Others a bit redundant IMO.

 

Kid A is hailed as a masterpiece nowadays and it’s understandable why this is the case. I never cared much for earlier Radiohead and I always thought the inclusion of more electronics and keyboards into their sound would have opened them up to more experimentation. It turns out my wish came true with Kid A and it was everything I thought it was going to be and more. I have followed their music ever since. There have been a few disappointments here and there of course as I don’t like everything they’ve done, but I would say In Rainbows is probably my next favorite Radiohead album after Kid A.