What will the general attitude towards Radiohead be in twenty or thirty years?

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-- Electric Sound of Radiohead Webster Dictionary in NYC (electri...), April 13, 2025 12:18 AM.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

If there's any musical justice, they will be regarded nearly as highly as the Beatles.

― Nigel (Nigel), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oooh, if the Pink Floyd deal happens maybe Thom Yorke will amscray and Ed O'Brien will sing lead on the stadium circuit.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

hahaha!
OTM

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

They'll be the Beatles in terms of canonical respectability, but not in terms of pop appeal, people knowing their songs, or radio play. Are there any other antecedents for this other than Floyd? Maybe, uh, Beefheart or Velvet Underground?

(I don't mean musically, since I've never listened to the music of either one)

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

Beefheart or the Velvets? No way. No, they are Floyd and Floyd only. In terms of music, fanbase, cultural signifiers, and overall quality, that's them, right there. And post-Barrett Floyd, at that.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

They get points for making Ummagumma and The Wall the same album.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

Radiowho?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 20:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

Velvet Underground never had a #1 record. Dark Side Of The Moon charted for over 10 years. Radiohead is neither of these.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 21:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

Radiohead: The Death Knell of Post-Rock? (570 new answers)

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 00:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

VU had a US #1 record?

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 00:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

Fuck, sorry, misread that.

Anyway, I was surprised to find out (just now) that Radiohead's only US #1 was Kid A.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 00:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, the ones since were kept off the top by Staind and Luther, respectively. (Ah, Staind. And where have they ended up?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 00:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

Johnny Greenwood will be considered great.

― Anthony Lombardi (CCPO), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 00:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

how could it be anything other than floyd? again, those legions of new depressed teens, and the millions of middle aged folks remembering doing drugs in their college dorm rooms both gurantee their floyd-like status.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 01:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

I agree with the Radiohead : Pink Floyd analogy entirely, however this leaves me with the following conundrum

Radiohead : Pink Floyd = R.E.M. : ??????

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

People will be saying "If only Bono hadn't turned Dick Cheney onto them".
(See Chris Martin: "World War II could have been prevented had Hitler listened to Bob Marley")

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

They will only be remembered as a two-hit wonders with Creep and The Bends before they turned into a freakshow where they abandoned their attractive melodic guitar-based song approach into barbaric, monotonous electronic whizz and bangs. This is what happens when bands waste too much time reading worthless rubbish like Wire magazines when they should be writing proper songs. Coldplay straight away filled the gap left by Radioheads and will be remembered long after Radioheads are laughed at as a hippy fantasy.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

Floyd:Radiohead::The Eagles:Coldplay

― Jacob (Jacob), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm still more inclined to think "Supertramp" rather than "The Eagles"; not least because if anyone's going to represent The Eagles in one of these equations then surely it has to be Wilco?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 08:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

here's a new trick: try to think of things not exclusively in terms of other, older, things. radiohead will be radiohead, not pink floyd. will there be similarities? perhaps. but it's a lazy argument.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 08:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

Rubbish. The Eagles gave a long history of strong, memorable melodic hit songs like "Hotel California," "Lying Eyes" and "Live In The Fast Lane," not to mention subsequent solo smashes like "Boy Of Summer" and "Life's Been Good." Wilco have recorded zero melodic songs - like Radioheads, they read the Wires too much and get in the talentless baboon Jim Ororke to ruin their records with his non-production instead of getting a proper producer like Roy Thomas Bakers.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 08:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

here's a new trick: try to think of things not exclusively in terms of other, older, things. radiohead will be radiohead, not pink floyd. will there be similarities? perhaps. but it's a lazy argument.

ding ding ding

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 11:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

it's an analogy. an exercise.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 11:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

Comstock Carabinieri = Geir with attitude?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 12:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir with no grasp on plurals more like.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 12:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

Comstock is funnier than Geir, at least.

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 13:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

Comstock makes me chuckle.

― deej., Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

Comstock, make my Comstock
Comstock, make my Comstock

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Why are you smiling
Why are you laughing
At or with this song
It's not like your scene, your scene"

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

Pink Floyd are usually fondly remembered among most people (thankfully, the R&B fans here at ILM are not representative), and Radiohead will probably be the same. "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" will be very much their equivalents to "Ummagumma" and "Atom Heart Mother", i.e. only completist and die-hard fans will have any kind of relationship to those "weird" albums.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

OK Computer="Dark Side Of The Moon"
Kid A=Ummagumma

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

what's their "Wall" then?

― latebloomer: Pain Don't Hurt (latebloomer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

they're ALL The Wall

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

I make the Beatles analogy only because no one since the Beatles has written better music. Obviously they haven't had the cultural impact, etc., but hopefully popular music will progress in such a way that, in the future, people will listen back and realize how important they were.

― Nigel (Nigel), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

and why are they important again?

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

wow, grandpa, you 'listened' to this 'album' on your 'bulky external audioplaying device'?

that must have been really 'neat' for you.

― harshaw (jube), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

Personally, I think they're important for being the first band to successfully fuse IDM (or whatever people call it these days) and rock/pop. Innovation + listenability = important.

― Nigel (Nigel), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

I thought Pink Floyd had a lot of props from the R&B musicians, or is Wyclef Jean not the most representative member of them?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 21:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

what's their "Wall" then?

They haven't gotten round to that one yet :-)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 01:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

and they never will, considering how they only want to release EP's in the future...

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 2 June 2005 01:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

The general attitude will be much like the current general attitude towards Grank Funk Railroad.

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 2 June 2005 01:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

Personally, I think they're important for being the first band to successfully fuse IDM (or whatever people call it these days) and rock/pop

madonna might disagree with that.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

bjork might argue too.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

yes, i was about to say the word bjork.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

I think the word "successfully" appears there, which would disqualify Bjork.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 2 June 2005 05:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

If I made a concerted effort I could probably open everyone's eyes to their suckiness in twenty years, but I'm pretty lazy.

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 2 June 2005 05:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

OK Computer = Sgt Pepper
Kid A/Amnesiac = White Album

OK Computer = Sgt Pepper
Kid A/Amnesiac = Two Virgins

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 07:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

Similar to White Album only of White Album had consisted of "Revolution #9" only.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 08:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The general attitude will be much like the current general attitude towards Grank Funk Railroad."

Great analogy - but I suspect more appropriate on the Coldplay thread than this one.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 2 June 2005 09:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

only completist and die-hard fans will have any kind of relationship to those "weird" albums. Re: Amnesiac and Kid A

Geir, are you forgetting that Kid A was a US #1? Arguably, they were even more ubiquitous during that period than even when OK Computer came out. Neither Kid A nor Amnesiac were "marginal" releases.

Anyway, I don't really care what the general attitude towards them will be. I will always remember them fondly.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Kid A" was a US #1 because of "OK Computer".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

What you don't realise, Melissa, is that in Geirworld "marginal" = "insufficiently melodic."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 2 June 2005 11:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir, then why was Amnesiac a US #2 (with higher first week record sales than even Kid A)? Also OK Computer? Hail to the Thief had even higher first week record sales (though it was #3). Obviously, interest in them did not wane with their last three records. Nor were those albums riding the coattails of OK Computer. One albums I'd give you, but three?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

Personally, I think they're important for being the first band to successfully fuse IDM (or whatever people call it these days) and rock/pop

madonna might disagree with that.
---
bjork might argue too.
---
I think the word "successfully" appears there, which would disqualify Bjork.
---
xpost(s) - Can we just give Nicolette the credit & stop worrying about it?
(That said, I only heard her second record & didn't much care for the vocals tbh).

Madonna? has Madonna ever been first at anything in a strictly musical sense? Love or loathe her for it, music provides the means to her end. The oxygen of publicity giving her the space to become the meta-media-entertainment figure she is. No bandwagon is un-jumpable on in her quest.

Pinning Björk as "fusing IDM with rock/pop" seems an oddly retroactive, scholarly and very, very reductive way of approaching her work*. If I hear some beats in 'Homogenic' that are close to 'Chiastic Slide' Autechre, it's only because I've had it suggested to me after the fact. There's so much more going on than that influence-wise. She's as much a contemporary of many of her influences as a 'follower'.

*Hell, this goes for Radiohead too, although their 'influences' are more easily spotted, much less absorbed & naturalistic imo. The fact they are reproducing electronic(a) music on more traditional instrumentation has given them something of a disguise though. It clearly winds some people up something terrible, how dare they! :-D

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

Everything was because of the anticipation that followed "OK Computer". Lots of people loved OKC and wanted something more in the same vein. We are still waiting.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

Try the 'repeat' button?

*whistles Bob Marley*

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:38 (8 years ago) Permalink

Madonna? has Madonna ever been first at anything in a strictly musical sense?

probably not. has radiohead?

i was simply pointing out that ray of light came out way before kid a.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

fair point.

What else on there besides 'Frozen'* is IDM-ish btw?

*which sounded like a shameless 'Homogenic' rip-off at the time to me.

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir, I'm going to name this hole I just made in my skull from pounding it into my desk so many times after you.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

*which sounded like a shameless 'Homogenic' rip-off at the time to me.

I don't know if it still would if I heard it again today.
It just seemed a peculiar way to 'thank' Björk for writing the title track of her previous album back then.

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

We are still waiting.

The royal 'we' I presume.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:13 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir, Kid A is far and away Radiohead's best album. Start to finish, it achieves and sustains a sensibility that fluctuates between dread and euphoria and finally resolves itself in exhausted whimsy. The success of OK Computer, an inferior record--kitchsy, the irritating "Karma Police," overlong--enabled them, I think, to settle down and kick out a masterpiece.

― beta ray bill, Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

karma police is not where the record shines. that's in Exit music, Let down, Climbing up the walls, etc. fuck KP.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

"OK Computer" is obviously their masterpiece. Great songs and great arrangements. The arrangements were still great on "Kid A", but sadly the songs went nowhere.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

What songs go nowhere? "Everything in Its Right Place"? That goes to "Kid A." "Kid A"? That goes to "The National Anthem." "The National Anthem" goes to "How to Disappear Completely," and so on, and so forth. That effect of each song building off the last, climaxing in "Idioteque," and descending into the ether through "Morning Bell" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack," is what makes Kid A great. The good songs on OK Computer are as strong as they are on The Bends and on Kid A; Kid A has a cohesion to it they'd never previously achieved, and still haven't matched.

― beta ray bill, Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

What songs go nowhere?

Most. "Knives Out" and "Optimistic" aren't too bad, but the rest are go nowhere. They are repetitive, monotonous, lack an obvious chorus etc. etc. They lack climax simply. You may call the kind of song I want "formulaic", but there is a reason for that formula. It is there because it works better than anything else.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

They laugh at you like Scott Teneman.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir, I'll put it in your terms. Their climax is the next song. And the climax of that song is the song after that, all the way to the end of the album.

― beta ray bill, Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

radiohead are one of those groups people like because of their sound--songs are not even the point. I never understood "OK Computer" but could kind of see "Kid A," as a record, not as a collection of songs. I guess REM will be sorta like Badfinger or the Hollies, nice second-level deriviative group with some nice tunes, Teenage Fanclub will be like the Searchers or Freddie and the Dreamers...I dunno, once you get into this level of derivative-plus-production values thing, you come up with nothing, in my opinion. I have friends who love Radiohead and keep trying to get me to get into them, but I guess I'm put off by the sameness of it all; to me they have the same relationship to Pink Floyd or whoever than, I dunno, Jellyfish has to Jimmy Webb or the Beach Boys. Anyway, people still listen to Badfinger or the Hollies, they'll probably still be listening to Radiohead in 2025.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Songs are always the point. And "OK Computer" is crowded with great ones.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 20:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

I thought being insufferable was the point

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 2 June 2005 20:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

Geir: Been reading Nick Hornby lately?

― Nigel (Nigel), Thursday, 2 June 2005 21:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

It's no good telling sexual metaphors to Geir. I suspect he knows very little, if anything, about sex.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 June 2005 05:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

― Nigel (Nigel), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 21:43 (6 years ago)

― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

radiohead is a good band

― fela cudi (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Personally, I think they're important for being the first band to successfully fuse IDM (or whatever people call it these days) and rock/pop

madonna might disagree with that.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, June 2, 2005 2:41 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
bjork might argue too.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, June 2, 2005 2:47 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm! also, tori amos.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

i wonder if they'll reboot bands like they reboot movie franchises, and this will be the only way people of the future can find meaning in it.
conceivably gorillaz could be resurrected by pixar indefinitely.
not looking forward to jj abrams jr.'s radiohead.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

wait, madonna did pop + idm? if generic trancey beats ala William Orbit = IDM to you, smh. am i missing some great madonna track that fuses pop + idm?

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

I doubt they'll be making music together, but they will certainly be considered among the "canon" by one "The Bends"/"OK Computer" camp and one "Kid A" camp.

― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

I can see OK Computer being reissued about a million times

― frogbs, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

If the CD survives, that is....
(Which I believe it will, but obviously streaming is a bigger threat towards the CD than digital downloading ever was - because streaming is legal and earns the artists money)

― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

radiohead is a good band

― fela cudi (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, August 23, 2011 5:24 PM

boom

― markers, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

they could redo the whole album digitally like george lucas and make it rhyme more.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

or remove Thom Yorke completely and make the albums pleasurable to listen to

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

"Mesa Karma Police, arrest mesa man..."

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

hahaha

― markers, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 22:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

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